Personal Career Services/PCS - any good?

Annisele

Siobhanee wrote: »

But where do I go now? It would seem there is no one out there to help mid to senior managers to get back to work. Why should we have to pay for that service, especially in today's economy, but then I do now take note that independent career consultants may not like that comment.

I'm not a career consultant, but I'm not convinced by that comment either. Who do you think should pay for the service? I think there are basically four options:

• The people who provide the service do so for free.
• The state provides the service, and we all pay for it through our taxes.
• The employers wanting to hire the managers pay for the service.
• The prospective employee pays.

The first is a bad option; not many people are willing or able to work for free - and if they are, they might do more social good doing something else.

The second is a hard sell to other taxpayers (like me!). Either you reduce other services or your raise taxes - in either case you're asking relatively low paid people to fund employment advice for people who earn more than they ever will. The state already does provide a very basic service (the JobCentre), and if there was any political appetite for improving that service the effort would probably be better spent on people who weren't senior managers.

The third option works just fine - it's called an employment agency.

I think the fourth option is the only one left if you want somebody working for you rather than for the employer.

Siobhanee

Thanks guys for your comments/recent posts. All useful points and comments.

Hezzawithkids

Graeme_Phelps wrote: »

Finally, given the success statistics that they quote, it concerned me that Googling does not identify anyone raving about having found a job with PCS.

Exactly. Plus - as other posters have testified - they point-blank refuse to provide references for people they supposedly have helped. What a shower.

GlowingG

I just to one of their mails and googled them out of interest. And found this thread. The email said they reviewed my cv on an affiliated job site. Wierd as my cv hasn't been posted for at least 5 years as I'm not job hunting. I suppose my LinkedIn profile may look a little underemployed.....

Anyhow I won't be meeting them.

If you want some self help, get What Color is your Parachute from the library or our local bookshop. It has some good exercises for clarifying what you are looking for and a great process for searching out those unadvertised jobs. Good luck.

GG

Dal_Whinnie

This has been an interesting thread and highlights the difficulty of obtaining advice when you are in this 'low' position. Nothing is guaranteed and all you can do is ensure that you give yourself the best chance to get the job you have applied for and not beat yourself up when you don't get it, the main reason is that somebody else was a better fit for that particular role.

I have been made redundant twice and in both cases the employer arranged outplacement services for those being made redundant. In one case the consultant I saw was brilliant, in the other they didn't really add anything.

I have never gone direct to a Career Consultant and some of the suspicion voiced above is understandable, there is a hidden job market (I know of a number of roles filled by external appointments without being advertised) and yes, a good consultant with contacts within your area of work, should pick up more of these than you would but this is definitely oversold by consultants trying to tempt you on board.

And this is the problem, I am currently seeking an IT role in Wiltshire but keep just failing and would welcome 'an MOT' to help me identify those areas in which I could improve myself and thus give myself a better chance. I am happy to pay a professional for advice but the difficulty is finding the right person to do that

Helmsdale

In response to Dal Whinnie's post, I'd suggest checking Linkedin.com and Search for Career Coaches, Career Consultants and Outplacement. You'll find most of the independent professional career consultants are listed there together with their CVs, endorsements, career history and so on. My advice is to choose someone who has been well-established in the business for a number of years (most of the bad ones don't last long).

Then the best way is to make a short-list of likely candidates and phone or email two or three consultants who live in your area. You should then discuss your personal situation and requirements, and ask each one for his/her recommended course of action and the fee - you'll be able to compare their services, and also decide which of them you are most comfortable with (important!), and don't be afraid to negotiate the price down.

It's hard to know Dal's specific needs without knowing more about his or her situation, but maybe some good coaching in interview techniques and competency-based selection would be in order. Additionally, I'd suggest systematic trawling for unadvertised job opportunities in the appropriate sector (in truth, there is no more mystique to the hidden job market than that).

