In the October 20, 2015 Ask The Headhunter Newsletter, we get updates on career scams from the past and present. They never seem to go away, thanks to gullible job hunters and naive HR managers that keep funding these scoundrels.

It’s not your imagination

Scams are endemic in the career industry. The formula is simple: People desperate to earn a living will believe virtually anything that promises to help them land a job — and they’ll pay for it.

bustedThis gives rise to questionable and often fraudulent businesses that peddle snake oil. Others re-package information and advice you can get for free — and charge thousands by calling it “outplacement” and “career coaching.” Some of these charlatans use career help only as a lure — they make their money by collecting and selling your personal data to third parties.

Even job boards, which seem to be a high-tech analog of the old newspaper want ad, are largely a scam. Little has changed since I published Job-Board Journalism: Selling out the American job hunter in 2003. The media and the job boards are often in cahoots.

For example, employers still hire only about 10% of their new employees via job boards, yet dishwashers and CEOs alike are brainwashed to waste inordinate amounts of time and money diddling these databases.

It’s time for some updates on stories we’ve covered here before about TheLadders, LinkedIn, Toronto Pathways — and one new rip-off by prominent outplacement firm Lee Hecht Harrison.

TheLadders Goes Down

One of the most high-profile cases in recent years has been TheLadders, which rose to prominence on the ridiculous promise that it was selling “ONLY $100K+ jobs” and “ONLY $100K+” job candidates.

Executives, highly paid professionals, and other suckers for exclusivity flocked to TheLadders — right behind naïve HR executives trying to fill jobs. They wanted to believe they could pay someone to do the hard work of finding and filling top-level jobs.

But, it turned out, TheLadders wasn’t exclusive at all. One Ladders customer summed it up: “The ladders [sic] is a scam, plain and simple. A class action lawsuit sounds like a good idea.”

On March 12, 2013 a consumer class action was filed against TheLadders in U.S. District Court, New York. The suit alleged that:

ladders3“From its inception until September, 2011, TheLadders scammed its customers into paying for its job board service by misrepresenting itself to be ‘a premium job site for only $100k+ jobs, and only $100k+ talent.’ In fact, TheLadders sold access to purported ‘$100k+’ job listings that (1) did not exist, (2) did not pay $100k+, and/or (3) were not authorized to be posted on TheLadders by the employers.”

Here’s the list of dirty laundry aired in the complaint:

  • breach of contract,
  • breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing,
  • violation of the Arkansas Deceptive and Unconscionable Trade Practices Act, and
  • unjust enrichment.

The suit also alleged that TheLadders used phony “resume critiques” to induce people to pay for new resumes. After paying TheLadders for a new resume, one customer submitted it right back for a “free review” — and a Ladders “resume expert” warned that it needed to be re-written.

TheLadders retained a very expensive, big-name law firm to fight the charges. Judging from public court filings, TheLadders’ lawyers pounded the plaintiffs with paper. But David didn’t back down, and today Goliath is a faint ghost of its old self.

Update

In a May 22, 2014 Stipulation Of Dismissal, it seems both parties asked the Court to dismiss the case. When this happens, no information is released about any settlement that might have been made.

But I’d eat my hard drive if TheLadders didn’t pay a ton of money to the plaintiffs and their law firm to make this consumer class action go away. A company like TheLadders doesn’t pay top dollar to big-name lawyers to defend it and then cave, unless the facts are against it. My guess is the big-name law firm advised TheLadders that it would lose and that damages imposed by a court after a very public case might sink the company and its management entirely.

It would have been better to fight the case and let the public — and all Ladders’ customers — see all the dirty laundry hung out in court.

ladders4TheLadders, of course, denied everything. But, TheLadders:

  • No longer claims it has “ONLY $100K+ jobs” or “ONLY $100K+” job candidates.
  • No longer offers free “resume critiques.”
  • No longer sells resume writing services.
  • No longer “guarantees” a job to customers who pay $2,500 for resume and career coaching services.
  • Operates like any other cheap job board.

