Never in a million years did a client think that the service he hired would have such an unusual effect on a plumb job prospect he desired.
For over three decades, my firm has successfully coached clients back to work.
While working with the general public, complete with all garden-variety personality types, we’ve seen emotions run high but none as high as Mark (not his real name).
He was attempting to relocate to my metropolitan area, an area in which I have been highly visible since the 1970’s.
I prepared his presentation material and he and “Mrs. Mark,” an integral decision-maker regarding his every move, were extremely pleased with what we produced.
So into the insurance community he went.
At his level, the market was so tight that when he didn’t get his dream interview within 30 days he blamed the messenger to the point of becoming abusive. It took nothing more than an immature, entitled candidate believing that the world owed him to convince me that I no longer wanted to be associated with him or Mrs. Mark in any capacity.
To me, no fee is worth abuse, so, at my initiation, I refunded their money and indicated my service was to go on record as my gift to them. They were immediately apologetic and a bit in shock that anyone would sever a relationship with them. I felt led to spend my energies with more appreciative jobseekers and refused to reverse the relationship.
Within 90 more days, a previous client, now a hiring manager for an industry leader called for a reference on Mark. He had received his resume and recognized our firm’s involvement in the preparation.
To whom was I obligated?
Where did my loyalties lie?
To this day, I believe I made the correct decision and while I guess we have had a lesson on, “what goes around comes around,” not only do I encourage practitioners not to allow abuse, but I also encourage respect and good faith toward those experts in whom you choose to contract.
Reputation is everything.
Janice Worthington, MA, CPRW, JCTC, CEIP
Executive Director
Worthington Career Services
6636 Belleshire Street
Columbus, OH 43229
[email protected]
www.worthingtonresumes.com
(877) 9Resume/(614) 890-1645
Alleviating Project Challenges & Those Problem Clients
Navigating through tricky situations can be very unpleasant, especially if you’re dealing with a specific issue for the first time.
What I thought would be fun was to ask several colleagues about what their experiences have been since opening shop. So, I set out to encapsulate a series of simple questions to provide me with what I felt was needed for the book, yet offer flexibility for the contributor to share their individual situations.
