The following 10 points detail my experience with Marlene Wallace and Career Concepts Inc. Please review this before using her services. She charges an exorbitant amount of money ($3600) and, in my humble opinion, doesn't offer much help. You can get better career advice from a free internet search or even cheap books on Amazon. Read below for a detailed account of what happened with me at Career Concepts Inc.
1) Know your sources and your market
a. She didn't know a single engineering firm in the Birmingham area (a place where she lives and has lived for decades working as a career consultant).
b. She claims that many of her clients are engineers but she had to pull out a 3 year old magazine of a listing of local engineering firms to even get a single clue about what was out there. This list was not comprehensive by the way.
2) Don't patronize your clients or talk down to them
a. I have email evidence of her condescending attitude and remarks.
b. She was constantly smirking and laughing when I brought real concerns to her attention.
3) Don't charge an exorbitant amount of money for your career consulting services
a. Unemployed people paying $3600 is not right to say the least.
b. Solution: You can get ALL of the information that you would get from a career consultant online for ABSOLUTELY FREE -OR- in a nifty guide from Amazon for a much cheaper amount (provide links)
c. Solution: Take a course at a local university in career planning or management
i. Perfect for networking with others
ii. Costs a lot less than a career consultant
iii. You'll have a reputable instructor to be in constant talks with during the semester and possibly long afterwards, for free!
4) She was always forgetful of what was agreed to and asked of her
a. Shifted blame to the client for her mistakes
b. Was completely disingenuous and clueless whenever ANY responsibility was in her court
5) She has negative referrals and feedback from other individuals
a. One of her clients told me that he had been searching for a job for a year under this charlatan's "tutelage"
b. I came across negative reviews of Career Concepts Inc. after the fact
6) She never gave actual STATISTICS and numbers of the amount of clients that she successfully placed
a. Always danced around numbers by using qualifiers like, "many" and "a lot"
i. Me: How many clients do you have that are my age?
Her: "I have a lot of clients your age"
ii. Me: What is your success rate among placing clients in positions?
Her: "I have a very high success rate"
7) She always had a terrible excuse for not doing her job
a. Constantly gave excuses as to why she couldn't come through on a promise (a real example is shown directly below)
i. Her: "Oh, I thought that you weren't interested in talking with that person! I sensed that you didn't want to speak with them."
Me: "No Marlene, I specifically stated that I would be interested in this networking opportunity. Would you please introduce me to her as you promised?"
Her: "I lost her contact information."
8) I don't believe that she has real experience with other careers in her lifetime and
she's very out of touch with the 21st century market.
a. She majored in English in college and decided to be a career consultant, never actually working in a corporate environment where she claims to have placed many people.
i. Nothing wrong with majoring in English, but why don't you get experience dealing with the dynamics of an office first before giving others advice.
9) She would constantly disparage recruiters.
a. At least recruiters are doing a job that is of absolute zero cost to the people that contact them asking for opportunities. Marlene charged me $3600 for very little help
b. Solution: Use LinkedIn to get in touch with recruiters yourself instead of using career consultants.
10) Why would she defer to my knowledge on this? She should know this stuff shouldn't she?
a. She would slyly evade an issue that she had no earthly idea about by saying things like, "I'll defer to your expertise" or "You teach me". You know, things that weren't technical at all like what jobs I would qualify for and what fields that I should go into when I gave her all of the specifics in the starting packet.
For any clarification on the issues above, please contact me through Yelp and I can go into immense detail. Please be safe and don't be fooled by career consultants. Hopefully, my remarks weren't disparaging to her business, I just want consumers to be informed about my experience. Please take the proper precautions before doing business with Marlene Wallace of Career Concepts. read more
