Carnegie Career Partners in Pittsburgh (651 Holiday Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15220) contacted me by phone in October 2004 purportedly for an interview regarding a position that they were looking to fill.

The caller stated that she pulled my résumé from Monster.com where I had posted it. I was scheduled for an interview and it turned out to be a sales presentation for their services. I was promised access to a “Special Database of Jobs”, to “key decision-makers” and to a “Hidden Job Market”.

It was a very smooth presentation given by a very smooth woman, Catherine Slemenda, who had explained the advantages of working with this group. It was a very carefully crafted pitch. She was very good, and I was in a vulnerable spot. She picked on my Achilles heel. I was in need, and feeling pretty bad about my unemployment situation.

I noticed after reviewing the plaques on her office wall that the company had other names. I questioned the Bernard Haldane plaque. Ms. Slemenda explained the name change as somewhat of a break off from the parent company. I trusted her and when Ms. Slemenda said: “We only agree to work with one out of 10 clients”, I was hooked.

My wife and I attended a second meeting on October 29,2004. On November 2, 2004 I entered into a contract with Carnegie Career Partners in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania for Career Counseling. I was charged $2,950.00 for the service. I found out later after some dissatisfaction with my career counselor and some detective work that the company does a very poor job of career counseling, and the name change is to protect them as they move on with their deceptive business practices. I find the name Barry A. Layne, President, showing up as President on companies including:

Carnegie Career Associates, PO Box 687, Princeton Junction, NJ
Carnegie Career Partners, 100 Princeton Overlook, Princeton New Jersey
Career Associates of New York, Inc. 100 Park Avenue - Ste. 1600, New York, NY 10017
Career Management, Inc., d/b/a Bernard Haldane Associates, a Chicago Illinois corporation.
Executive Carnegie Career, 100 Princeton Overlook, Princeton New Jersey
Robele Career Solutions, 1150 First Avenue, Suite 385, Princeton Junction New Jersey 08550

I was given the pep talk about a wonderful, energetic, one of a kind advisor that specialized in jobs in my field of interest. He was to be assigned to me. When I first met (Roland Vendeland), my counselor, I must admit that I was a bit disappointed. He appeared to be a long lost soul that had been retired for many years and was just trying to make a few extra bucks.

I was again informed of the “Special Database of Jobs” that was for all intents and purposes, useless, and was basically a lesser version of Monster.com without the bells and whistles. I did not gain access to this database for three weeks after I signed my contract due to difficulties my counselor had to obtain a logon and password for me. I actually found more leads for jobs on Monster.com than on the Carnegie Careers database.

During my weekly visits he regularly supplied me with mounds of forms to fill out and forms with redundant information to fill out and complete. They were subsequently filed in my personal folder without any real discussion. These forms consisted of evaluations of career goals and concepts, similar to the ones I remember filling out in High School. Many of these mundane tasks seemed to be a method of wasting time and getting past the 45-day mark where refunds are permitted.

Meetings were held with my counselor only once a week for a two-hour time frame. Many times he appeared 15 or 20 minutes late without apology. The 45 day mark came very quickly with little accomplished other than various forms were filled out and I now had a shortened resume that many of the recruiters I visited with described as a “Smoke and Mirrors” resume, that was unacceptable. They asked if they could do a “Financial Profile” (Credit Check), of my wife and myself. This is the method of determining the amount they will charge to individuals. Each customer pays a different fee. Many unhappy customers exist and I find that in Kansas and Illinois:

The Information below is excerpted from the Better Business Bureau of Trenton NJ website, http://www.trenton.bbb.org/, with regard to Career Management a/k/a Carnegie Career Partners formerly known as Bernard Haldane Associates, (Barry Layne, President).

In September 2002, Kansas State Attorney General Carla J. Stovall announced an agreement with this firm regarding charges of deceptive business practices. The Attorney General alleged that this firm misrepresented itself to clients and the public by claming that it has special access to hidden job markets and particular employers, disguising advertisements as classified job listings, contacting individuals with resumes available on the Internet for interviews that turn out to be sales presentations, claiming that their services were tax deductible when this was not always the case and charging clients for services that were not provided. The company admitted no wrongdoing. Under the settlement, this firm will pay up to $300,000 in restitution and $100,000 in penalties and fees.

In October 2003, the Illinois Attorney General filed charges against DRB, Ltd. d/b/a Bernard Haldane Associates; Jerold P. Weinger, individually and as president of DBR; Barry A. Layne, individually and as President of Career Management, Inc. d/b/a Bernard Haldane Associates; Jeffrey S. Zalay, Ben Acara, Mark Adams and Gary Herstein individually as salespeople, in Cook County Circuit Court accusing them of multiple violations of the Consumer Fraud Act and deceptive business practices.