Does that sound like TheLadders did nothing wrong? Its vaunted business plan as an exclusive career service was left in shambles. The company is a footnote in the career industry. Its founder, Marc Cenedella, went on to design an app that lets you rate your co-workers anonymously. A comment about the app on TechCrunch says it all: “Taking passive aggressive online behavior to a whole new level.”

LinkedIn

in-your-faceIt didn’t take LinkedIn very long to go from “leading professional network” to becoming a clever manipulator of its website interface to scam its members out of their contact lists. (For more about the nefarious science behind user-interface scams, see Dark Patterns.) But there’s much more. In the past several years, LinkedIn:

To the point of this update, LinkedIn customers sued in a consumer class action, alleging LinkedIn was using members’ mail lists to harass their contacts.

Update

Federal Judge Lucy Koh wrote:

the “emails could injure users’ reputations by allowing contacts to think that the users are the types of people who spam their contacts.”

LinkedIn spammed people on behalf of its members without their consent. Scripps Media reported that LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner “admitted that the site was guilty of ‘sending too much email’” via its “Add Connections” feature.

linkedin_deadLinkedIn recently agreed to pay $13 million to settle the class-action suit.

Said CEO Jeff Weiner in another interview: “Values are the first principles we use to make day-to-day decisions.” Translation: The first principle is making money off you any way we can, and we’re as stupid as TheLadders because we count on you not to notice. Oops.

Toronto Pathways AKA Job Success

In February, 2012, Canadian CBC TV invited me to Toronto to review hidden-camera footage about a career scam. Executives at a career counseling company called Toronto Pathways — also known as Job Success — were caught on camera promising jobs to clients in exchange for thousands of dollars in fees.

We did a lengthy expose (Rip-Off Edition: Who’s trying to sell you a job?), and then a 7-minute special segment in which we educated consumers about the tip-offs to a career rip-off.

According to CBC News in Toronto, when Job Success failed to deliver a $70,000 job that it promised to a client for a fee of $3,700, he sued. The case was dismissed because Job Success claimed it didn’t promise anything.

Update

Enter the hidden camera. The plaintiff saw our CBC-TV “Recruitment Rip-Off” episode — and there was the guy who scammed him, caught red-handed!

The victim showed the video to the judge and argued that “the defendants were ‘slick liars who perjured themselves at trial.’” Based on our expose, a higher court is giving the victim another shot at his lawsuit based on the fresh video evidence.

Lee Hecht Harrison

When companies fire or lay people off, they pay big bucks to corporate outplacement firms to help those people find new jobs. (For more about the racket that outplacement has become, see Outplacement Or Door Number 2?) Or, they can just send their cast-offs to Ask The Headhunter for free articles, Q&A, and advice from me and thousands of smart job seekers who participate in the Ask The Headhunter community.

bustedThis scam hits closer to home — and it reveals that some of the biggest names in the career industry are quietly ripping people off. Ironically, they’re hiding behind LinkedIn’s members-only wall to do it.

Lee Hecht Harrison is one of the biggest outplacement firms in the world. It’ll also help you find a job — if you’ll pay. What does it deliver?

Michael Schumacher, Senior Vice President at Lee Hecht Harrison, steals Ask The Headhunter advice, and delivers it to his clients via the firm’s members-only LinkedIn Group.

Schumacher published an article under his name, titled “Sure Thing?? Hardly!!!”, three months ago. You can click the link, but you can’t read it unless you’re a paying member of LHH’s “Client & Alumni Group,” which has over 2,600 members. But, no worries — thanks to friends of Ask The Headhunter, you can see it here.

How I got ripped off

I wrote and published that article over 15 years ago, and it’s titled There is no sure thing.

It’s also copyright protected and Schumacher and Lee Hecht Harrison are in violation of U.S. Copyright Law. Schumacher’s petty edits underscore his rip-off.

