McKenzie Scott Way overpriced career advice Greenwood Village Colorado
Having been out of work for a year, I engaged McKenzie-Scott in spring 2002. I was impressed by their professional presentation, and justified the $11,000 upfront price tag by saying that it would help me get a job faster. Also, I could write off part of the expense as a tax deduction. M/S may not be entirely without value, but it sure as hell wasn't worth $11,000. My career counselor was sincere, for which he deserves some credit, and the seminars were helpful, but the advice contained therein can be obtained much more cheaply - if not free - from books, seminars, web sites, etc. The resume distribution service is questionable because 1) M/S will not certify to which companies the resumes were sent (a la WSACorp); and 2) it's not clear to whom within the companies the resumes were sent to: the CEO, or Human Resources (the latter of which M/S advises you are never, never supposed to send your resume to as HR is a black hole). For the level of service I got, I could have paid a lot less. My resume itself was not bad, but 80% of the verbiage was written by me personally and simply rearranged by M/S. Classic consulting: they'll take your watch and tell you what time it is. The career resources web site has some value as a meta-site, but the primary job search engine, Wanted Jobs, is available for free. The D&B reports that you can request from M/S don't contain much helpful info. Most companies of any note have a web site. Go there instead. Bottom line - not without value, but not worth $11,000, or even half that. Buy "Knock 'Em Dead" books and "Rites of Passage." Join some networking groups. Troll the job boards. Hire a good resume writer if you need to, but it shouldn't set you back more than $300. You'll do fine without paying the big bucks. Steve New York, New York
4 Updates & Rebuttals
Steve
New York,New York,
U.S.A.
I stand by my opinion
#5Author of original report
Fri, July 02, 2004
Wow, I didn't realize my report had such legs. I stand by my opinion that the M/S service is not without value, but the services can be obtained much more cheaply elsewhere. "Seminars" may have been a bad choice of words. A better description would have been "group session" of 10 people. BTW, I went to Greenwood Village too. For $11,000, at least M/S could have sprung for the airfare!
And to Richard of Orange, I saved all my M/S documentation, including my cancelled check, as evidence of my participation. And if M/S wants to sue me (see all those canned "we've worked things out to our mutual satisfaction" statements), I would caution that suing unhappy customers is not a great strategy for winning new ones.
Robert
Denver,Colorado,
U.S.A.
Guilty as charged, contrary to the rebuttal, these seminars are useless summaries of common sense..
#5Consumer Suggestion
Thu, May 27, 2004
Having been a McKenzie Scott Parnters(AKA Americas Job Bank) sucker myself, I can assure this audience that Steve's report is very accurate. Contrary to the rebuttal from somebody claiming to be part of the MS organization, seminars do exist and I had attended 2 of them in the Denver Tech Center (Greenwood Village). These seminars are useless summaries of common sense.
For my mistake, I was bilked $8400 for services that should have cost me less than $500. Unfortunately for me, there were no consumer complaints online or at the BBB since I signed on in 2001. I should have opened my eyes when they had me sign all kinds of releases before agreeing to work with me.
In any event, the only aspect of the service that was marginally helpful was the resume change. The MS online job site is an aggregation of all the public job sites. I used it once. My "campaign coach" was useless and followed up only twice, more as a cheerleader than a professional coach, providing no value-added information. Yes, they sent out some resumes for me to god-knows-who and these resulted in the automatic responses, but no concrete leads. The "custom research" they deliver is an unformatted jumble of D&B and Hoovers reports that provide less information than the public web.
After 30 months of s full time job search, I finally landed a position through my network. The 13 weeks that MS quoted as the average search time came and went and my requests to re-launch my campaign were denied because I had not filled out the time consuming monthly reports.
Bottom line: Avoid this company. A professional salesperson can really do a job on you when you are down and out in the unemployment line. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Please take the original reporter's advice: Hire a PROFESSIONAL resume editor, use your network and depend upon your hard work. Rely on the support of your family and friends and a daily outlet to give your mind a chance to rejuvenate. Job searching is never easy especially during a "jobless recovery". Don't make your situation worse by spending your hard earned savings on these clowns.
Richard
Orange,Connecticut,
U.S.A.
This person has never been a client of McKenzie Scott
#5REBUTTAL Owner of company
Tue, May 13, 2003
This person has never been a client of our company. I can tell by the description of services.
There are no seminars, and this report appears to be fraudulent.
If the person would please identify himself, I would be happy to check our records, but I do not believe this person has ever been a client.
In any case, I'd be happy to check it out if I had a last name.
Jasper
Trailerville,Mississippi,
#5Consumer Suggestion
Thu, September 19, 2002