Don’t Pay Heavy Up-Front Fees
The Five O’Clock Club is On Your Side
by Kate Wendleton, President

It’s the same old story. This time it appeared in the January 4th issue of the New York Times, “Career Management Firm Fights Complaints.” The article reports that “hundreds of dissatisfied customers are battling for refunds from Bernard Haldane Associates, a career-management company that charges a hefty fee.” Haldane clients pay from $4,000 to $20,000—up front. That’s roughly 10 percent of the client’s most recent salaries. 

The Times states that these career counseling firms with the hefty up-front fees often hint at the great networking contacts and huge databases they provide—all just right for your specific industries and fields. However, they may then ask you to sign a contract that states that you have “not been orally promised anything that contradicts the paper contract.”

So let us remind you one more time: do not pay a hefty up-front fee for private counseling. Pay the counselor for an hour at a time. That way, if you don’t like what you are getting, you are out only the fee for one hour of counseling.

Five O’Clock Club counselors are allowed to charge only by the hour. We have this policy to protect you. What’s more, when we provide outplacement services, you are again protected. In this case, we want employers to provide as much counseling as possible for the dollars they’re spending: i.e., more real bang for the buck. So, if your employer is willing to spend, say, $3000 for outplacement, and if you earn less than $100,000 a year, you would get 8 hours of individual career counseling guaranteed (which you have up to one year to use), one year of small group counseling, two years’ membership in the Club, the set of 16 audiotapes and the set of four books. Such a package is unheard of at the traditional outplacement firms.

The best part is that you have protection for one full year: you can come back and use The Five O’Clock Club if you lose your next job or if you decide to do consulting work and then want to search for a full-time job.
 
Downsized Professionals and Managers Prefer The Five O’Clock Club

Time and again, the Five O’Clock Club is the provider of choice. In a recent downsizing of 19 professionals and managers (whose salaries range from $35,000 to $150,000), all 19 were given a choice between the Five O’Clock Club and a major outplacement organization. The Five O’Clock Cub was able to offer 8 hours of one-to-one counseling and one year of small group counseling, along with books, tapes and other materials. The major outplacement firm was offering 3- and 6-month packages depending on seniority. Fourteen out of the 19 people chose the Five O’Clock Club. 

Employees consistently choose expert career counseling over the space provided by traditional outplacement firms. So HR managers are realizing that the Five O’Clock Club is not only less expensive but more effective.

If you would like to have your HR manager added to our mailing list, just email us at HR@FiveOClockClub.com, or call us at 212-286-9332. 

And be sure to tell your friends about the most cost-effective job-search solution available.

End of this “message from our sponsors.”

 Cheers, Kate