Ask The Headhunter is a for-profit content licensing business that generates revenue from its protected works.

Ask The Headhunter is all about helping people get good jobs and keep them — but Michael Schumacher should be fired. His clients, who ratted him out to me and sent me his “work,” are wondering what Lee Hecht Harrison delivers for the fees it charges.

Update: November 24, 2015

Peter Alcide, President and COO of Lee Hecht Harrison, called me and did the right thing. In a tweet and a posting on the LHH website, he issued a public apology for violating Ask The Headhunter copyright, made restitution for misuse of the content, and the matter is resolved.

Career scams are everywhere

Just because you — or some big corporation — are paying big bucks to big-name companies for career services doesn’t mean you’re not getting scammed. Just look at TheLadders, LinkedIn, Toronto Pathways/Job Success, and Lee Hecht Harrison. They’re just the tip of the career-industry racket. Every day, another one gets exposed because consumers like you post your stories on websites like Ask The Headhunter.

In the meantime, these racketeers add funds to their legal budgets and buy their way out of infractions, blowing it all off as a cost of doing business. (Jeff Weiner says, “That needs to be corrected and improved, and it will be.”) The rest of us get ripped off.

Why does this continue? HR departments endorse and promote these practices every time they spend their corporate budgets on these bad boys of the career industry.

Many thanks to those friends of Ask The Headhunter who tipped me off to copyright violations. And a tip of the hat to all the plaintiffs who sued the scoundrels who ripped them off. This update tells us that consumers can fight back!

There’s an entire career industry scamming you and employers alike. We regularly bust career rackets and hang them out to dry. But scammers keep developing new ways to hook you, while HR continues to fund them. What new scams have you encountered? What old scams never seem to go away? Please post your comments and stories.

Special Note: If you belong to the Lee Hecht Harrison LinkedIn Group mentioned above, please drop me an e-mail.

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54 Comments
  1. Unfortunately and fortunately, I have used the services of LHH. Twice in my career I was downsized and the employer pre-paid an executive outplacement package with LHH. LHH provided an office, phone and ongoing coaching. The best part was the weekly group meetings where like folks shared their goals and weekly progress. For me, the accountability the group created was beneficial. Both times I was in and out of LHH in about 90 days after landing a great job. I can’t say LHH helped find the job, I can say they provided the support and resources to help me, help myself.

    The real racket was Haldane & Assoc. I was interviewed and made to feel totally inadequate unless I paid for their services. They prey on your vulnerability and desperation. Once they figure out you’re smart enough to see through the smoke and mirrors, they drop you like a hot potato.

  2. Nick, great article as always. But the lingering question is did LHH reach a settlement with you?

  3. Using Nick’s logic on LHH every company is a scam since I bet there are very few who do not have employees who do bad things. Like Paul, I used their services and they were helpful. Is there info mostly available on the internet? Yes, as is millions of pieces of advice that are not good. They help you get organized, keep you focused on things that help you get a job (and not using job boards)

    Maybe you have a vendetta but this column should not be used for throwing one employee under the bus for a firm that does a lot of good and does NOT cost the person in transition a dollar

  4. A crime is a crime. If someone steals from you and hurts your livelihood you don’t give them a pass because the company they work for has benefitted some people in some way…

  5. Outplacement can be helpful, but if people had to pay for it themselves, I think they’d first check out the many local, self-organized job search groups that are all over the U.S. I get hired by companies, professional organizations and universities to do presentations and workshops. But my pro bono work is for those free groups. I’m doing one in Somerville, NJ on Nov. 23. (http://www.psgcnj.biz/FTP1/) I also regularly do workshops for the Somerset Y Career Forum. Some of the best speakers appear at these groups – and there’s no fee for people who attend.

    While outplacement can be helpful, the truth is something an HR exec at AT&T explained to me years ago. Employers that downsize don’t so much pay for outplacement; they pay for insurance. When the downsized employee sues, and the employer explains to the judge that “We paid $15,000 to Outplacement Gurus, Inc. to help this unfortunate person,” the judge says, “Why, that’s the top firm in the world! You did the right thing! Case dismissed.”

