Complaint Review: The Barrett Group TRUSTED Business | Ripoff Report Verified Safe™ …businesses you can trust. Over 27 years The Barrett Group has provided the highest quality of career management services to senior executives attorney and entrepreneurial clients worldwide. The Barrett Group are all personally dedicated to their clients and providing clients with everything they need to be successful in their transitions. The Barrett Group’s specialty is helping clients land their dream jobs.

I completely agree with the original writer of this report. The Barrett Group is a total joke......I only have myself to blame for believing the lies of the sales person. It is a complete scam.
 
I changed my advisor and the second one was just as bad, if not worse. I knew more than they did, I learnt nothing. They send you instructions on how to better your LinkedIn account, when I saw this, I knew it was a joke! They send out random resumes and all the while, they try to blame you, everything is left for your sign off so they have a come back.

I have never been so ripped off in my entire life, the worst value for money I have ever spent....by a million miles. Dropping $10,000 down a drain would have been a better use of my money, and I am being totally honest. Lots of reports out there on these scammers. I just hope people read these reports before dropping, sorry, I mean wasting their money!

It is a matter of time before they are out of business and that will be a great day!

I'm in agreement with the comments by the persons discussing their bad experiences with The Barrett Group.  They basically took my money and then offered suggestions that anyone can obtain either in a book, internet article, or magazine regarding job hunting.  They did suggest I join LinkedIn and then join their discussion group.  You can see how great their discussion group is by viewing it and seeing that members post about once every three months.  Boy, am I glad I followed that advice!  The Barrett Group preys on persons who are in bad job situations and is a total ripoff.  Also, I have had more than 2 consultants (they seemed to change consultants on me on a regular basis) and none of them ever offered any new suggestions.  In fact, at some point in time my consultant quit contacting me and the burden was on me to contact them.  Ripoff!

I had a similar experience with The Barrett Group.  After my initial consultation, I was told that, based on my background, they were "...projecting solid offers within approximately 90-120 days (dependent upon the selected service)..."  I selected the most expensive service option (over $12,000).  I started to worry after 30 days when I still had no feedback on my resume.  I had also faxed my "personal survey" to them 3 times.  After 60 days, still no feedback on my resume.  My "private consultant" had sent me an "Interview Guide" (which was a joke).  Similar to the other comments, his recommended strategy was for me to make a list of family, friends and coworkers to call and inform that I was looking for employment.  This is not an exaggeration.  That was the game plan for success.  The vast majority of the information in the interview guide was either common sense or could be found on the Internet after a 5 minute search.  Some of the "valuable advice" included "...prior to an interview, don't drink alcohol, don't smoke, don't be late, do not chew gum..."  Valuable interview tips that I'm sure wouldn't occur to most professionals seeking an executive-level position.  However, the most disturbing part of my experience with The Barrett Group, was that after my third letter requesting they refund my fee, the consultant sent me a letter threatening to sue me.  One of his claims was that I was "...still in the orientation phase..."  I found this interesting considering the original promise of "...solid offers within approximately 90-120 days..."  My situation isn't as bad as others.  I had a job at the time I worked with The Barrett Group.  I also found another position (on my own with no help from them whatsoever).  I'm not using my name due to the threat I previously mentioned.   

The original ripoff report couldn't be more accurate on the Barrett Group.  Networking is part of every career and career mind individual; however in many instances this seems to be their way of diverting the blame of not finding you a job because it is my responsibility to network.  I network, I have followed the instructions yet have not seen any results. 

In addition, the documents provided seem generic; how do I not know these aren't the same documents sent to every client. 

I asked for a couple of different versions of my resume and they pushed back with the response, "everyone is a resume expert".  Well, if the Barrett Group was accurate in their resume development, wouldn't it trigger some type of response from other employers?   

In response to the July 10, 2009 report from Houston, Texas, questioning the value of my companys consulting services for seasoned professionals seeking a career change, Ripoff Report readers need only to review the many satisfied client testimonials including their names on our company website http://www.careerchange.com/executive-services/8/testimonials Although we have no idea who this anonymous poster is, our consultants have performed due diligence to identify the individual and highlight the discrepancies in the claim. While anonymous acknowledges satisfaction with the initial client-consultant conference and innovative resume, the misinterpretation of the process and accompanying support are less than accurate. Finding A Job - When we define success, we base it on the following three parameters that we have found are critical to all of our clients, regardless of goals and objectives: 1) desired geographical area of interest; 2) desired level of position; and 3) desired income. When our clients land, 90% of the time we get all three parameters right, 10% were off on one: perhaps its a secondary geographical area of interest or the title isnt exactly what they wanted. For The Barrett Group to remain successful, we know our clients must be fully committed to their career search. Although we receive over 2000 inquiries on a monthly basis, we have chosen to remain a small, boutique firm and only accept 200 clients a year. After an extensive interview/screening process, the senior staff reviews the application. Typical reasons for refusal are: unrealistic income/career expectations, unwillingness to accept new search strategies, or lack of sincere commitment to career advancement/life changes. Networking: You need to network to get work! The Barrett Groups networking techniques instruct clients on how to stand out from the growing crowd of job seekers, more specifically, the invaluable benefits of mining your reputation throughout your career, and how to appropriately network. The nature of networking interaction is to communicate what you have to offer, not what you need from them; ready to offer solutions and assistance in any way it is needed. There are givers and there are takers; the givers attract people, the takers repel folks. We always instruct clients to mine their reputation and expand their circle of influence by helping others. The more people they help, the more people will want to help them. When they follow this advice, theyre in the position to secure future opportunities, are in the forefront of the decision-makers - and when theyre ready to make their next career move they have a choice. Networking is indeed an important building block to the process, but our program provides every resource needed for our clients to team with us for a successful search.