A piece of advice before reading on. Go with some good, cheap services, like a book store. Monster.ca even has some excellent articles on job-hunting. "What Colour is My Parachute?" seems to be the be-all-end-all help book. What I say here is my experience combined with a little second-hand information. Obviously, nothing I say will hold up in court because I didn't go with the BHA promise. But the overwhelming online evidence against them leads me to absolutely know it's a scam. I didn't take the bait, and I sleep better for it. I went to BHA—let me see—at the beginning of March, I believe. I know this may be a couple of months ago so my memory may not be as fresh, but I posted the following information to an online posting group right after my visit and copied and pasted from it, so I know this is accurate. Their operation is slick, but, from what I've seen here at usacomplaints.com, the same all across the board: scam. This is how they do it (as in 'they' and 'them' and 'he' and 'him', I mean Minto Roy, the man I spoke with—same for everyone?): He'll recruit you from jobhunting.com, when you fill out BHA's free business assessment. You'll be called in and he'll tell you a lot about the market. Great office, very compfortable and expensive. Watch out because most of this part of what he tells you is true: there are a lot of unadvertised jobs, the market stinks, and you can't do everything for your career *and* look for a job at the same time. That's what he'll tell you. He'll accurately predict that you use job boards, the newspaper, phone calls, friends, etc. To find the 10% or so of jobs that 100% of the people are going after. But apparently that just doesn't work anymore. He'll explain that your resume will never make it past the HR department, and that people who don't even know anything about how great your qualifications are, are the people who are making all the decisions about who gets interviewed (not true, I find—most of the people that actually interview me are the people I work for, and that the HR dept. Has to know at least a little about the position in question, like—duh—what are the qualifications and does this person have them). Stuff like that. He'll compliment you, say you 'play the game' unlike some others he's met, make you feel like you've done some great things and that you'll fit right in with them. He'll even tell you he doesn't take every client he meets with, but you've got what it takes. Here's where he 'comes in': He'll help you to tap into that hidden 90% of jobs that no one is going for through BHA's database of clients. He'll help you dress the part, learn how to hold an interview, post-interview tips, everything you can learn from the Internet but don't realize you can (but now you can—Monster is excellent for tips). You're apparently BHA material at this point. He'll say he can work with you. You have what it takes. But the next meeting is planned for you *and* your spouse (if you have one, not sure how it's different without one). He'll explain how he never makes a decision without talking it over with "this lady first": his wife (?).incidentally, he never mentions that she is his wife, just that she is the 'special lady' or some such. Maybe it's just a stock photo with someone he doesn't know and a couple of kids that he's never seen. Notice that he's not in the photos himself and wears no ring. Anyway, you leave with 'homework' (a personal assessment) and come back in a couple of days with your spouse. He will say you'll have to do a lot of hard work in this (which, really, is how it's supposed to be), but you'll find out you're the only one working (oh, but this is for later). But he'll say while you do a lot of hard work, the 'team' of you, him, and the career assistants will be working together to get you a job. He'll keep referring to 'the team'. Wow. You're part of 'the team'. He'll give your spouse the same thing as he gave you, writing a lot on paper unnecessarily (not sure what psyche tactic this is). He'll pretty much reel both of you in. Next... It's the money-talk time. I'm not sure what magic formula (e) BHA uses to come up with how much you'll owe them for their services, but from what I read here, it's different all around. Mine was close to, but not quite, $5,000, which is around midrange. You can pay 90% all at once, or 100% over the course of a few weeks or so. No problems, though, he'll say. They'll teach you how to negotiate for a higher salary so that this service will pay for itself. And, hey, you have them for three years (have *what* for three years? I don't keep useless things around for three years)! And there are three phases here. (You'll find out if you go with them that they only fulfill Phase I, which is the easiest one you can do on your own with, as I said, your good friends The Book Store and The Internet.) The slick part is that this is the only part that sounds scammish. People with good experience can smell a scam nowadays. The only way, I think, to make a scam not sound like a scam now is to make it sound like a scam. People now know to look for a catch and when there is no catch, it must be a scam because it's so smooth. The catch here is the money and you think, well, if that's the only thing, then it pays for itself! It couldn't be a scam then, or they'd have to lower their price. Well, they're trained in deception. They also say that they don't guarantee you a job, just that they will help with your career. But, of course, they've helped 98.4% or some such clients that come in. Stop right here and leave (in fact, don't waste your time and go at all). This is where I left, thankfully not trying it and finding this site. I did some research and set myself straight about this company. What comes next is that they take your money and spice up your resume and 'broadcast letter' (you'll come to know what this is) really nicely. And that is it. After that, their database of CEOs and high-powered clients doesn't exist. They have *no* database other than information which is maybe three years old and under-informed. They don't return your calls, refuse to help (without so much as saying that), etc. Etc. Etc. Their contract is so vague, though, that once you've signed, you get nothing and can't sue them back. All you can do is threaten to blow the whistle. I'm curious to find out what would happen if someone went in, offered to pay for their services with a modified, specific contract for both to sign. (Hmm. But my curiosity won't cost 5k.) Stories I've heard from people actually scammed are:* One client has only gotten three names of contacts after a fewmonths: one that didn't work there anymore, one that wouldn't return calls, and another who just hung up without speaking. That's it. That's their database of clients.* A BHA employee met with a potential client and got upset to the point where the client was uncomfortable when the client said she would need to think about it.* One BHA employee said, with all his or her 'experience with getting the consumer, you, a job' and all their contact database, "Why don't you ask your nextdoor neighbour what jobs are opening where he/she works?" This is the culmination of their help.* One person reported their consulting fee jumping 33% from $3000 to $4500 overnight. They'll refuse to answer calls and you can even go in and ask foranother career assistant (or whatever they call themselves). They'll have a meeting, do a little of what a boss of mine used to call 'firefighting' (you can guess what that means, I'm sure) and then it's back to the same level of commitment from them. You've paid for nothing. I encourage you to check the links provided for information. But, if you have no time between now and your next meeting, just cancel the meeting and don't go. I called and cancelled and refused to rebook. All promise and no product.
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