    For the employer, outplacement is an insurance policy against legal liability. I think that in most cases the departing employee is wise to negotiate a cash settlement and use the funds to find their own coach – or just keep the cash.

    Paul explained it well above. What he really got from LHH was support from other attendees. LHH did not find him a job.

    The bigger problem with LHH and others like is that they collect from all sides: from you, if you hire them; from the employer that lays you off; and from the employer that hires you. Conflicts of interest abound.

    Would you pay a firm $10,000 for 3 months of meetings that you can get for free in your own town?

  6. Nick,

    Now tell us what ya really think. Chuckle, Chuckle. Great updates. Another expose’. Keep on keeping on. Don’t even think of retiring.

  7. I’d like to see you do an update on your “Employment in America: WTF is going on” essay. Next week marks two years since you posted that, it was the first article of yours I read…would like to know what’s changed since then (IMO, absolutely nothing, if anything it’s gotten worse as at least in 2013 we thought the madness was only temporary and thus had hope, now we know this is the new way of the world)…

  8. Coincidentally, I just received a request from a firm I used successfully in the past (Robert Half) on the banking side. I responded with a respectful summation of the failings of this industry during the last decade . . . at least, and indicated I would not refer anyone I respected to his services. PS: I also referred him to this blog if he wanted to get educated :)
    He was gracious in response.

  9. As I continue to grasp at straws hoping employment searches return to a sane activity, I am happy (I think) to hear that maybe some resolution will come as a result of the updates you supplied. Thanks.

  10. Nick,

    I wanted to share my experience with Challenger, Gray, and Christmas. There were open offices so I would come in every day and would use the office next to the Director. It took 8 months to find a position so I spent quite a bit of time there. It took me a few months to understand what the Director was doing mainly; because, I was so focused on my search. The Director spent all of his time networking with HR people and served as a clearing house for HR jobs. He was helping the HR community with the hope that Challenger, Gray, and Christmas would be helped in the future. I asked if I could tap into this network and was denied. At that point, I understood how the game worked and the only “service” I received was a rewritten resume that I subsequently rewrote and temporary office space. I should have asked for a lump sum payment in lieu of outplacement. Unfortunately, I learned my lesson after the fact.

  11. In nearly seven years, I’ve gotten perhaps 5 phone calls from the early job boards, and absolutely zero from Linked In. One of the reasons I fell into clinical depression was the thought that I would never work again, ever, unless I paid out hundreds, or even thousands of dollars that I didn’t have just to be able to talk to somebody. Fortunately, not one penny has gone out to the givers of false hopes. I’m still seriously underemployed, but so are 20 million other Americans, and quite a few more people around the rest of the planet as well.

    Job advice outside of the asktheheadhunter sphere of influence is severely outdated and ineffectual. This blog is the only job advice site I bother to frequent, and I’ve given up on job advice books altogether.

    I haven’t given up on jobs, as the help wanted signs seem to be going up in windows all over the place. Much more encouraging than the “go away” signs I contended with five years ago.

    But the hiring mind is not yet desperate enough to, as Nick says, read between the lines of a resume, or heaven forbid, actually have an open-ended conversation with someone to see if they might be of value to their organization.

    However, if I do find anyone like that in my quadrant, I’ll be sure to let everyone know.

  12. @Greg: That’s the hallmark of most outplacement rackets. You get a new resume, but it reads like someone took it out of a can and warmed it up.

    In my PDF book, Parting Company | How to leave your job, I discuss options to outplacement when a company offers it. A lump sum is one of them. Don’t beat yourself up; you’ve learned something. How firms like this are permitted to operate is beyond me.

