Career Transition Ctr

After 20 years with one company, I had been unemployed for over a year and a half. My only regret is that I didn't take advantage of CTC's services earlier. The CTC Director noticed that my qualifications might be appropriate for one of the positions that this company was seeking to fill. Rick Davis made one phone call to convince the company HR Specialist to read my resume which resulted in a face to face interview, which resulted in an on the spot offer of employment. I was hired initially as an Informatics Project Manager and then was promoted within 15 months to Director of Administrative Operations. None of this would have happened without the guidance of the Career Transition Center executive staff and their services. more

Career Transition Center was directly responsible for me getting this opportunity. They scheduled the initial interview, subsequent interviews and were persistent in follow-up until I received the offer. I would never have been seriously considered without their guidance and tenacity. I would also like to take this time to thank the entire staff for their encouragement and support during this process. more

""The employing company put me through a very rigourous process consisting of 4 separate interviews. I aced every question asked since all were included in my preparation (the Interviewing and Negotiating Seminars and one-on-one training). Talk about walking out of the interview feeling great! My counteroffer acceptance letter, strucured by CTC, resulted in a $15,000 increase in the base, a $10,000 signing bonus and 4 weeeks paid vacation instead of 3."" more

The CTC process worked well; I found a new job in my career field within 9 weeks of becoming a CTC client, after 3 years of unemployment, searching unsuccessfully on my own. more

Here is the TL/DR version - It is a complete and utter ripoff / scam. BEWARE!! These 5 star reviews must have been written by CTC employees. Here is the real breakdown of what CTC is all about: You will be sold by Rick Davis on a super robust program ($5k+)with a large percentage chance to recoup your costs from the company you eventually land a job with. In actuality this is what you are paying for: - A resume builder. I sat down with their ""resume"" expert, and put together something that was literally torn apart by my first informational interview. I can tell you how to build a better resume than they can. - A distribution center. They will have someone fax ""and yes I did say fax"", mail, and email your resume to every company in the valley that is in the industry you are looking. - A call center. They will then have someone call these places and try to get you an ""informational interview"". This is basically just sitting down with the hiring manager and talking about your qualifications and their company. Here is the issue. First of all you can do everything CTC does yourself without them for $0 cost. Secondly, most companies in today's economy do not or will not deal with staffing agencies, let alone a tiny wanna be staffing agency such as CTC. They actually wanted me to lie to the companies they called by saying that the caller was just a friend helping me look for a job. Unbelievable! Using CTC could actually hurt your chances of securing a good job with a good company more than it could help. They are a very sketchy operation, and allowing them to negotiate any type of employment contract for you would more than likely completely turn off any potential employer. Please do not use them! I had to spend $1k to find this out for everyone else out there. You can do it yourself with just some dedication and hard work on your part with zero cost. CTC is equivalent to those fad weight loss programs that cost several thousand dollars to tell you to eat right and you will loose weight. It is a scam. more

I had a job out of state, wanted to relocate, and was only going to move if I found a better job than my current position. During my time with Career Transition Center, I received 4 offers from fortune 500 companies as a direct result of the Information Interviews set for me by CTC. In each case Rick structured all the correspondence and counter offers generating increasd benefits and compensation. Significant r relocation expenses were covered as well. Remarkable really when you consider we are in a depressed economy. more

The entire program was exceptional! I benefitted from the security of having a good job, but needed to make a change. Within 5 weeks of starting the CTC process, I was offered an uppper level management position, CTC assisted me with the negotiation process and increased my base pay significantly, as well as an increase in the monthly car allowance. more

Truly the best thing I have done for myself in a long time! The whole program was terrific and I have had such a positive experience. Career Transition Center was was directly responsible for me getting this opportunity and utlimately, a great job. They scheduled the initial interview, subsequent interviews and were persistent in follow-up until I received the offer. I would never have been seriously considered without their guidance and tenacity. I would also like to take this time to thank the entire CTC staff for their encouragement and support through the process. more

???The seminars!! I did lots of reading and studying on ???interviewing??? and ???negotiating,??? but this was nothing compared with what I learned in the CTC seminars. I used this training in preparing for the job interview. I did my pre-interview homework and went into the interview fully prepared. After the first interview, I felt very sure that I had never previously ???aced??? an interview the way I had ???aced??? that one. I am very pleased with the outcome of the win-win salary / benefit negotiations, where I used the principles taught in the seminar, including the MIN / MAX list."" K.L. - Information Technology Director (Testimonial by a CTC client) more

