We all know this economy is tough, particularly for job searchers. Everyday there’s a new article on the new poor, the mancession, or the desperation of the unemployed.
With more people out of work now than in a generation, there’s
definitely a market for employment services, like recruiting firms and
resume writers. But as you go forth into the job market these days,
make sure you’re doing your homework. It’s easier than ever to be taken
in by a scam company. Take these exchanges for example: Rick Gapinski of New Careers Online
desperately wanted me to join his executive recruiting firm’s pool of
applicants. He sent me a series of emails, inviting me to visit his
company’s website, and watch their “Market Tour” video. After a few
weeks of non-responses, he finally wrote me to say: Dear Kate: I
wanted to try contacting you one more time to gauge your interest in
learning more about what we can do to help you with your search. I
noticed you did not watch the Market Tour as of yet as well. If
you are in a serious job search and interested in continuing the
process, please let me know of a few dates and times that might work
for you and I will look to get you on the schedule. If I do not hear from you, I will archive your information and certainly wish you the best of luck in your job search. Thanks! I do hope to hear from you soon! Regards,
Rick Gapinski, Senior Consultant
phone: (877) 381-9623
I
decided that with this kind of persistence, I might as well look up the
company. The results were disappointing, as I wrote back to him: Dear Rick, I
appreciate your effort, but I am not interested in work with you or
your company. A simple Google search has revealed multiple red flags to
me, most notably that "newcareersonline.com scam"
is a suggested search in Google, your company has multiple iterations
of its name and URL which suggests that you aren’t always above the
board in doing business under one name, the first ten pages of results are pages owned by your company which indicates SEO manipulation, and for a job placement firm, it's odd that your CEO has zero connections on LinkedIn. {Note: since January, Mr. Gerberg has added 26 connections} You should also Google yourself. I was not heartened to hear about your recent job loss and subsequent troubles with the IRS. All the best, Kate
Rick
did respond to my email, and kindly agreed to stop contacting me. He
skipped over the IRS rant reference, but was very professional, minus
the fact that his reply came back in Comic Sans font. (Note: it is
never a good idea to use Comic Sans as a font in any professional
email. Unless you are a circus clown.) Keep Rick in
mind the next time you get a “great offer” from a recruiting firm. From
my research, the New Careers Online (“scam”?) would have cost me
several hundred dollars for a rewritten resume, and other services that
I can get for free from my Career Services Office at my alma mater,
Simmons School of Management. Another tactic to be wary of is the “free” job board that also sells resume writing services. For a lark, I signed up on JobFox.com
to see what all the fuss was about, and from the day they got my email
address, they have been sending me email after email telling me that I
should pay them $500 to rewrite my resume, plus $30 a month to be an
“Advantage” member. After a one-month experiment, I still can’t tell
the different between a basic and Advantage member. Needless to say, I
wish I had my $30 back. The first emails of their
pay-by-installment resume writing services came from Melinda Wickham. I
have no idea if Melinda is a real person or not, but I ignore the
messages after the “free review” of my resume came back. Ignore enough
emails on Gmail, and Gmail will mark them as Spam for you. I think they
must have noticed, because yesterday, I got this email from a new
JobFox recruiter, Peggy Patelino. It was roughly the same email that
I’ve been getting from Melinda for weeks, but with one difference: the
signature. I'm writing to
offer my assistance in your job search. I head up Jobfox's $100K team,
which is focused on helping our highest paid members succeed in the job
market. While the unemployment headlines are scary, I'm happy to report
we're helping smart candidates get jobs… Sincerely, Peggy Patelino
VP, Resume Services
melinda_w@jobfox.com
1-877-456-2369
Monday - Friday 9:00am - 6:00pm ET
Saturday 9:30am - 1:30pm ET
While
I may have doubted the existence of Melinda Wickham, I am pretty sure
that Peggy Patelino is not a real person. Real VPs do not send out
emails with other peoples’ email addresses in the signature. I wrote back: Dear Peggy, I notice your email ends with Melinda Wickham's email address. Don't you have your own? Best,
Kate
And she wrote back: Good catch I’m not sure how that happened. My email address is resumecritique@jobfox.com. Best,
Peggy
Yet another reason to not believe Peggy—VPs don’t have generic email addresses. So
if you are like many job seekers out there (or non job seekers with
email addresses that have been picked up by CareerBuilder and the
like), double check those “special offers” of employment services.
Google the recruiter. Read the fine print. And please, if you have a
Career Services Office at your disposal, don’t pay $500 for a generic
resume rewrite.
|