  13. On outplacement I’ve gone through it 3 times…but the last time over 10 years ago, that one LHH via massive corporate layoffs. In each instance the counselors/office etc were very professional. Meaning primarily 3 things. 1) at no time did they try and sell me anything, 2) most important they stressed that they were not there to find you a job, but to teach you how to find a job, and 3) did so with varying degrees of quality.

    When Corporations buy into and offer these services, it’s as Nick said, to give themselves a legal buffer, and particularly in the case of massive layoffs to take the edge off the layoff for the survivors. It is hard to see friends cut off at the knees especially when it happens in droves.

    As to outplacement, my advice to people was to take it, take everything coming to you from a corporation, and that you only get out of it what you put into it. And as someone noted…yes there’s lots of free stuff out there, but if you’ve never looked for a job in your life and been poleaxed, the structure outplacement provides and the networking potential has value. And you can walk away better equipped to conduct your own search.

    This session only mentioned big name players. It’s worth noting there are hundreds of imitators out there too, selling packages to the recently terminated. When I was an agency recruiter I recall one instance where a network admin (the IT community can relate, but think not big bucks) paid 6500.00 to some outfit to find him a job… of course they didn’t, they did some resume work. I was stunned!
    Any recruiter or headhunter worth their salt tells people not to pay people to find them jobs…but ironically that advice is often viewed as self serving.

    Nick’s point about volunteer groups that provide for free, equal or better help then for-pay outplacement corporations is a really great point and they are a really really great source for job hunting assistance and networking….if you look. In my last tour for a Houston area company, we did not use job boards. We worked well with a # of job hunting networks. They typically were faith based, totally run by volunteers, offered free advertising/postings, and once they understood who you were and what kind of talent you needed, could help a great deal with leads. And they ran some stellar job fairs. Job Fairs are probably a subject in itself, but the job fairs run by these folks were free to employers, and not one of those sterile Corporate exercises. Quid Pro Quo I’d point other employers and job hunters to these groups, as they pretty much work via word of mouth.
    I’m glad to see that Nick speaks to these groups as they really appreciate the time and attention and in so doing very effectively helps people be smarter about their searches.

  14. As I read through this piece, I recognized some parallels to many weight loss programs such as luring desperate customers, scare tactics, not fulfilling their promises, disappointing customers and breaking their trust, putting money grabbing above delivering results, breaking people’s hope for success, shady corporate values and unethical leadership, selling information that is available for free, etc.

  15. Hi Nick – I enjoyed your article (which I found because I was doing a search for TheLadders on LI) but just wanted to alert you that somebody called Joel Cole (maybe that’s an alias of yours?) has republished your whole article on LI Pulse (but maybe with your permission? you are credited at the bottom). https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/its-your-imagination-joel-cole?trk=prof-post

    Cheers, Susan

  16. @Susan: Thanks for your kind words, and for the tip. It seems half the career industry comprises rip-off artists and scammers who think U.S. Copyright Law is not for them. And these people get paid by their clients for the advice they steal. I appreciate your taking the time Do you think this clown read my article before republishing it? It’s about… sheesh…

  17. Is Seven Figures Careers a scam. They want over $2000 to supposedly push my skillset. They said they soft vetted me and sent me to all their PE companies. They sent me an email from agilecpg PE firm saying they liked my resume and want schedule an interview. When I look at their website it looks unprofessional. Seems fishy but don’t want to pass up if legit.
    Recruiter who emailed and called is named Arthur French. When I try to find him on Linkedin or other sites he doesn’t show up. Any help is appreciated.

    • I got screwed out of $2,500 by Art French. Would love to chat about it.

    • @Brian Haley; Before you fork $2,000 over to anyone, get a copy of the contract they want you to sign. Of course, this applies to any contract for career services, not just this firm. Look for three things:

      1. Performance guarantee. What do they guarantee in writing that they will deliver to you for the money, and what will they refund to you if they fail?
      2. Arbitration. If you’re not happy with the outcome, and they don’t care, make sure the contract permits you to take them to arbitration with a registered arbitrator for a settlement of the problem.
      3. NDA. If there’s a non-disclosure agreement section, which prohibits you from talking about your experience, don’t sign the contract.