The Attorney General's suit seeks preliminary injunction and permanent injunction against the defendants as well as civil penalties, restitution to customers, revocation, forfeiture or suspension of any certificate, license, charter or franchise held by the defendants to do business in Illinois. The Attorney General charged that the defendants engaged in trade or commerce in which they entered into a scheme to defraud consumers in their methods of advertising, offering for sale, and soliciting sales of career counseling services in the State of Illinois.

According to the Attorney General, the defendants: represented that they could put their clients in touch with “a secret job market”, where there was none; represented that they could provide an exclusive database of jobs, when the jobs listed were available to the general public; and taking a financial profile of each applicant and charging the clients varying amounts of money based on the liquid assets of each applicant.

They unfairly charged different customers higher fees for the same service. The suit claims that Haldane employees never found employment for many of their clients. The case is currently pending. The Illinois AG is asking consumers who believe they were mislead by Haldane to contact the AG's office at.
BBB of New Jersey, Inc.

Now known as: Stewart Palmer & Associates. Still based in Princeton, NJ. They are slithering all over Monster and careerbuilder. RUN AWAY!!

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Get those crooks!

We are Stewart Palmer & Associates & have absolutely no relationship with Bernard Haldane Associates, Carnegie Career Partners, or any other company of this type.

There is also no relationship with any individuals associated with these companies, nor do we conduct our business in any way associated with these companies, & we can provide documentation to support this.

The two postings on your website defaming our reputation & associating us with these other companies is a misrepresentation and libelous.

We are willing to provide any legal & business documentation to support our rebuttal.

Thank you.

Stewart Palmer has no association with Carnegie Career Partners. This a lie that is probably posted by a competitor.

__________________

Domain Name: WWW.STEWARTPALMER.NET
Registrar: REGISTER.COM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.register.com
Referral URL: http://www.register.com
Name Server: B.NS.INTERLAND.NET
Name Server: A.NS.INTERLAND.NET
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Updated Date: 24-jul-2006
Creation Date: 18-jul-2006
Expiration Date: 18-jul-2009

Last update of whois database: Fri, 23 Feb 2007 09:33:47 EST

Registrant:
JSL Marketing, Inc.
Jeff Lewin
212 Carengie Center
Princeton, nj 08540
US
Email: jlewin@cegcareers.com

Registrar Name....: REGISTER.COM, INC.
Registrar Whois...: whois.register.com
Registrar Homepage: www.register.com

Domain Name: stewartpalmer.net

Created on..............: Tue, Jul 18, 2006
Expires on..............: Sat, Jul 18, 2009
Record last updated on..: Mon, Jul 24, 2006

Administrative Contact:
JSL Marketing, Inc.
Jeff Lewin
212 Carengie Center
Princeton, nj 08540
US
Phone: +1.6099196366
Email: jlewin@cegcareers.com

Technical Contact:
Registercom
Domain Registrar
575 8th Avenue
New York, NY 10018
US
Phone: +1.9027492701
Email: domainregistrar@register.com

DNS Servers:

b.ns.interland.net
a.ns.interland.net

Register your domain name at http://www.register.com

__________________

Domain Name: WWW.CEGCAREERS.COM
Registrar: REGISTER.COM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.register.com
Referral URL: http://www.register.com
Name Server: NS2.INTERMEDIA.NET
Name Server: NS3.INTERMEDIA.NET
Status: clientTransferProhibited
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Updated Date: 01-dec-2006
Creation Date: 02-sep-2005
Expiration Date: 02-sep-2007

Last update of whois database: Fri, 23 Feb:33:47 EST

Domain name: www.cegcareers.com

Administrative Contact:
Carnegie Executive Group
Jeffrey Lewin lewin@cegcareers.com
+1.6099196366
Fax: +1.6094529047
212 Carnegie Center
Suite 206
Princeton, NJ 08540
US

Technical Contact:
Carnegie Executive Group
Jeffrey Lewin jlewin@cegcareers.com
+1.6099196366
Fax: +1.6094529047
212 Carnegie Center
Suite 206
Princeton, NJ 08540
US

Registrant Contact:
Carnegie Executive Group
Jeffrey Lewin jlewin@cegcareers.com
+1.6099196366
Fax: +1.6094529047
212 Carnegie Center
Suite 206
Princeton, NJ 08540
US

Status: Locked

Name Servers:
ns2.intermedia.net
ns3.intermedia.net

Creation date: 02 Sep:19:18
Expiration date: 02 Sep:19:18

__________________

Name: Cornerstone Career Partners
Location: Oakville Corporate Center
700 Dorval Drive, Suite 305
Oakville, Ontario L6K 3V3
Web: http://www.ccpjobs.ca/

Here goes the whole story.

I received an email from jobsoakville@gallowaypartner.com the other day as quoted.


If you are interested in pursing mid to senior level executive positions, please reply to jobsoakville@gallowaypartner.com and attach the most current version of your resume. We will then direct it to the appropriate consultant at CCP to follow-up. If they feel they can help you, Cindy will call you to set a time to meet with one of their executive managers.

