After losing my job to corporate downsizing, I responded to the ad for Haldane in the paper. After being out of the ranks of the unemployed for so long, I thought it best that I approach a professional service.
I first met with a Senior Vice-President of Customer Services. After the preliminary testing to determine if I had the qualifications to satisfy their cliental, I was told how they would work with me and train me in promoting myself to prospective employers and successfully increase my salary with new negotiation skills.
I met with him again the next day, this time with my wife. After he spoke about communicating my situation to everyone that we knew. We emphasized that we had a few close friends, but didn't belong to clubs or social circles. That was not going to be a problem, that they would show me how to market myself. (Little did I realize that what that would involve is for me so send letters to management members of any and all companies with the hopes of getting some form of positive response from them. Either they had an opening or they knew of one somewhere else. Essentially I was spaming via snail mail.)
My wife and I fell for the pitch and signed on. I received a brown binder, a 2 page resume (that gave men zero response), and a computer disc with a mass of generic solicitation letters... To be use in my efforts to get one of those busy managers to stop running their business long enough to talk to me. Just so you know, I talked to about 10% of the letter responses. Zero would see me.
Each time I approached my councilor, Robin Upton, she responded by saying that I needed to keep sending letters. She even sent me a plan of action that said just that.
After 4 months of this I request a meeting them. I made clear that wasn't happy with the response I was getting for my efforts and that if I didn't get something soon, I was going to have to start selling cars. Robins' professional response was that it would be a good move to sell cars in that I could meet prospective employers on the car lot. Yea right! It was then I realized that I had just blown 50% of my severance on this scam.
If anybody out there has had any success in recovering any of their money, I sure would appreciate it if you could share the details with me. For the rest of you looking for a job, you can do better by utilizing the state employment agencies, you'll probably do just as good, if not better, with the services they provide. AND IT'S FREE!
Mark
Rowlett, Texas
0 comments