      Good general rules for dealing with anyone who wants lots of money up front.

    • Just to add fuel to a healthy fire, I had the exact same experience with Art French earlier this year, including being “accidentally” cc’d by someone at Agile CPG (in my case, it was “Walt Johnson”). Sure, it could be the case that the folks at Agile do that as a matter of course — drop in the email of the person they want to interview — but it’s pretty suspicious. Oh,and this: I told Art that I couldn’t see the reason for paying him a $2000 fee if that was supposed to go towards marketing efforts, as he claimed, but they clearly didn’t need to market me to a company that was already interested — just needed to set up one interview. He responded that they could drop the fee to $1000 in that case, and then I never heard from him again.

      Been wondering if I should kick myself for not pursuing it further, but I think I’ll just save that for some other occasion!

  18. @Brian Haley: I don’t care who it is – anyone that pitches you jobs and wants you to pay them money is probably running a scam. Check out this expose I helped CBC-TV do in Toronto, to learn about the tip-offs to a scam:
    http://www.asktheheadhunter.com/4786/rip-off-edition-whos-trying-to-sell-you-a-job-video

    The stuff these guys do is astonishing.

    What’s the URL for the site you’re talking about? (I can’t find any such firm.) Did they approach you, or did you approach them? Good for you for looking up the character who contacted you — that’s the first step when vetting any kind of “service.”

  19. Hey Brian,

    Was the interested PE firm “Agile Capital Partners”?

    I’ve had similar interaction today. No sign of any of the “partners” of Agile anywhere; they copied me stating they liked my skill set and wanted an interview. They have a website, but none of the partners have any presence online.

    Thanks,
    Eric

  20. Sorry, just to add, this came from sevenfiguecareers.com. Or 7FigureS/

    I just want to know if this is legit or not. Art French is the “recruiter.”

  21. Brian & Eric, did Arthur French tell you he needs to brief you on the position right away or we’ll miss the opportunity he “created”? And somewhere in all of that, someone supposedly with the company in question sent an e-mail to him, accidentally copying you, to say everything’s set and how they’ve told all the necessary directors in the company that they need to get you in to interview right away because you’re a great candidate?

    I’m dealing with this guy now, and I smell a rat. That’s what led me to Google him and find this post with your comments. I don’t trust him, but I want to see how he tries to sell it.

    • Same scenario used with me. Given you went through the same pathway as me, I must conclude that this is a scam. I would not recommend you working with this firm.

      • Can’t say the same for my experience working with these guys. They do have contacts in the PE space and set me up to speak with a managing director that eventually made me a job offer. It was up to me to do my part after the interview was set up. I understood the entire process was confidential and why because I having been part of both a confidential searches on the hiring side as well a candidate during my career. These guys are different not much on the internet about them and they told me that from the beginning.

        • I am having the same experience with Arthur French, who also appears to be known as “Anthony” French. Did you legitimately get a position as a result of paying him money?

          • I did Kathy. It may not work for everyone but it did for me. You can talk to both of the brother’s, Art or Anthony, I think they do the same type of work there. Once you have been placed you become part of their secure network and you will have access to those resources which seem to be at a high level. I have used them for my own recruiting needs which is what they really want.

  22. Jess,

    Yes, I received the same pitch and email scenario. Just happened to be CC’ed as part of a conversation between the hiring manager and recruiter.

    The guy is a greasy salesman. Just selling a useless career service. Stay away.

    Eric

    • Thanks, Eric! That was my gut reaction. It all felt off/too good to be true. That’s usually a warning sign. That and the idea that a candidate needs to pay fees. It didn’t make sense.

      Jess

  23. LinkedIn always had a scamish feel for me. It’s entire business model is to take user supplied information, which it gets for free, and then sell that information to other users. All linkedin provides is a website, which probably cost it very little to set up, and then its own users built up its database free of charge to linkedin.

