Complaint Review: Bernard Haldane Associates - Ottawa Ontario

I have been in contact with the company and we have agreed to an amicable resolution of all elements in my complaint. All of my differences with Bernard Haldane Associates have been resolved to my satisfaction.

As with the above posting, I had a somewhat similar experience with the Bernard Haldane office in Ottawa. I moved to Ottawa in September of 2002 - Ottawa was close to my hometown, and my wife and I have friends in the city. We had also just come back from teaching in Japan, and did not have jobs when we arrived - we had money saved from our teaching jobs - enough to last a few months while we searched. A few days after posting my resume on Monster.ca, I recieved an e-mail from the Bernard Haldane office indicating that I had been selected for a free career consultation - this was good news at first as it meant that I might be going somewhere. I went to the first meeting and had some vague comments made about how I could improve my resume and other general things - then came the request that I bring my wife in as well. My wife and I talked about it, and decided that we would do some research on the issue - I'm not sure if we found the information here or on other websites, but we did find some postings indicating that doing business with Bernard Haldane was not the best idea. So, I sent an e-mail to my career consultant, whose name I cannot remember, asking her about the fees and other issues, and told her that I would be cancelling my second meeting unless she could respond and answer my questions. She did respond, but it was a badly written response and she did not answer any of the questions that I had asked. So we e-mailed her and told her we were not coming. A few hours later we recieved a phone call from her supervisor asking us to come in and talk - we refused and said that we were not interested - we didn't have that kind of money - in a choice between finding a job and eating, I think I'd choose eating. We were informed that the postings on the internet were from "only two or three disatisfied customers", people who had "too many expectations of what the company could do for them". When they found out that my wife had also been teaching in Japan, and had a Masters Degree, he said, "oh, well that changes everything". Not sure what he meant by that - possibly it meant that we had more money than they thought - although I am not sure what they thought she was doing for the 15 months we were in Japan... Anyway, it seems that there is a pattern to Bernard Haldane's approach - read any of the postings here and you will see it. They target people who are out of work or new to the area - they bring the person in once to have a meeting with them and get some personal information. They also tell you about their reputation, and how long they have been doing business. Then they get you to bring your spouse in and hit you with what their service will cost. If the spouse shows any kind of hesitancy, then they are not supporting your career goals...the age old divide and conquer strategy. What can you do as a consumer? Do your research - go to their website - it isn't helpful at all. Don't be afraid to ask questions. A reputable "head-hunting" company is paid by the companies they are working for, not the people they are head-hunting. Also, be suspicious of any employment company that can't afford to have their own e-mail server - any good company will have it's own e-mail address - if they are using Hotmail, Yahoo, Canada.com, Canoe.com, or another free, web-based e-mail system, ask yourself: why? In the long run, my wife and I think we did the right thing - and the reason I am writing this is because we were downtown earlier today and saw that someone had put up posters all around the market area of Ottawa advertising this website, and telling people to look here for info on Bernard Haldane.

As with the above posting, I had a somewhat similar experience with the Bernard Haldane office in Ottawa. I moved to Ottawa in September of 2002 - Ottawa was close to my hometown, and my wife and I have friends in the city. We had also just come back from teaching in Japan, and did not have jobs when we arrived - we had money saved from our teaching jobs - enough to last a few months while we searched. A few days after posting my resume on Monster.ca, I recieved an e-mail from the Bernard Haldane office indicating that I had been selected for a free career consultation - this was good news at first as it meant that I might be going somewhere. I went to the first meeting and had some vague comments made about how I could improve my resume and other general things - then came the request that I bring my wife in as well. My wife and I talked about it, and decided that we would do some research on the issue - I'm not sure if we found the information here or on other websites, but we did find some postings indicating that doing business with Bernard Haldane was not the best idea. So, I sent an e-mail to my career consultant, whose name I cannot remember, asking her about the fees and other issues, and told her that I would be cancelling my second meeting unless she could respond and answer my questions. She did respond, but it was a badly written response and she did not answer any of the questions that I had asked. So we e-mailed her and told her we were not coming. A few hours later we recieved a phone call from her supervisor asking us to come in and talk - we refused and said that we were not interested - we didn't have that kind of money - in a choice between finding a job and eating, I think I'd choose eating. We were informed that the postings on the internet were from "only two or three disatisfied customers", people who had "too many expectations of what the company could do for them". When they found out that my wife had also been teaching in Japan, and had a Masters Degree, he said, "oh, well that changes everything". Not sure what he meant by that - possibly it meant that we had more money than they thought - although I am not sure what they thought she was doing for the 15 months we were in Japan... Anyway, it seems that there is a pattern to Bernard Haldane's approach - read any of the postings here and you will see it. They target people who are out of work or new to the area - they bring the person in once to have a meeting with them and get some personal information. They also tell you about their reputation, and how long they have been doing business. Then they get you to bring your spouse in and hit you with what their service will cost. If the spouse shows any kind of hesitancy, then they are not supporting your career goals...the age old divide and conquer strategy. What can you do as a consumer? Do your research - go to their website - it isn't helpful at all. Don't be afraid to ask questions. A reputable "head-hunting" company is paid by the companies they are working for, not the people they are head-hunting. Also, be suspicious of any employment company that can't afford to have their own e-mail server - any good company will have it's own e-mail address - if they are using Hotmail, Yahoo, Canada.com, Canoe.com, or another free, web-based e-mail system, ask yourself: why? In the long run, my wife and I think we did the right thing - and the reason I am writing this is because we were downtown earlier today and saw that someone had put up posters all around the market area of Ottawa advertising this website, and telling people to look here for info on Bernard Haldane.

