Ooohh!With greenlight goodness no less.

Awesome mod/mins. Just farking awesome. The more light of day this story gets, the better.

i'm not going to comment, i dont want to get sued.

/too late

I didn't know about it and I didn't RTFA. So, the only thing I took away from this is

. L. Kirk & Associates


scam.

/bad move

Great article, but I wish it contained more links.

That story needs more hyperlinks.

Jebus, is it really necessary to link every frigging word in your blog?

The best approach to bullshiat is to ignore it. Fighting it just makes it more appealing as an "oppressed viewpoint", and more believable because it's apparently a worthwhile target.

heap Brilliant. Well played.

does anyone have a link to the blog he refers?

I'm not saying they are or aren't a scam. Just that their actions certainly resemble those of many companies that are known to be scams.

That is all. No libel here, no sir.

Although I'm going to be pissed if I start hearing 'Kirked' tossed around for the next decade as the new cool verb. I'm farking sick of hearing these stupid words make it into regular speech, makes me want to backhand the people who use the words.

I think the writer is trying to influence Google's search engine results...

This guy next to me is named Kirt. He isn't happy about this matter.

Isn't he putting in all the links so that it will be more likely to show up high in a Google search? Sure sounds like his sarcastic tone points to it.

Heh--I'm a Recruiter and getting a kick out of these...erm..

Anyways, about a year ago I had JL Kirk as a client, they were looking for an employee, pretty nice people to work with, easygoing, etc...But, never ever pay a Headhunter to find you a job, in this market it's not necessary, unless you are unplace-able, there is no reason to do this.

Clients are the only one who should pay for a placement.

just remember that Google is forever.

Except it isn't. Its a cache, which by definition is temporary, and in fact if it was permanent then Google would probably open themselves up to copyright infringement charges I believe. Google cache adds a few days, weeks or months to the expiry of a web page, depending on how long that particular page/site is checked for updates.

I'm confused. Sounds like a story I'd like to read, but that horrendous blog kinda saps some of the life out of it. I mean, repetition is effective when used well, but not just for the sake of it.

Jeez!

ozone: Jebus, is it really necessary to link every frigging word in your blog?


You must be new to these "blogs." My good friend Ric can help you with some pointers on how blags work.

If you just click one of the links, you'll get to the real blog and the good story. Like other posters have said, she's trying to skew Google.

*he's*

I had a similar experience with the RD Group in Toronto. The first meeting was pretty good, then the second (where I was told to bring my wife) was talking about the process. It actually sounded pretty good until the subject of money came up.

They wanted about $5,000 to help me get a job. They of course offered no guarantee, except basically guaranteeing that with their training and networking I'd get a job.

The best part was that the guy tried to indemnify himself by saying that if, after everything they did for me I wasn't able to get a job, it would be because I didn't work hard enough. Like that's going to make me stand up and yell "Oh Yeah!!! Well I'll show YOU!!"

Yeah, it was pretty scamilicious.

I haven't read the entire blog (once I found the link to it, why couldn't the original guy use more links), but I've encountered firms like this. I don't know how honest they are, but forcing people to pay up front just smells wrong.

I've dealt with agencies before, both as an employee and an employer looking for talent and I've never dealt with a place that made potential employees pay for a job up front like the people in the blog. These days, when looking for temps for short term projects (FT jobs are usually listed on our firm's site) we deal with one agency. I'm not sure how the higher ups get picked up, but I assume the company uses some exec search/head hunter firm. And for those, I can't imagine the execs paying a fee.

Oh and another thing---JL Kirk is lying when they state that a candidate's salary is lower because of recruiting fees. Working with a good Recruiter will actually get you more incentives than if you found a position on your own. Fees are not the determining factor of a candidate's starting salary. The only determining factors are the candidate and how good a negotiator the Recruiter is.

youwish: Oh and another thing---JL Kirk is lying when they state that a candidate's salary is lower because of recruiting fees. Working with a good Recruiter will actually get you more incentives than if you found a position on your own. Fees are not the determining factor of a candidate's starting salary. The only determining factors are the candidate and how good a negotiator the Recruiter is.

Recruiters do not negotiate salary and benefits, clients do. I deal with recruiters all the time and I have never heard of one negotiating for the client.

Is this one of his associates?

Vertigo32

Kirk has been a verb since the "real" Star Trek. It means to violate both the Prime Directive and the native women, as in "It was a nice planet 'til it they Kirked it"

I'd have never heard of this if they hadn't sued. Because if they hadn't sued, it'd never have been on Fark.

Heyyy, wait! Just occurred to me---isn't Kirk's middle initial 'T'?