    • Sidney: That may be the most succinct description of LinkedIn’s business model. User-generated content for sale. Cf. mailing lists for sale.

  24. Interesting. I was feeling very worried about using them since the name kept changing, but maybe they are legitimate. Do you mind f I ask what type of company and job you were placed into?

    • I don’t mind Kathy. I work for a portfolio company which is owned by a private equity firm as the EVP of Global Supply Chain Strategy, making about 3 times as much as I have ever made.

      • Are you sure this guy is legit? I am dealing with them now and they are not very professional or thorough. How long did it take you for them to find you a job? I am leery of this 4 day cancellation policy – it seems very arbitrary.

        • Brynn,
          It certainly was legit for me. My situation may not be normal but I was offered my curent job a little over 5 weeks from the 1st interview. If you are not feeling good about what they are selling, probably not a good fit for you.

          • Hi Mark,

            Thanks for some clarification about this. Did you pay the charge before the interview process or only once you were offered a position?

  25. Glad I googled and found this chain. I just received the following email from “Tony French” at 7F.

    My name is Tony French and I am the VP of Recruiters at 7F. I came across your profile while searching for qualified individuals to fill the various leadership roles made available through our network. I thought I’d send you a quick introductory email to see if you are interested in new opportunities/leadership roles.

    We have 103 leadership roles looking for individuals who have a strong record of driving revenue growth or turn-around experience. We specialize in recruiting leadership talent for VC backed start ups and portfolio companies in Private Equity space. We have a large network of recruiters and exclusive relationships with hiring managers of many Fortune-500 companies and Private Equity firms and we are always in search of qualified candidates.

    I was able to gather some limited information from your online resume at one of the major job sites but would like to review your updated resume to see if we can help. If you are interested in new opportunities, please CLICK the 7F button below read the content and answer a few questions, then reply to this email with a good time for a brief phone call to learn more about you. I look forward to hearing back from you.

    I’m assuming this is a total scam…

    • Are you sure you meant to reply to my comment or did you read my comment? You need to be responsible Jon, probably not real name. My experience with this group is good and resulted in getting a high paying job. From my perspective, your assumption is wrong. Mark

      • Mark S.

        Would it be possible to talk to you personally concerning your experience with 7F? I got a call from them today and would like to talk to you since you seem to have had a good experience with them. And it seems most of the comments about 7F are all suppositions except for yours. If you have ever dealt with PE or VC firms, like I have, they are very confidential. Thank you.

        • I don’t mind Dr. Mike. Give me your phone or email, I will connect with you so we can make arrangements to talk. Mark

          • [THIS E-MAIL ADDRESS HAS BEEN REMOVED. Please do not post your e-mail addresses on this blog. It’s imprudent. If you’d like to reach someone who has posted on this blog, contact me instead. If the other party agrees to it, I’ll put you in touch. -Nick]

          • Can I discuss this with you too? I am in the middle of a very strange interaction with Seven Figure Careers.

    • I’ve been noticing the posts about this firm so I looked it up online: http://sevenfigurecareers.com.

      The phone number provided in the “Address” section at the bottom delivers a recording but no way to talk to anyone: 888-630-3390.

      The FAQ link in the top menu takes you to a protected page that requires a password. For a FAQ?

      That’s enough for red lights to go off.

      The “Who We Are” menu link goes to the same page. Now sirens go off in my mind.

      The “News Releases” menu link also requires a password. For PR releases??? Gimme a break.

      The “Terms and Conditions” page requires a password. Run, don’t walk to your “close browser window” button.

      Are these tip-offs to a possible scam? This site has no names of owners or principals, no street address, no names printed with “testimonials.”

      All you need to do to judge a business is look at what it tells you on its website.

      Then search for the company’s name on Google. “Seven Figure Careers” yields nothing about the company published anywhere — not even its own website — except a few “Press Releases” touting the company. When no media outlets pick up a press release and write about it, ask yourself why.

