I am writing to report on the career management firm ALLEN AND ASSOCIATES (based in Maitland, FL but with offices nationwide).
Hopefully, this report will help prevent other people from wasting quite a bit of money (over $1400 in my case) on this company's services.
I am currently employed in the telecommunications industry and have been looking for another job in another (more stable) industry. I saw an ad for ALLEN AND ASSOCIATES in the Chicago Tribune and decided to give them a call late last November.
The pitch behind the ad was "We'll help you tap into the huge, unadvertised job market"; since my attempts at searching for jobs on the Web and in the newspapers weren't working, I thought they might have something good to offer.
They were friendly and quick to respond to my questions at first, ut it turns out that this was the end of it. I agreed to their "services" including:
- resume re-writing
- receiving a list of companies from their "database" that met my interests/background criteria (and, in my case, were within the geographic area I chose)
- writing a "Broadcast Letter" describing what I had to offer to "decision-makers" in those companies and mailing copies of that letter to a number of companies.
This number seemed vague; I was "granted" 50-60 companies at first (with ALLEN AND ASSOCIATES admitting that "there's a few extra to account for companies that no longer exist") and they recommended that I choose more (for an additional cost, of course).
I was also free to supply them with other companys' names that they would "research" to determine the name of the "decision-maker" and then mail them the Broadcast Letters (again, for an additional fee).
- Once I chose the companies I wanted them to send Broadcast Letters to, they sent me a listing of the names, addresses and phone numbers of the "decision-makers" who got those letters.
It was then up to me to "follow-up" with them afterward. The "help" I got for this was a set of little scripts to read when talking to the "decision-makers" (different scripts for leaving a message, getting resistance to my inquiry, etc.), plus some letter templates appropriate
for different situations (e.G., receiving a rejection
letter, receiving no response, etc.).
- For another fee, ALLEN AND ASSOCIATES set up an 800 number for me (for a minimum of 3 months) that prospective
employers could call to reach me (vs. Calling me at work or at home).
I would then be called (at work) whenever someone actually DID try to reach me at that 800 number so that I could follow up with them.
I CAN COUNT ON ONE HAND THE NUMBER OF CALLS I GOT THIS WAY. ALLEN AND ASSOCIATES had put together a couple of company lists for me, but they badly botched them up (there were duplicates from my 1st list on my 2nd list and some entries never appeared).
When I tried calling and e-mailing them to get these resolved, it took WEEKS to get any kind of response. I then asked a question about one company on the list who ALLEN AND ASSOCIATES claimed had changed their name, but then was listed by the OLD name later on.
When my "Campaign Manager" fumbled when trying to explain what happened, I knew I'd made a mistake by going ahead with ALLEN AND ASSOCIATES.
I then called and said I wanted to cancel their "Marketing
Services", so I'd no longer have to deal with them. I didn't, however, get any real response back (surprisingly, I didn't even get any RESISTANCE or PLEADING from them to stay the course).
The "services" they provide are not worth much; it might be worthwhile to have them mail letters for you and/or answer the phone, but you can buy a book to teach you how to write a good functional resume, cover letters, etc. For MUCH MUCH less than the $1100 initial fee charged by ALLEN AND ASSOCIATES.
In addition, they have you take a "Personality Assessment" test on-line and provide you with the results, but that is just simply an "FYI" exercise; ALLEN AND ASSOCIATES does not, in any way, try to use this information to help you find a job or steer you in a different direction if your passions really don't fit the companies you're targeting.
You're better off buying yourself a good book on resumes/cover letters (and, as I've learned later, checking out publicly-available references for company names and CEOs) than shelling out over $1000 on ALLEN AND ASSOCIATES.
I admit, the loss of money is not enough to put me in the poorhouse, but it IS a lot to spend for very little return.
I should've listened to my wife, who suspected it was a ripoff in the first place!
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