I found that behind an aura of professionalism the Paul Mitchell Group (PMG) hides an apathetic culture of mediocrity and incompetence that completely failed to deliver on almost all of the objectives set forth in our service agreement.
I hired PMG to provide professional career advisement and counseling as I looked to transition from entrepreneurship to a corporate career. I experienced an inconsistent process marred by irresponsible leadership and a completely dated career transition advisement program. Most shocking was the revolving door of advisors.
Over the course of 4 1/2 months I was assigned four different advisors as the PMG failed to maintain a consistent staff. This unexpected turnover rate caused an insurmountable barrier for me to develop any consistency of service, trust, traction, and progress. I was continuously starting over while repeating my perspectives, desires, and goals as I was assigned new advisors almost monthly.
I highly recommend prospective clients look elsewhere for career advisement and obtain it from a truly professional, conscious, client first service based organization that truly takes care and responsibility for the client experience. For me, this company and its owner Paul Cottle completely failed to deliver any value and I found their post engagement attitude is lacking in all noble attributes imaginable.
Specific experiences include:
• Drew Siler, VP of Sales, sold me that they accept very few applicants to their program, stating (paraphrased): "You are lucky, you make the cut. We can help you transition from entrepreneur to corporate career." In hindsight I am embarrassed that I fell for that simple salesmanship.
• Their worksheets are dated. One document given to me in 2019 referenced "keeping all of your contacts on a PDA or digital phone" as in a Palm Pilot.
• Over a six month period PMG did not provide any practice interview sessions and only one practice networking session.
* Only one mediocre resume draft and zero cover letter drafts were delivered. Requests for updates and versions with language targeted for specific industries and companies were ignored.
• In January, 2019, Drew Siler interrupted a session proclaiming with great fanfare that he was advocating for me with his connections at Avnet and Crescent Crown. A month later I learned his connection had long ago left those companies. I never saw Drew again.
• My fourth advisor, Mark Benavidez verbally committed that he would not quit on my case and make up for the lost time due to the turnovers. Shortly after his comments, Paul Cottle eagerly noted the termination time of my service agreement unless I reengaged with a new service agreement.
• My emails that included confirming meeting dates and times were ignored or not read with care and I consequently arrived downtown for scheduled meetings only to be turned away upon my arrival due to overscheduling.
• I was shuffled along a process to "Phase 2" without completing all the stated goals they list Phase 1. I believe this was done because my first advisor quit half way through the process and there was no one on the local staff at the time to immediately pick up the activity. For the next month I was shuffled off to a remote advisor to help write a resume without complete information. Also, their service agreement states that 90% of their costs are for delivering "Phase 1". It is worth noting that upon examination of the phase one documents five months into the program, Mark Benavidez (advisor #4) noted that they were not complete and emailed them to me again, starting the process over.
• I expressed my frustrations to my advisors and it fell on deaf ears. Paul Cottle was often absent or unavailable to discuss my disappointment and ignored my emails. When I asked for a partial refund he was all too quick to blame me for not transitioning from an entrepreneurial mindset, which was the very thing I hired them to counsel me on.
PMG's service agreement includes an illegal "Mutual Non-Disparaging Clause" and they have threatened legal action against me and other people in order to skew Google Reviews in their favor. I am now highly suspicious of their overall review score due to this practice and the fact that at least one five star review is from an employee. It is why the Better Business Bureau will not accredit them and I have confirmed a few of the 1 star reviews have deleted their specific comments due to direct threats.
For career advisement and counseling, I would recommend hiring an individual consultant who will be with you exclusively through the process. Paul Cottle is unable and not interested in taking responsibility for their inability to deliver services that are advertised "personal, customized, and effective".
Documentation & screen shots available upon request.