Complaint Review: Culver Careers - San Diego California

I read this report and was somewhat surprised to say the least! I worked for this company for 10 years and it was the some of the best times of my life! I hated leaving that company but during the recession I decided to make a career change and get out of the recruiting business. (I'm now in selling in the healthcare/Pharma.) I will try and write a balanced review because it seems like the earlier report contains a lot of falacies that need to be debunked, it just seems sort of out of wack to me.  I feel it's the right thing to do. 

Tim Culver and Mike Hobbs run the company together, Tim seemed to handle the accounting and Finance and Mike seemed to run the day to day recruiting and sales.  John Weaver was more or less the #3 guy. I've always felt they were a good team and always felt good about the direction of the company. The company grew very quickly in the 90's and early 2000's but seemed to be hit very hard by the recession and I feel lost a lot of good people during 2008-2009, probably because the same people who were making $200-#300K+ in the early 2000's were suddenly making half that when the recession happened. I don't think very many people left because of the leadership or managment, most left to find jobs that weren't as commission oriented at that time. Alot of them became Corp recruiters on a base salary. During the 90's and 2000's everybody made a ton of money, I know for a fact that 1 recruiter made almost $500K in the mid-2000. Most recruiters I knew made $75-$100K, managers I heard made over $100K and all of the VP's made $300K+. So there was alot of money to be made. I don't know what they're making these days, but they all go on these fancy vacations and all drive really nice cars and live in nice houses.  When I worked there they hired all kinds of people, I worked with teammates that were 22 years old like the report states but also worked with a lot of 30-40 year olds, I even worked with a guy who was 55!

Tim was more in the background and didn't meet with the general employees much, but i heard many times that he was working on long term comp for the managers and setting up retirement plans. there was a long time when they matched my 401K 100% so I was happy and didn't really care what else. I've always felt comfortable going to Mike with any sort of problem and he always made himself avaiable. As far as any re-hab or anything like that, there were rumors that he partied too much back in the early 2000's, When I knew him he did eerything too much, he was doing triathlons, crazy stuff. I liked working for him, but if you messed up you wouldn't want to have to take his call, he could be brutal. I heard recently that he quit drinking and eating anything that's not organic about 7 years ago and although I haven't seem him in a couple of years I heard he looks great and is doing some really hard-core marathons and all kinds of things. I could be wrong but he doesnt sound like anyone with a drinking problem. There was always alot of jealousy for Mike, because we all knew he did really well financially, but hey, we all did. I don't believe the rumor of an affair, (I've been to dinner with him and his wife at one of the management retreats and they seemed really close.) The rumor about him and the VP in northern cal was something that was joked about in manager meetings, they even joked about it, There was a lot of bitterness because that VP got promoted rather quickly and was probably going to get promoted again based on the sucess of her region. I think the earlier report is probably based around that, but I personally think it could be sour grapes from someone who has left. 

Make no mistake Tim and Mike are very smart businessmen and most of the moves they make come out sucessful, they have had a few stumbles and had it was a hard to make money during the recession.

i know about the lawsuit and what the author fails to mention is that there were over 30,000 of these types of suits filed by opportunistic lawyers - companies like IBM, Oracle, Pitney Bowes etc, nlpc.org/stories/2014/04/17/obama-overtime-mandate-behalf-salaried-employees-likely-backfire So i think the author is overstating the obvious. I never had a problem getting reimbursed for anything so I can speak to that.

As far as John, he was the person I worked with the most often and I think he is a very nice man, he's not that aggresive and that is his biggest issue. The employees would always try and jerk him around. He's been with the company forever and is really jsut the nicest, most professional man I have ever known. I know for a fact that he never left the company, so that is another falacy.

So all in all, is the company a rip-off? I'd say definitely not. I think they've had growing pains in the past few years, but it's the same people running it that ran it back in the day when it was the hottest thing around. If you want stay away it's your business but I felt compelled to set the record straight on some of these issues.

Stay Away From Culver Here is why! Culvercareers is a staffing company founded by Timothy J. Culver and John Weaver in 1979. The company had a lot of growth until the late 1990s and since then it gone down hill. You may ask why, and the answer is simplePoor Management. Tim Culver decided to step away from the company during that time.  He let Mike Hobbs, who he appointed as President, run the company for him while he sits back in the shadows and gets all the profits.  Essentially he decided to turn the company in to a rental property. 

Dont think while youre employed with this organization that you are going learn some cutting edge techniques and get some great experience. They are incredible cheap and do not want to spend a dime to reinvest back into the business, and that includes your career.  They want you to spend your own money on expensive clothes so you can make the company look professional. But in reality, it is not a professional company. Remember appearances are often deceptive and with a low pay scale it is difficult, if not impossible, to succeed with its current structure.  Culvercareers primarily hires college kids right of school.  They prefer their employees do not have any experience.
It is not because they are afraid you will bring bad habits to the work place.  It is because they know you wont know any better, and management can get away with their shenanigans. There also was a class action suit against them in California (Evelyn Nichole Thompson Vs. Culver Personnel Agency Case No. GIC 870940 San Diego) because they did not want to pay overtime to their employees. Each month they require you to attend monthly meeting often in other cites which they never offered to reimburse you for your expenses. In the end, Culvercareers lost the lawsuit and had to pay former employees for lost wages and unpaid overtime.

Culvercareers goes by several names to try to avoid its bad reputation. Such as Culver Personnel, Culver Careers, The Culver Group, Culver and TCG. When you work there, you soon realize that a lot of people dont like Culver so you try to separate yourself from the company. Culvercareers claims they have 27 offices and 200 recruiters via the company website. Some of these offices on their website are closed. Just take a look at their website, it is more like 5 offices and about 25 people. Culver primarily recruits for menial, entry-level sales jobs like Enterprise Rent-A-Car (ERAC) or in some cases straight commissions sales jobs.  

Culvercareers is run by Mike Hobbs and owned by Tim Culver. Tim Culver says he likes to sit in the background and in the shadows. But most of the employees know him for riding around in his Black Hummer and raising bull dogs. He is not focused on the company. He sits at home and watches the
computer all day and watches sales transactions.   He has Mike Hobbs run the company for him.  Mike tends to make a lot of decisions without forethought! In 2004, he left the company for short time to go into rehab for alcohol abuse. In late 2008, Mike, who is married, was discovered having an affair with April Williams Shepard, another manager, within the company who runs the Sacramento office who is also married.  Mike always spoke highly of her in meetings and we could see why. He was running round with her and did not seem to care, if he got caught. How they were exposed is another story and just adds more comedy to these so called professionals.  In 2009, after his affair with April, he went to rehab again for quote alcohol abuse. After witnessing his actions, a lot of the employees decided to quit. 

John Weaver is the COO based out of the Orange County Office. John is autocratic and resistant to new trends. He talks like a cross between Jimmy Stewart and Mr. Rogers. John tries to keep everything the same as when the company started in 1979.  He does not want any updates in technology or company improvements. He is one of those people that since he started here, they will let him stay. He offers no real solutions but more compromises.  He had left Culvercareers before and for what ever reason, it did not work out so he came back. He seems to be more concerned about how people dress than anything. What is the most disappointing about John Weaver is that when the economy slowed, they had to lay people off. He tried to get them to quit so the company would not be charged for unemployment.  John Weaver says, Culvercareers is all about honestly and integrity. Well, he certainly did not practice what he preached.

As a former employee, believe me these statements are true. The best way to describe Culvercareers is simple. When it is people who do the right thing, they call it being responsible. When it is people who do the wrong thing, they call it Culvercareers.

Again, Stay away from these so called professionals!

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