"We were led into an office that appeared to have been the result of a decorating war between a loan officer and an eccentric grandmother. The prototypical office furniture clashed with a giant print of Raffael's Cherubs a reproduction oriental rug and a handmade mosaic table with a tilted top. The Husband and I were seated in two chairs across from the interviewer, who sat on a sofa next to a pile of throw pillows."

/at least it wasn't dogs playing poker with Velvet Elvis...

At 2:11 a matronly woman came out and announced to the other man--in front of us--that she would not be able to meet with him because he wasn't able to bring his Support Person.

Tip off of a scam right there... if they insist on your spouse (or whoever) being there, it's a jack. They actually use the other person (they hope they are weaker) against you.

It's the same for those "free weekend vacations" where you sit in a sales pitch for three hours, and all those other scams.

Sullyman-

Yes, most experienced Recruiters do negotiate salaries/benefits. I work with candidates and clients on a daily basis negotiating salaries and benefits. It's what a traditional Recruiter does. Maybe you aren't dealing with a traditional Recruiter. Most large companies like kelly, manpower, etc. hire inexperienced/green people who aren't strong salespeople or negotiators. Turnover in those types of companies is very very high.

The fact that they tried to sue and then got Farked amuses me greatly. I sometimes wonder if I had a website how much i could charge for ad space after getting farked a couple times.

Mind Blender
Heyyy, wait! Just occurred to me---isn't Kirk's middle initial 'T'?

Tiberius (or Tits)

I'm thinking one could have a LOT of fun with their Free Online Career Evaluation on their Website. (pops)

/not that I would ever do that.

Why is every third word in that article a hyperlink to the same place? Is that some google scam the guy's trying to pull off?

I agree with what youwish said.

vertigo32
Although I'm going to be pissed if I start hearing 'Kirked' tossed around for the next decade as the new cool verb.

my SO has been using "Kirked" for probably the last 15 years to mean someone who's freaking out.

as in, "when she told him it was his baby, he totally kirked out."

I know a girl that got "kirked" once, but she was a hot, green-skinned alien.

Wow, this J.L. Kirk place is like 20 minutes from my house.

Reminds me of a company my brother worked for for about a month called Titan Advertising. They advertised it as an "in" to public relations, advertising, and marketing jobs. In reality, it was being a door to door sales person trying to tell coupons (10 oil changes for X dollars, tickets to a comedy club, etc) to businesses. The sales person only got a small commission for the sale, and the "head guy" got the majority. In time, you could become your own head guy if you were able to recruit someone to work under you for a while.

Basically, it was just a huge pyramid scheme. But instead of putting money to get into it, you had to put many hours of time to "move up".

Huh. I was under the impression this is how all headhunter or placement agencies worked. And that's why I'd never trust any of them, even for a moment.

Yawn.

youwish: Yes, most experienced Recruiters do negotiate salaries/benefits. I work with candidates and clients on a daily basis negotiating salaries and benefits. It's what a traditional Recruiter does. Maybe you aren't dealing with a traditional Recruiter. Most large companies like kelly, manpower, etc. hire inexperienced/green people who aren't strong salespeople or negotiators. Turnover in those types of companies is very very high.

I do not know what a traditional recruiter is, so I must not be dealing with them. I am a hiring manager and use recruiters to get all my candidates. I have never had a recruiter even attempt to negotiate benefits with me, not that I would let them. I would never hire anyone incapable of negotiating on their own. It may be that I only hire experienced employees in a very technical field.

This probably isn't going to cause the company any long term harm. They used to be Bernard Haldane & Ass until that name stank. Now they'll just morph J.L. Kirk & Ass into P.U. Next & Ass.

But no matter how many times they transform, it still smells like Ass.

Is this Kirk guy named Joe Wang?

/f-ed company obscurity....

Cosmic Crab: They used to be Bernard Haldane & Ass

Ohhhhhhh! I was trying to think of that name. Same douches, eh?

Fark them.

If you click one of the many links you get to the good stuff. Keep scrolling down and you find a comment straight from JKL (or whatever it's name is). Pretty entertaining for a boring Thursday morning.

Jack31081: I was under the impression this is how all headhunter or placement agencies worked. And that's why I'd never trust any of them, even for a moment.

Uh, no. Most reputable headhunters are paid by the company trying to fill the position, not the candidate trying to find a job. The recruiter is then generally paid a percentage of the annual salary of the hired party.

I've worked with a lot of recruiters in my time and never have been asked to pony-up cash to get a job.

DROxINxTHExWIND

ditto.

It would seem that J. L. Kirk & Associates, or Kirk Associates, or JL Kirk, or JLK, or JLK-A, or sometimes just "Kirk" is a scam, a fraud, a rip-off, or a con.