Personal Career Solutions

InsideInsurance

What they said to me was that they didnt do any direct hiring but had "arrangements" (ie commission) with a number of recruitement agents that would deal with the candidates applying for advertised positions or cold sending your CV to the agents network.

Beyond that you are supposed to be using your own network to get jobs so their involvement wouldn't be visible to the hiring managers.

almo88

Well, I believe the law states that recruiting agencies are not allowed to take money from Candidates. so PCS cannot function as a classic recruiting agency.

The only alternatives I can think of are:

1. They search job sites for you
2. As InsideInsurance Suggests - use other employment agencies ( which amounts to the same thing, really).
3. They Don't charge the hiring companies for candidates - turning them into a "FREE" recruitment agency - that pitches candidates to clients at no cost . If the service is legit, we would have heard of such agencies.

My conclusion is therefore, that the service doesn't work. Although their job hunting tips are probably useful for people with little job hunting experience.

To be honest, I will be happy if someonce convinced me otherwise.

StewartG

As a recruitment consultant with 12 years experience I would suggest that any company charging candidate and not client should be approached with extreme caution. Depending on what they are actually charging for it could be border line illegal. I would suggest that any decent recruitment worth their salt would be able to offer career / CV advice for free.

InsideInsurance

They charge you for training and access to some of their tools (namely a directory of who's who and insider info on them from memory), not for job hunting.

Certainly the plan they put forward was not an insignificant investment of time in the "training". A good few days with them plus a load of materials etc with the programme being completed over the space of a few months. Was not convinced by them at all but certainly a lot more than the career/ cv advice received from a recruitment agent

PetuliaGristle

I received a text message from PCS, though they didn't identify themselves in the text message, when I called the number the voicemail said they were PCS. Based on the above I won't be following this up, thanks for the advice.

First_Timer_4

I met with PCS recently. Very clever psychologically based pitch with lots of opinion and anecdotes, but absolutely no hard facts on what they actually do and their success rate. Surely the web would be awash with glowing references if they deliver what they say they can? I've asked to speak to people that they have placed, but of course they can't do this because of data protection...
Looks like a CV clinic, some motivational stuff and access to data resources. A bit like buying a dog and barking yourself.
Like Almo88, however, I would be pleased to be proved wrong.

Lightstorm

Much the same as the posts above. I went to two initial meetings where all the right things were said - but when asking specific questions like - what are your success rates - quite vague answers came back.

At the end of the second meeting a quote for a substantial amount of money was presented with the expectation of a hefty deposit .What came apparant was the eagerness for payment - not what you expect from a professional firm. Everything seemed very generic in the approach looking back.

Save yourself several hours of wasted time and money - avoid!

scooby42

this is a copy of my reply to them as a result of my experience...

Dear Sir

Just for the purposes of feedback. My experience turned out be a complete let down, despite your companies quality standard and as you put it "customer focused service being second to none".

If I had been assessing your business for ISO or otherwise, I would certainly have had an issue with the fact that you are a fee charging service (and as I understand it, not particularly inexpensive) to the client, and at a time when finances will be the chief concern for many a job hunting unemployed person. The lack of clarity of this very important point (at the outset), meant that I personally wasted most of the day, incurred travel and parking costs getting from where I live, into the middle of Birmingham only to find out at the end that I have to pay for the service.

It was pointed out to me by Mr P that "when you worked for your previous employers, or when you go into sainsbury's to buy your food, technically, fees are charged and this is no different, nobody works for nothing", which instantly turned what was a quite positive initial meeting into one where I felt patronised and my vulnerabilities, preyed upon.

The real point being, that, we are all accustomed to recruitment agents being paid mainly by the employing company for which they are working for and not the job seeker so if treating customers fairly is truly high on the agenda, and, given that many through the door will actually be jobless. You owe it to your prospective customer to be clear on the point that you are not like most of the other companies out there that don't charge the job seeker.

I myself was left feeling that I had exposed myself to a bit of a cheap trick in a time when a lot of people are finding it tougher than ever to find work and would have knocked a few points off your ISO score, had I have been lucky enough to have secured the job as the assessor.

Regards

westv

I do find it slightly amusing that, when I get emails from these people, they start of saying how they have seen my CV and end the email asking me to send a copy of my CV!

hannhol

just to flag, i just had an email from these guys. unfortunately for them i work in a rather niche area, and i know all the recruiters/jobs out there in my area and i am not currently looking to go outside this. i've got my CV out there becuase I'm on a contract and it doesn't hurt to keep your eyes open, but if nothing else i would never meet up with a strange man i'd never heard of who speculatively contacted me by email, claiming to have received my CV. [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]