Personal Career Services/PCS - any good?

saintjammyswine

Sparkles322 wrote: »

Really sad to read all the negative replies re PCS. I paid for their services and within 6 months had left my job, started my own successful marketing company and have never looked back. I still use all the techniques they taught me with my own business and really can't rate them highly enough.

Wow a positive review from someone with only 1 post. Never seen that before!

Slinky

Sparkles322 wrote: »

Really sad to read all the negative replies re PCS. I paid for their services and within 6 months had left my job, started my own successful marketing company and have never looked back. I still use all the techniques they taught me with my own business and really can't rate them highly enough.

So they didn't actually find you a job from the 'unadvertised job's market they have access to' then........ you started your own business and created your own.

My husband had a meeting with them and decided not to bother using them.

zbg

I am a former (foreign) lawyer, and have just come from a meeting with the top brass. Very slick presentation, but what makes me uncomfortable is that all the money is taken up front, and there is no guarantee offered (and therefore no incentive to perform) whatsoever. I was quoted £6k (presumably because I am older, and therefore harder to place?) . The fact that they say they place 91% of candidates (and that they only invite 50% of candidates back for a second interview) may or may not be true - but without some form of guarantee or backup these are statistics which I cannot verify. I also found the explanation of the methodology slightly glib. I dont actually want to work full time, yet they dont flinch at the ability to assist you.

saintjammyswine

Well, that's that sorted then.

HandyAndy99

Hi, I need some urgent help. I have had a successful career until I was made redundant a year ago and I have struggled to find new employment. I was contacted by PCS via a very vague email and thought to myself that I have nothing to lose by seeing them.

I had 2 sessions with them and to be honest it was very good experience.However I asked quite early on whether there was a fee and the consultant said yes but not to worry about it yet. I asked again at the beginning of the 2nd session but he still told me to wait. I thought that was strange and rather put me off. At the very end he gave me the sheet with the cost and my jaw dropped to the floor. I think he expected that reaction considering I am very short of money but he says he can get me interviews and thinks I can be placed within 3 months. Why couldn't he say the cost at the very beginning?

Naturally I am desperate for a job but the pitch makes it sound that it is extremely unlikely that I will find a job unless I tap into the hidden market. My wife thinks it's a waste of money and threatens all sorts if I 'waste' the money. She says why should they portray it will be easy to find an executive job when it's the executives that are being made redundant as firms tighten their belts. She also says that if they have lots of clients on their books they can't all be able to land a job. I think he said they had a 95% success rate.

This is my first post as I have had no reason previously to join a money forum. This is a sincere request for help so please can you let me know whether I should go ahead or just continue to network, use online job sites and high street agencies. Like many others have said, the only positive review is the recent one on this thread.

Funky_Bold_Ribena

I went to see them and he told me I'd never ever get a job teaching gardening to kids; and within a fortnight I was able to email him and say that yes, I had got a job teaching gardening to kids.

PlutoinCapricorn

Handy Andy, please don't waste your money.

Long term posters can see right through the first timers who praise some company that the knowledgeable people would not touch.

There is no real hidden job market. They can't do anything for you that you couldn't do for yourself. I don't believe their success rate.
In today's job climate, no one can guarantee anything.

Helmsdale

There certainly is a hidden job market and it yields by far the most success for methodical job seekers, but PCS certainly hasn't got a franchise on it. A high percentage of job opportunities come and go without being advertised. You can certainly exploit the hidden job market yourself though: personal networking, Linked-in, a truly methodical speculative job search campaign... Bluntly, you create your own luck, and the harder you work at your job search, the luckier you get.

As a background, outplacement in the UK mainly developed from the 1980s to help companies assist their employees who were facing (usually) large scale redundancy situations. This was to compensate for the rather awful support available from Job Centres (which is little better now, in my opinion). So outplacement grew as a corporate employee benefit. The employers contracted and paid for the service and monitored the results, and it was typically delivered on their premises during working time with no cost to the individual. It was, and is, usually a very good service and consistently well received.

Then though, came the retail suppliers, keen to sell services to individuals. There were some dubious practices, like encouraging desperate people to sign credit agreements with finance companies to buy their outplacement support (I'm not suggesting PCS do that). Like many others on this forum though, I deplore the way [text deleted by MSE Forum Team] many of the retail outplacement and CV companies try to pressure-sell their services.

[text deleted by MSE Forum Team]

Again, I express my strong view that anyone who needs help in their job search (besides using some of the excellent free Internet resources that are available) would be best advised finding an independent outplacement consultant in the same locality. You can find one via LinkedIn. Get references (tip: before you agree to anything, ask for his/her own CV - if that's no good, then yours won't be either).

robbo1234

BRLIV wrote: »

Without wanting to grind an axe......

I cannot stress enough that these people should not be used. They are nothing more than a dubious outplacement service. They give a lot of promises about contacts in the market etc but they have nothing to contribute about techniques on looking for a job above what you could query yourself on Google.

Totally agree. I just went for an "interview" with them recently [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] Sounds like a very dubious operation. Asked all the right questions before going and they still tried to "con" Avoid!

PlutoinCapricorn

I think that someone on MSE reported going to a similar company and asking for details of jobs they had filled and to be put in touch with satisfied clients. They got angry and offended because he didn't trust them! They couldn't give this information because they probably didn't have it.

If you know the right people and have a lot of contacts you may get to hear about unadvertised jobs, but these are not as common as people seem to think. Some very low paid, casual type jobs might be available, but most companies try to attract a variety of applicants.

[text deleted by MSE Forum Team] I just hope that people Google everything and come on here before committing themselves to anything.