Complaint Review: Carnegie Career Partners

The feedback email I sent below to Barry Layne, CEO, Carnegie Career Partners on 17 Oct 04 says it all. They are unprofessional and uninterested in 20 year career professionals who have furthered their education. Note, I have still not received any return email as of 24 Oct 04:

Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2004 15:50:21 -0700 (PDT)

Subject: Interview Feedback with Carnegie Career Partners
To: layneb@ccpjobs.com

I am Thomas ********* and wanted to give some feedback from my rather surprising 11:00 AM interview on 7 Oct 04 with Mr. Don Garrett at 8000 Towers Crescent Drive, Suite 1350, Vienna, VA 22182. Frankly, at best it was a waste of my time, at worst downright insulting.

My resume is posted where I'd received my first notice about Carnegie Career Partners (whom I'd never heard of before this). In summary, I am a twenty year career USAF officer with squadron command, Pentagon Airstaff and joint experience, and a current TS/SCI clearance. I am ready to retire after twenty years of service and I have just begun my post-retirement search.

Mr. Garrett first asked how I came to know about Carnegie Career Partners. I informed him I'd received an advertisement (provided below). Mr. Garrett, however, flatly denied that Carnegie Career Partners did anything with web job shearch sites, and got testy right away stating that Carnegie Career Partners didn't waste time sorting through thousands of resumes on Monster.Com and that I "must have gotten information from another source". I wish now that I had a copy of the ad with me at the time but didn't think that was necessary (provided below along with submission confirmation). In any case, from that very beginning point, the interview proceeded noticeably negative after that.

I applied for the Carnegie Career Partners listed job below dealing with Government and Policy, and yet Mr. Garrett also directly told me Carnegie Career Partners doesn't do anything with the government. Sure, he said all the politically correct comments ref thanking me for my military service, but otherwise, at virtually every turn in the converstaion thereafter was always a negative comment or slant given on my experience or education. None of my answers were good enough and I was always critized what I did answer with. For example, my flexibility in timing availability, and offering a wide-range of job experiences sounded "uncertain", or "typical response from military officers". He also directly stated that my continuing to advance my education and management capabilities with an MBA was of no importance to him. Yes, he said that directly - no paraphrasing - of no importance! He even asked me if I agreed that my MBA was of little importance and I directly but politely disagreed. I should have walked out at that moment, however, I was trying to remain polite and see if he was maybe leading me to a better way of presenting myself - I was wrong.

I could not read what Mr. Garrett's motives or intentions were and I even regret shaking his hand at the conclusion of the so-called interview when he stated Carnegie Career Partners had nothing for me and that I would "have a hard time obtaining employment"!

I can understand not having the qualifications for a certain job, but this interview was off the scope. This was also my first interview since beginning my search for post-retirement employment, and will most certainly go down as the worst. I will definitely network the results of this Carnegie Career Partners interview to other military officers and professional senior government personnel who also will soon look for other employment. Also, as the representative for my MBA cohort, I will pass this disinterest of Carnegie Career Partners to my fellow MBA students (all senior career professionals), the GMU School of Management MBA program leadership, and career guidance services.

If this is an accurate representation of Carnegie Career Partners' core values, then Carnegie Career Partners is not for me, and I am no longer interested in meeting with your company so requesting I come back for another interview will be a watsed effort. If you want what I greatly have to offer as benefit to a company, then Carnegie Career Partners can come to me in the future. In any case, I am sure I will do just fine without Carnegie Career Partners! Doubt we'll see this one on your testimonials page huh?!

v/r Thomas *********

My Search Agent: Management
Location Title Company
US-VA-Vienna Government and Policy Carnegie Career Partners US-DC-Washington/Metro Portfolio Management Consultant PMC US-VA-Arlington Senior Manager, Derivative Accounting and Policy E*TRADE
US-VA-Arlington Senior Manager, Finance Planning & Analysis Booz Allen Hamilton

Government and Policy

Company: Carnegie Career Partners Location: US-VA-Vienna
Salary/Wage: 75,000.00 - 300,000.00 USD /year Status: Full Time, Employee
Job Category: Government and Policy Relevant Work Experience: 7+ to 10 Years
Career Level: Manager (Manager/Supervisor of Staff)

Submission Confirmation wrote: From: "Submission Confirmation"
To:
Subject: Confirmation of Submission
Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2004 09:16:46 -0500

This message is to confirm that your information has been sent to the employer you requested. Following are some details for your records. Remember, we also keep an online record for you within your account.

Date of Submission: 9/24/2004
Job Title: Government Policy
Company Name: Carnegie Career Partners
Job Location: US
Title of Resume: Retiring Military Officer with Active Top Secret (SCI) Clearance

Thomas
Woodbridge, Virginia
U.S.A.

sorry, allowing you to give a competitors name would instigate others to just file against their competition, to only come back later to suggest their company your comments on this policy are welcome! CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.