One thing is certain though: you'll get a more individually-tailored and personal service from a local independent, usually at a far better price, than you can get from any of the larger retail outplacement consultancies, who necessarily require their career consultants to work to the agency's prescribed and branded service.

window_box

The bottom line on PCS is that they are a bunch of desperate sales people, which should be obvious from the countless number unsolicited e-mails they send out. I assume they steal the information from job sites and I also suspect they may even set up fake jobs themselves under assumed names because I have previously noted a suspicious trend of an increase in their e-mails to me just after I have made an application.

In response to the poster who has concerns about his CV, the very best way to get feedback on this is to build up a relationship with a good recruiter in your area of expertise. They know exactly what a client is looking for and they know which CVs go in the bin i.e. 99% of the ones they receive. They will tell you what to highlight at the very top. If the skills are not highlighted, it's going in the bin. These people often receive 100s of CVs a day and many of them are greedy and lazy. If you find the right one, ask him/her what to put on the CV. That helps the recruiter as well as you since all they want is an easy match. Half your battle is then won.

In response to all posters on the subject of PCS, what I did when a had a spare moment was to use their own e-mail addresses, of which they have a number of different ones, to request advertising from a whole host of companies on the dodgier web sites. That way, I calculated they would get plenty more spam e-mails than the ones they blast me with.

Statement posted on behalf of PCS

There appears to be a misunderstanding in this thread as to what we, as a company, do. Career Management consultancy is a specialist area and should not be confused with traditional recruitment. We have helped thousands of clients over many years to achieve a successful career transition and are very proud of our track record in this area. I am happy to speak to anyone who wishes to clarify or discuss any perceived issues about either our company or our services. Please feel free to contact me on 0113 2052851 or a.greenley@p-c-s.uk.com. Thank you, Abigail Greenley, Operations Director

Miss_Bella

Just to share my experience with PCS today which I finally decided to cancel booked appointment for next week. Thanks to this forum!

I got a swift email from them after registering with a job site 2 days ago - I don't make a habit of registering with plenty, but just one. So when I first received the email, they asked me to send latest CV and phone number to contact. Stupidly I did, and then they called me almost an hour later and explained everything about it without saying anything about the cost. So during the call, I was booked for next week appointment, and then I got email confirmation of the booking. All went well until my instinct told me otherwise. So I did my research and found this forum as well as other sites. I was so shocked to read every post.. I also did further search and found more sites (with regards to them sending SMS, etc. Also ran a check on Companies House to see whether the company was legitimate - if you wanted to look for one, check your email and at the bottom of signature, you will find company registration number, and was registered under different company.

Futhermore, I checked the domain registration - p-c-s.uk.com and also found out their old website on career-world.co.uk from which all pages were redirected to their new site. Old content but new design.

So all in all, enough for me to decide to cancel. I emailed them as well to remove my details, including my latest CV and phone number in the database, following my rights in data protection legislation. If at later stage that I found out that they sell my data to other companies, then I will take further actions on this.

Wealie

:mad:Well I've never met with P-C-S, but everytime I look for a new contract position they seem to latch on and hound me by phone, text and email!

I have had to request that they stop contacting me about 7 times in the past few years and everytime I update my jobsite profiles it starts all over again.

There messages make it sound like it is vital I call them; well frankly I do pretty well without them. I know how to work my network, make my CV work for me and get the contracts at the day rate that works for me. I don't need to pay thousands of pounds to a group of people whom it seems don't even have particular access to vacancies anyway!

My advice steer clear and if they keep making unwanted and unsolicited calls report them to the TPS!

Wealie

GlowingG wrote: »

If you want some self help, get What Color is your Parachute from the library or our local bookshop. It has some good exercises for clarifying what you are looking for and a great process for searching out those unadvertised jobs. Good luck.
GG

Great advice from Glowing G! There is so much information out there in books, free on the intranet, etc. So, before you shell out a substantial amount of your hard earned cash on a consultant I'd look at what you can do for yourself on a relatively small budget.