I just had an initial consultation at RL Stevens. For those who don’t know, it’s a job placement agency, and it costs big bucks. I’m just curious as to whether any Dopers have tried them and what kind of results they had.
I had initial interviews with both RL Stevens and Bernard Haldane about a year ago when I was unemployed. They were pretty convincing and I was actually about to borrow the money when I did some research on the net and called Indiana Attorney General’s Office.
The first thing to know is that they are NOT placement agencies. They try to pass themselves off as insiders with contacts in several companies with unadvertised job openings, but that’s apparently a bunch of bunk. Really, what they do is a prep you in your job search (i.e. writing resumes and cover letters, interview techniques, etc.) You do much of the leg work in finding the job openings.
RL Stevens is a smaller company, so I was only able to find a few complaints about them. Bernard Haldane is a much larger company and there’s quite a few articles about them recently. Also there is quite a few posts about them at www.ripoffreport.com as I’m sure there are at other consumer complaint web sites.
Both companies basicly told me the same things, so when I got the low-down on BH, I just assumed RLS was up to the same thing.
My advice is to keep your money and run far away from them.
Run, don’t walk! RL Stevens will do the following for you (for >$4000.00):
-show you how to searcg the internet for job listings
-help you write a resume and cover letter
-coach you on interviewing
-show you how to cold call job prospects
They WILL NOT:
-find you a job
-make any contacts on your behalf
-do a job search for you
Basically, they charge a lot of money for services that your state unemployment office most likely does for free!
Yeah, the guy was a total salesman. If things sound too good to be true, they probably are.
He said they guarantee employment for 5 years. But, they make no guarantee about salary, etc.