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Career Concepts, Inc. Career Concepts career marketing and management for mid- to upper-salary range professionals Birmingham, Alabama
Found post below when seeking process to warn others and found Dyna1rider's Nov 11, 2011 complaint to be exactly same experience as mine; therefore, I am resubmitting her post below; however, I have added and changed some comments as to tailor to my specific experience.
If you are reading this and considering using Career Concepts Inc in your search for a new job, stay as far away as possible from this company and save your hard earned monies. This money would be better spent on a new suit for an interview or having you resume professional done by a reputable resume writing service. Career Concepts poses as an employment agency, but is little more than coaching agency.
Career Concepts Inc. surfs job posting sites such as CareerBuilder, Monster and the Ladders for resumes that supposedly fit the companys services. The claim is that Career Concepts has Contacts within the Business that can better assist you in a successful search for employment. At that time that they ask you for an exurbanite fee for these supposed services that vary from $3000- $5000, without first producing any evidence or sample to you of any successful candidate that used the company and received a better paying job than they would have by doing the work themselves. The owner, Marlene Wallace, claims a 95% placement rate, but has no figures to back it up. None of the individuals whom I have met through Career Concepts had landed a role within the 5 month contract I signed with them, and many of those encountered had been with the company numerous months prior to my joining.
Once Career Concepts has your money you will be assigned a career counselor for weekly meetings via phone (no Skype) or in office on your progress. The information provided to you in the handouts (most over 2 years or older) and manuals is the same that you can readily access at your local library or a web search. The one on one meetings are scheduled for an hour a week, but in many cases last less than 30 minutes on average, thus the total cost per session can be averaged out between $150-$300 an hour depending on the length of your contract. For much less a price of about $100, you could get the same information on Amazon from career guidance books and software. Career Concepts really only has ONE counselor and I found it very difficult to get on his calendar. My experience provided only 1-2 meeting availability each month. The business only has three employees, consisting of the owner, one counselor and one receptionist/researcher. I rarely encountered any of them at networking events as to introduce me to contacts.
If you have been already approached by Career Concepts , do yourself a huge favor and save your time and money, and run not walk away from this company immediately.