As with the above posting, I had a somewhat similar experience with the Bernard Haldane office in Ottawa. I moved to Ottawa in September of 2002 - Ottawa was close to my hometown, and my wife and I have friends in the city. We had also just come back from teaching in Japan, and did not have jobs when we arrived - we had money saved from our teaching jobs - enough to last a few months while we searched. A few days after posting my resume on Monster.ca, I recieved an e-mail from the Bernard Haldane office indicating that I had been selected for a free career consultation - this was good news at first as it meant that I might be going somewhere. I went to the first meeting and had some vague comments made about how I could improve my resume and other general things - then came the request that I bring my wife in as well. My wife and I talked about it, and decided that we would do some research on the issue - I'm not sure if we found the information here or on other websites, but we did find some postings indicating that doing business with Bernard Haldane was not the best idea. So, I sent an e-mail to my career consultant, whose name I cannot remember, asking her about the fees and other issues, and told her that I would be cancelling my second meeting unless she could respond and answer my questions. She did respond, but it was a badly written response and she did not answer any of the questions that I had asked. So we e-mailed her and told her we were not coming. A few hours later we recieved a phone call from her supervisor asking us to come in and talk - we refused and said that we were not interested - we didn't have that kind of money - in a choice between finding a job and eating, I think I'd choose eating. We were informed that the postings on the internet were from "only two or three disatisfied customers", people who had "too many expectations of what the company could do for them". When they found out that my wife had also been teaching in Japan, and had a Masters Degree, he said, "oh, well that changes everything". Not sure what he meant by that - possibly it meant that we had more money than they thought - although I am not sure what they thought she was doing for the 15 months we were in Japan... Anyway, it seems that there is a pattern to Bernard Haldane's approach - read any of the postings here and you will see it. They target people who are out of work or new to the area - they bring the person in once to have a meeting with them and get some personal information. They also tell you about their reputation, and how long they have been doing business. Then they get you to bring your spouse in and hit you with what their service will cost. If the spouse shows any kind of hesitancy, then they are not supporting your career goals...the age old divide and conquer strategy. What can you do as a consumer? Do your research - go to their website - it isn't helpful at all. Don't be afraid to ask questions. A reputable "head-hunting" company is paid by the companies they are working for, not the people they are head-hunting. Also, be suspicious of any employment company that can't afford to have their own e-mail server - any good company will have it's own e-mail address - if they are using Hotmail, Yahoo, Canada.com, Canoe.com, or another free, web-based e-mail system, ask yourself: why? In the long run, my wife and I think we did the right thing - and the reason I am writing this is because we were downtown earlier today and saw that someone had put up posters all around the market area of Ottawa advertising this website, and telling people to look here for info on Bernard Haldane.

As with the above posting, I had a somewhat similar experience with the Bernard Haldane office in Ottawa. I moved to Ottawa in September of 2002 - Ottawa was close to my hometown, and my wife and I have friends in the city. We had also just come back from teaching in Japan, and did not have jobs when we arrived - we had money saved from our teaching jobs - enough to last a few months while we searched. A few days after posting my resume on Monster.ca, I recieved an e-mail from the Bernard Haldane office indicating that I had been selected for a free career consultation - this was good news at first as it meant that I might be going somewhere. I went to the first meeting and had some vague comments made about how I could improve my resume and other general things - then came the request that I bring my wife in as well. My wife and I talked about it, and decided that we would do some research on the issue - I'm not sure if we found the information here or on other websites, but we did find some postings indicating that doing business with Bernard Haldane was not the best idea. So, I sent an e-mail to my career consultant, whose name I cannot remember, asking her about the fees and other issues, and told her that I would be cancelling my second meeting unless she could respond and answer my questions. She did respond, but it was a badly written response and she did not answer any of the questions that I had asked. So we e-mailed her and told her we were not coming. A few hours later we recieved a phone call from her supervisor asking us to come in and talk - we refused and said that we were not interested - we didn't have that kind of money - in a choice between finding a job and eating, I think I'd choose eating. We were informed that the postings on the internet were from "only two or three disatisfied customers", people who had "too many expectations of what the company could do for them". When they found out that my wife had also been teaching in Japan, and had a Masters Degree, he said, "oh, well that changes everything". Not sure what he meant by that - possibly it meant that we had more money than they thought - although I am not sure what they thought she was doing for the 15 months we were in Japan... Anyway, it seems that there is a pattern to Bernard Haldane's approach - read any of the postings here and you will see it. They target people who are out of work or new to the area - they bring the person in once to have a meeting with them and get some personal information. They also tell you about their reputation, and how long they have been doing business. Then they get you to bring your spouse in and hit you with what their service will cost. If the spouse shows any kind of hesitancy, then they are not supporting your career goals...the age old divide and conquer strategy. What can you do as a consumer? Do your research - go to their website - it isn't helpful at all. Don't be afraid to ask questions. A reputable "head-hunting" company is paid by the companies they are working for, not the people they are head-hunting. Also, be suspicious of any employment company that can't afford to have their own e-mail server - any good company will have it's own e-mail address - if they are using Hotmail, Yahoo, Canada.com, Canoe.com, or another free, web-based e-mail system, ask yourself: why? In the long run, my wife and I think we did the right thing - and the reason I am writing this is because we were downtown earlier today and saw that someone had put up posters all around the market area of Ottawa advertising this website, and telling people to look here for info on Bernard Haldane.