      I don’t know anything about this firm other than what a routine web search has told me. And that’s absolutely nothing.

      When someone contacts you claiming to be with a firm whose online presence is what we see above, you should wonder a whole lot of things.

  26. I’d like to discuss them too as I am having a very strange experience with them and I want to see how your process worked.

    • I understand but I am not going to be a reference point. I came across this blog only by chance. Mark

  27. Is mark a real user or just tony/ arthur/billy- whatever his name is in disguise?
    this is a scam

  28. Who is Mark S.? He seems to be the only one who is commenting favorably about 7F, AKA Seven Figure Careers, and Anthony or Arthur French. I pretty much have had EXACTLY the same email exchange about me as the candidate with French. He copied me/included me on an email exchange between him and Mark Allen at Agile Capital Group about how great of a candidate I am. I’m even getting a “free trial” for a week! Seems very dubious to me…

  29. I’m not entirely sure one person’s ripoff is enough to paint an entire company as bad. In fact, this post came out in October 2015, and it looks like as of November 2015 Mr. Schumacher was no longer employed by LHH (checking the employment dates in his LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelrschumacher).

    Perhaps leadership at LHH takes its reputation quite seriously and canned him for plagiarism?

  30. For more information on one of the firms discussed in the comments section above — Seven Figure Careers — please see http://www.asktheheadhunter.com/9348/7f-anatomy-recruiting-scam

  31. All,
    I enjoyed reading your honest and transparent comments regarding the challenges you face with outplacement firms. I am a young executive who is experiencing my first PE layoff. At 33, I have worked my tail off-always with the up most integrity. As a communications executive, I’ve been described as having “raw talent” – apparently this is rare in my industry. My unemployment has been devastating to say the least. I too was “conned” by Challenger, Grey and Christmas, who at first promised to place me in an equal or higher paid executive level job – also resonated by the incompetent HR director who laid me off. Me being the loyal “ex employee,” I reported this to my former employer who did not respond. Sadly, corporate America would rather repay their most talented and loyal employees with negligence. It takes a lot of courage to post about unemployment and employment challenges and I appreciate the insight y’all have provided.

    -The unemployed young exec

  32. I would be interested in hearing anyone’s impressions about the following: There is a company (I won’t share the name but it is in the realm of career coaching) out there that charges $5,000 ($3,500 if you sign up at the time they have an intake call with you) that claims that it will have you receiving six figure job offers within a matter of months . In fairness, I don’t know that they actually guarantee this, but it’s heavily implied in their advertising that within a few months of working with them, you will have six figure job offers that will likely exceed what you were making before. I will say this about the company, they do appear to have good career advice articles on their website, and they readily admit that their focus is on getting and keeping you in a positive mindset, not on cleaning up your resume, cover letters, Linkedin profile, or anything like that. The company makes it possible for you to be on twice weekly conference calls with other members for accountability and support. They claim that they don’t want to work with “just anyone” and “only with those who they believe are willing to do the hard work.” In other words, they frame it like if they are willing to work with you (and to take your money) you should feel very honored. I must say, I agree with the focus on maintaining a positive mind set, but the fact that the company really seems to do the hard sell and ask that you sign up the same day you do the intake if you want the discounted price of $3,500 seemed kind of unseemly to me (also wasn’t crazy about their almost daily e-mails reminding me of how superior their services are to other career coaching services out there). Also, their logic that $5,000 is really nothing when you consider the months that they will shave off your job search (that is what they claim anyway) seemed like a way to pressure prospective clients. Again, even though the people with this company seemed nice enough, there just seemed to be a hard sell element to it that gave me pause. Has anyone ever paid for something like this? Is it worth it? Please share your thoughts or advice. The hard sell element made me feel cautious about the company. I did not sign up for their services.

  33. @Al: For 5 thousand bucks I’ll call you once a week and kick you in the A to keep you on track. No other work required. I’d love to hear from anyone who has use such a service — what’s the upshot?