To express my appreciation?.Career Transition Center (CTC) was great to me. I had the pleasure of not only working for Rick Davis and his staff, but I also was given the benefit of learning their process of Career management and marketing which is helping me tremendously in my job search in California. The most impressive part of CTC is how much all of their people care about each and every client and follow through on their individual status. I have witnessed not only the celebration the staff exhibits when a client lands a job but also the concern and extra push to help clients who are struggling with finding employment. Another practice that I find amazing is CTC actually seeks out clients who they haven?t heard from in awhile to see if they have gained employment and also just to see how they are doing. This is individualized service that I have never experienced. In addition, Rick Davis, CEO is a caring, generous and honest person who has great integrity in his business and community. These attributes of Ricks carried through the business, so for me, it was important and refreshing to be somewhere where we all worked towards 1 goal of assisting our clients in ultimately finding a job. more

I thank the CTC staff for your excellent support, training and retraining. It has been a little more than a year since we met and I enlistd in Career Transition Center's services... It is the best money I have spent in years... I moved here from out of state and within the first month of moving here, my first campaign that CTC prepared for me was a success and I got a contract job offer. They set-up informational interviews... which lead to a job interview and offer. I was a contract employee for 9 months, and agreed to prove myself with performance... Last week I accepted an offer from this company to become a full fledged employee with benefits. I also thank Dr. Biekert for the TQM seminar.... I have appplied it to my job and my department is doing quite well... My results are 10 times what they were upon arrival. Thanks again, CTC... I wanted to share my and your success with you. more

Rick Davis and Jack Curran took a personal interest in my career search and put me to work learning how to search for jobs, negotiate and present myself professionally. I have spent 4 x as much with another firm and all they did was encourage you to become self employed, a huge disappointment, and waste of money. CTC delivers on what they promise, no doubt about it. more

As President/CEO of Career Transition Center, licensed by the Industrial Commission of Arizona, with an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, we value our professional reputation, and take personal attacks on our integrity seriously. Although this is not the first time we have been the victim of ""Internet Bashing"" it is unfortunate that anybody can say anything about any product, person or service which is often perceived by the readers as fact. The rapid advancement of technology, including social media, has provided a vehicle that can be a tremendous resource of enjoyment, and valuable information. Unfortunately, it also can be misused to spew slander, untruths, and facilitate bullying at many levels. No one values freedom of speech more than those of my generation, because we have lost loved ones in three major conflicts to protect that right. We have also heard phrases such as ""sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."", or ""the pen is mightier than the sword."" or a picture is worth a thousand words."" I am positive however, that the author of that inalienable right, never intended that an anonyous malcontent could go on line and besmirch the reputation of a professional organization that has dedicated the past 22 years providing exceptional services to thousands of clients. (Including a Deputy Treasurer of the largest county in Arizona, Military Officers, College Professors, former C.I. A. agent, a former FBI I.T. specialist, Doctors, Lawyers, Bankers and the King of an African nation) just to site a few, with an enviable approval rating of over 97% and an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. more

The staff at Career Transition Center, and in particular Rick Davis, the owner, are the best, most professional and positive firm of its kind. My experience with CTC was life-altering in the very best sense of the word. Rick not only re-wrote my resume and cover letters, but he also taught me how to craft my resume and cover letters to get the attention of employers and a call for an interview. In addition, his training and coaching developed interview skills and techniques that I still use. Even though it was a couple of years ago when I was at CTC, when I decided recently to look for a new job, I took what I had learned at CTC and building on the resume and cover letters written by Rick and using what I learned seminars and coaching sessions, I applied for 14 advertised jobs and ended up receiving 7 responses from employers requesting interviews. Using the techniques taught in the Interviewing seminar and in the one-on-one video taped mock interview sessions, only needed two of the interview appointments because I was offered both jobs! (The other requests for me to come interview came after I had already accepted one of the jobs.) Based on my personal experience, I can give CTC a bit, huge thumbs up. The services not only not only included providing resumes, cover letters and the staff helped set up interviews for the clients ... but more importantly, Rick and his staff taught me (and the other clients) how to do it for themselves in the future. The things that helped me the most were: the Interviewing Seminar, the Negotiating Seminar, the basic resume and cover letters written for me, the seminar on Communication techniques, which included how to modify and focus resumes and cover letters and get the attention of employers in a very positive way .... and the one-on-one interview training where the camera was put on me and Rick conducted an interview and then played back the interview so I could see myself as the employer would see me, and then gave me some tips on how I could be more effective in interviews. I can safely say that Rick and his staff at CTC not only ""fished"" for me for a ""dinner"", but more importantly, ""taught me how to fish"", which can feed me for a lifetime! Rick and his staff are the best and I can't recommend them highly enough. more

