Personal Career Services/PCS - any good?

Once you go into see them they make you do personality tests and look at your CV etc and basically you get a very oiled sales routine saying that your not earning anywhere near your capability, that 70% (or something) of jobs arent advertised but are gotten by networking/ being in right place right time.

In exchange for your fee they say they will effectively improve your CV, groom you, teach you networking skills and give you a finite period of time access to their "whos who" type directory. Once you've gone through the process they'll pass you to some recruitment agencies but really the "idea" is that using the skills they've taught you you start making contacts, having coffee/ drinks with relevant people etc and in time when those people need a new X they ask you to do it rather than advertise the job.

In theory it can work and networking is a good skill, how much can be taught and if it is value for money is another matter.

The above is what they told me, I dont know how many tiers of service they may offer.

This thread is quite old, and no one came back with anything positive to say.

You know, guys, as an experienced outplacement consultant, I can say that most of your opinions are wrong, yet some of them touch on the truth.

The reality is that PCS and other similar outfits offer the services of freelance, self-employed career consultants, some of whom are brilliant, some good or fair, while others are barely adequate (in my honest opinion).

In the business, this 'retail' sector has always been regarded as the 'scrag end' of the outplacement market anyway - the premium side is corporate, with companies paying for a service to mitigate the effects of redundancy on their employees(and monitoring KPIs).

PCS mainly operates on the retail side, as far as I'm aware. After some initial advertising and marketing, the consultancy largely throws the risk onto the consultants, providing the leads and leaving them to 'convert' each sale, or not. The time you spend on initial consultations is probably entirely at the expense of the consultant, not PCS - no fee, no pay. That's why some consultants will say 'to hell with it', and not follow up on a free and lengthy initial consultation if they think it's not going anyhere. So no gain, but no loss to PCS.

On the other hand, an experienced career and outplacement consultant (we're usually self-employed) can give really valuable assistance, depending on which one of us you get. But we have to get paid from somewhere. Why would you pay us? Well, we know the inside track, and have an in-depth knowledge of the recruitment and selection business. I've delivered success for clients on numerous difficult contracts in private and public sectors over the past few years. I know what I'm doing. After all, I couldn't do your job after a couple of weeks on Google, so why would you expect to do mine?

You can bet on one thing though: unless you go direct (probably for a much lower price) the consultant will only be getting a small fraction of the contract fee - it used to be one third, but that's been squeezed as low as 14 per cent by some consultancies - we're suffering like everyone else.

Another thing - DO NOT be tempted to take out a loan agreement via a finance company to pay for the outplacement service. Some consultants, desperate for business to keep their own income going, are pressed to sell these agreements in the retail outplacement sector. I'm not saying PCS do that, but some companies certainly do. Besides the profit from their job search service, they get a commission on the sale of the loan agreement too, and you end up paying interest. If you can't afford it, don't touch it with a barge pole!

Having said all that, a good careers consultant can be worth his/her weight in euros. We are experts at writing CVs, but we offer so much more: skills and aspirations analysis, self-marketing skills, designing and implementing speculative job search campaigns, conducting job-winning interview techniques, competency-based selection training ... I could go on.

In fairness, most of the consultants affiliated to PCS probably do a good job for their clients. They're 'under the lash' of current economic problems, as much as you. I just happen to think that the retail outplacement/careers paradigm sucks.

If you're looking for another job and thinking of seeking professional help (and you could do much, much worse, honestly), you'd be better advised finding an independent career consultant in your area via Linked-In and asking for a quotation. Ask for references from satisfied clients too. I'm absolutely certain you'll get just as good a service, or better (it might even be the same consultant) for a much lower fee.