Best Regards,

J (name snipped)
Galloway Partners

Well, I'm interested in pursuing such positions and I replied to the email address with my resume attached. But wait, the domain, gallowaypartner.com, is even not set up properly if you do a quick google on it. Anyway, I thought it wouldn't hurt as they got my information somewhere from some online jobboards.

Anyways, I sent out my resume and got a phone call from Cindy afterwards. She said a company saw my professional experience from a job board and wanted her company to schedule a meeting with one of their managers. It sounded OK to me and an appointment was scheduled last night at 4:30pm at the Oakville location.

I arrived at the site a little bit earlier and stepped in Suite 305 at around 4:20pm. The manager I was visiting is called Mark. The moment I stepped in, Mark was the only person in the office.

After greeting each other, we sat down in Mark's office and he started with some normal questions.

- Why are you here today?
- What did you do in your past employments?
- What's your goal in 5~10 years?

These were all valid questions.

While I was answering those questions, he appeared to write down what our conversation was on a sheet of paper that looks like a form. I guessed it could be some candidate information form for themselves.

After the questions, he talked about this company and how they will help market me to some multi-national companies. Also, he talked about how many jobs there are in their job pool and how many canadidates they deal with. And they deal with a lot of MBAs and CXO's. Those comments sounded somewhat OK to me.

Then he asked me if I'm willing to relocate and I said no. He kept writing on his paper without even raising his head.

Now, the question section was over and I was given 2 pieces of paper.

The 1st piece lists a bunch of reasons for me to pick that could cause a person to leave the current job, the items you look forward to in your new job in terms of compensation and your 3-month, 6-month, 1-year, 5-year and 10-year goals.

The 2nd piece simply asks what kind of assistance I'm seeking from their company, in terms of what skills you want to improve. Those questions were open as I could write whatever I want. I was asked to sign and date the 2nd piece. After checking carefully the content on the 2nd piece of paper, I signed and dated it.

I was alone in Mark's office when I was filling out the 2 pieces of paper and he came back in after I completed them. He took the first piece, browsed it and wrote something onto his note, telling me my choices were pretty much valid and normal for people like myself.

He didn't pick up the 2nd piece of paper but asked me to read my answers to him while he appeared to write down my answers. Well, all looked OK so far.

Now, the weird part started. He said he had gone through my resume when I was filling out the 2 pieces of paper and thought he'd definitely put me through to the next round. Now, I felt suspicious because he didn't ask any questions about my past professional engagements. He only listened to what I told him at the beginning.

Then, he wanted to book an appointment with me and my wife. He also suggested I bring my kid to the interview, which was declined as I really didn't think that would be necessary. Before he proposed a date, I questioned him why bringing my wife would have something to do with my job hunting. He said me and my wife would discuss something, for example, there could be a fee, "which is not a burden to yourself". I initially interpreted this as the employer would pay the fee but he corrected me that I would have to pay the fee myself. I asked him how much the fee could be based on his years of experience, he said he didn't know. If he said he couldn't tell me, that would sounds more logical. But he said he didn't know, which alerted me immediately, because his not knowing the fee would be very unlikely.

I tried to find an excuse to leave the interview, saying I could call back to schedule the 2nd interview as I probably want to discuss it with my wife. Mark said that wouldn't be necessary as we only needed to work out a date to meet and he could schedule an appointment after business hours or even weekends so that my wife could attend it.

I asked again about the fee and questioned what would happen if after the 2nd interview, me and myself decide not to continue to use their service? Mark stopped for a few seconds and then came back, saying "Then you would lose a good opportunity". He also talked about the ratio that 1 out of 7 candidates will be the luck one to get the job, which gave me a hint that 6 out of 7 would be paying the fee and end up having nothing. Also, he mentioned that it is NOT his company that is interested in me but some other big companies. The big company that is interested in me asked his company to do some pre-screening or filtering on their behalf. I have never heard of this story as when a company wants to hire a job agent to look for some people for them, they will give the job description and requirements to the agent and it is the agent who searches job boards to find potential candidates. Otherwise, why bother paying an agent to do something they could do themselves?

I insisited on not making an appiontment for the 2nd interview and then Mark said I was not a fit for this position as I didn't appear to understand the business. I said fine and stepped out of the suite.

That's the end of my adventure last night and it took 30 min as it was 5pm when I came out. Maybe I really don't understand their business but, as a matter of fact, I don't want to try to understand it.

RedFlagDeals.com

__________________

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PLEASE NOTE THAT CARNEGIE EXECUTIVE GROUP IS NOT NOR EVER HAS BEEN CARNEGIE CAREER PARTNERS!!!

READ THE RESPONSE AND IT CLEARLY STATES THAT STEWART, PALMER IS NOT CARNEGIE CAREER PARTNERS.

I WILL REPEAT THAT CARNEGIE EXECUTIVE GROUP IS NOT CARNEGIE CAREER PARTNERS!!!