I PAID THEM $2, 500.00 AND GOT NOTHING. ""BEWARE"" you don?t want to be in my shoes. As expressed on multiple times while I was at the Career Transition Center (CTC) offices, 73% of the placements which your firm facilitate since 2009, has been utilizing the contracts, network and data base which CTC has developed over the course of 21 years, in conjunction with the ?information interview process?. CTC documents and advertises that they aggressively market clients toward worthy and desirable professional goals utilizing all the resources and ?high level contacts? at their disposal. These placements which the marketing campaigns facilitate are defined as the ?unadvertised job market? which are the result of effective networking, whose principal sources are the CTC database and personal contacts via staff credibility. My dissatisfaction with the services of CTC are: 1 .The marketing campaign has resulted in zero contacts from August 16, 2011 until the date of my complaint. 2. In the market research analysis, CTC states that a step-by-step campaign action plan is presented but that campaign has produced no results. 3. CTC advertises a ?no- obligation- no-fee? counseling evaluation, then charges $150, section #1 of contract, a Career Situation Analysis? Evaluation of key information. 4. I was told after this Evaluation stage that I was an excellent candidate for your services. That Mr. Davis and his staff would have no hesitation presenting me to your list of connections. 5. Interview and Negotiation strategies includes memorization of script and video training on how to properly preform the informational interview, which CTC schedules but I was never scheduled for one. 6. There is a $600 charge for preparation of written materials, included are key campaign letters, letters which have no net positive effect to me. CTC states as ?optional N/C under section 8 of the contract. 7. Executive Briefing a $575 charge, mentions projecting best personal image which is already charged in section#2 Market Research Analysis. Negotiating for maximum financial gain is covered also in section #5. 8. There is a $750 Professional Counsel charge for (1) phone call from a CTC Six Sigma expert. Data found while benchmarking services provided by CTC: ? CTC charges $350 for Interview and negotiation strategies, section #5 of contract, which Maricopa County Workforce Development provides these services free. ? CTC charges $200 for Marketing Research Analysis, section#2 of contract, in which assessment of marketability and income potential, interviewing strategies, personal image, and negotiating strategies. Maricopa County Workforce Development offers these services free. ? CTC charges $600 for the written materials included is resume writing, Maricopa County Workforce Development offers this service fee. I have spoken to staff at CTC about changing industry targets for a more effective informational interview campaign, expanding from originally fifteen to a send run of eighteen, and recently requesting another 15. I have diligently applied for work on my own utilizing your formatted documents to no avail. I am dissatisfied with the services and the response to my request for a remedy to my dissatisfaction. On December 13, they sent me a letter with a chronologic schedule my process and restating that they will not refund my monies.. BUYER BEWARE !!!! You don?t want to have my experience do you more

Unless you've been there, it's tough to explain the ups and downs of a job search. The good feelings you get about an interview that you feel you have aced and done well at only to receive a ""Thanks but No Thanks"". Having been in Sales and Management my entire career I was confident that I was well prepared to handle my job search on my own. After 6 months of searching the internet, checking the papers and keeping an open ear for any potential opportunitys, my self esteem was crumbling and my attitude was at rock bottom. Pros: Great people to work with, excellent seminars more

What a wonderful group of folks to work with! I can't say enough about the seminars. Specifically the Interviewing and Negotiating. I can tell you that I was asked 10 of the questions I was prepped for during one interview. I felt confident and stronger in my delivery than ever before. The assistance in building my background summary was elating, it offered the spice companies wanted to hear more about. I recommend this service to everyone, employed or searching for something new. Pros: Finally got a job Cons: Should have not waited so long to do this more

Pros: Professionalism, results, respect Cons: I didn't do it sooner more

After being a client with Career Transition Center, they delivered everything they said they would do for me and more! Rick had great training seminars that I attended, Julie set up my letter campaign, Jay called the companies and setup interviews for me in front of C-level Executives, I was completely satisfied with my agreement with Rick Davis. In hard times & 15 to 30 % of America out of work. I need all the help I could get to get in front of the right C-level Executives that could help my career achieve the goals that I was looking for! Pros: Getting the right help to search for the right position Cons: Tough-US Economy Job Market more

This service is expensive and the communication and results are poor. They sell you hard on their service when you are the most vulnerable, out of work. Information provided is out of date and un-helpful. They suggest finding jobs in the ""hidden market"", if you have a lot of time, money and patience it might work. The contacts in the office are slow to respond and return calls once they have your money. You could ""tap"" into the ""hidden market"" as well with out dumping your money to do it. Just send cover letters and resumes to companies not advertising they are hiring and hope for a call. They rarely get new job orders. The contacts they brag about having were of no use to me and netted only a few informational interviews with companies that were not hiring or in my career field. I wasted my money so you don't have to. I got more interviews on my own than from CTC. There are some good, legitamite companies out there, do your research. Executives Network is much more effective and much less money Pros: they work hard to sell their service Cons: no real contacts, no actual jobs, lots of cold calling more