Currently, there are several career services professionals with Bernie Madoff intentions of preying on innocent victims or job seekers. There are also career services providers whose brand promises of “Good Results” do not match their brand realities of “Poor Results”. Likewise, job seekers like myself are beginning to attach the “used car salesmen” label to the career services industry.

Now it is time for job seekers to unite by sharing their experiences, regarding the career services they invested in, on my career services consumer review and rip-off report blogs located in the wiki. This will reduce the chance of job seekers investing in mediocre or unethical services and identify the career services that are legit and meet expectations.

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Likewise, I will begin by telling you about a career service (that job seekers should avoid) that differentiated me from other job seekers in the wrong way. I even have proof of this public relations (PR) disaster.

After reading Knock Em Dead (2009) by Martin Yate, I decided to invest in a resume distribution service mentioned in this book. I paid $261 to have my resume and cover letter emailed and faxed to 275 Dallas-Ft.Worth (DFW) companies in the industries, occupations, and salary ranges of my choice. By signing up for the deluxe service I received the company contact information for all 275 of these companies. The goal was to follow up with the hiring authorities to set up an interview if a suitable position was available at the time or in the near future.

After the first distribution, I only received three replies from recruiters. I was in shock since at least 5% of these companies should have been interested in the sustainable revenue and profit growth results I produced in my career. Likewise, I requested Resume Machine to distribute my resume and cover letter again. This time I received a response from a company which is below.

What fascinated me about this email was the attached PDF. Out of curiosity, I opened it and this is what I discovered. View this Mysterious Attachment.

I was in complete shock to discover the company did not perform a proper mail merge. I was grateful that this company official sent a heads up which prevented me from repeating this disaster again. Not only did I lose $261 but my reputation possibly took a major hit with several local potential employers. My brand promises of “Professionalism and Attention to Detail” did not match my brand reality perceptions of “Unprofessionalism and Sloppiness;” caused by Resume Machine. One good thing about this PR disaster is that the majority of the company contact information I cross-checked was either old or incorrect. Another testament to how bad this resume distribution service is.

Most importantly, I encourage all job seekers to register and enter the Wiki and share their career services’ experiences on the consumer review and rip-off report blogs. It’s time that we strike back and use social media to verify company claims. Over the next few days I will provide reviews for scams and poor and great career services. I will tell you about the “World’s Most Powerful Job Search Engine that Disappoints” and the Guerrilla Job Search Boot Camp and the Friend Zone coaching that exceeded my expectations.

If you missed it, you should listen to “How to Use LinkedIn Like a Headhunter.” Out of the thousands of online talk shows hosted by Blog Talk Radio (BTR), our second episode (just like the first one) was one of BTR Today’s Picks or Featured Shows. This show had 38 live listeners and thus far 1058+ archive mp3 downloads (from various sources including BTR). You can listen to the archived version by clicking the player below. Ron Nash, the expert guest, shared:

• 1. Why it’s important to create your own job market by having fruitful conversations with hiring managers and why LinkedIn is vital during this process
• 2. How to create a list of 50 initial companies
• 3. How to narrow this list down to 20 targeted companies
• 4. How to use LinkedIn and similar tools to locate company insiders (with a common connection)
• 5. And briefly discuss how to acquire referrals from company insiders to hiring managers (which we will discuss in detail on another show)

Play Episode II: How to Use LinkedIn Like a Headhunter. | Download this episode (right click and save)

Ron Nash will also provide expertise during the weekly coaching sessions for our “8 Weeks Till Our Next Job” campaign participants. So I encourage job seekers (who have not done so) to register for this campaign by close of business, Friday July 24^th. Send an email to kac@kenrickchatman.com to register.

Also tune in to Episode III: “How to Uncover Hidden Jobs” with expert guest Kevin Donlin, the co-creator of the Guerrilla Job Search System and founder of The Simple Job Search Institute. If you cannot participate live in next week’s show, feel free to send your questions to
kac@kenrickchatman.com by Tuesday. Remember the wisdom of a crowd is richer than the wisdom of a few. So actively participate in the free online community at jobradiousa.com and encourage fellow job seekers to do the same.

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