Newcomers to this thread may want to ask themselves, when was the last time you had a good experience with a business – any business – and came to 800notes.com to post praise? Never. How about all the people (if it's indeed more than one person) who have posted in this thread about how wonderful this business is? Have they posted in *any* other threads praising *any* other business? No.
My experience as a TOP client has been invaluable and very personally enlightening. Beyond the career campaign skills I honed, I was able to gain a better understanding of self. Through frustrations I had been harboring for far too long. The early work on creating the resume and personal focus piece, emphasizing achievements and highlights, is a work on self-introspection and helps establish a good attitude and feeling of potential. I feel that Robyn helped me conquer some of my personal demons by truly caring about me. She stepped beyond the program and entered my life as a friend and someone whose opinion, professionally and personally, I have come to value and seek.
I am so glad I found this site. I almost got scammed too. I have or now should I say have an appointment with TOP at 9:30 in the morning. Oh, also they are 50 miles away from where I live at and I was also given the big EVP wants to meet with me personally talk too. Thanks for saving me the gas money! What a load of crap. I have ran into this or should I say I was scammed into a interview like this before in my young twenties before but when you get mid 30's you question some things that seem to good to be true, hence the if it seems to good to be true then it usually is saying. Thanks again.
Just got a call from them. Turns out their Executive Vice President wants to talk with me too! I initially took the appointment and then did some research on this company (which was hard to find online!). I've already had my time wasted with two appointments from another similar company. Don't fall for this. There are legitimate outplacement firms that will do a good deal of work for you for reasonable fees, if you need this help. Otherwise, look for job seeker networking and workshop groups in your area. You will get much more from them and you won't generally have to pay a thing.
So I take it that they offered to refund your fees in exchange for this retraction. Your complicity will cause others to make the same mistake you originally made, but without the refund. You should be ashamed of yourself.
I was just contacted by Notus after a "recruiter" sent them my contact information without my permission. That is what brought me here.
I am familiar with these kinds of buzzards. I once paid $9000 to a firm called McKenzie Scott Partners who also called themselves an executive career management firm. What I got was a reworked resume, a sample cover letter, promises of a hidden job market accessible through a blind broadcast of my credentials and access to their private database of employers. Out of desperation, I bought their story. In the end, they spent a grand total of one day with me and after that I was on my own. That correlates to more than $1000/hour.
Screw me once, shame on you, screw me twice shame on me. Never again.
They have moved to Lincoln Towers and changed names to SEO. My advice is don't fall for the smooth sales pitch. I met with the COO, Larry, and he told me there are 2 kinds of employment services: headhunters and market companies. He explained that in order to change careers a marking campaign would be more beneficial because headhunters just keep you in the same career and TOP/SEO is a marketing company who can help me get around the HR departments and in front of decision makers. He also said I was worth $50k more than I was currently making, so I signed up and 9 months later I have not had a single interview and my marketing campaign is dead in the water. Their total plan involved me networking with friends, family, previous job contacts, and attending business/social networking groups or starting my own company. I send cold resumes to Presidents of companies in industries I am interested. That's it... there you go. Save your money!!! They will not use their network of clients or employment contacts to help you. They will not provide references and referrals are nonexistent.