The Creative Group

After writing this post someone from TCG wrote back and shared that someone from this office will get back to me in about 3 days. I’ll see and share with you, as of now the other folks that should have still have not. After writing a review like this I don’t think they’ll be truly helpful to me.

What a waste of time! I was excited when they called me about positions they had that I know I am more than qualified for. I went in and met with Julie who went through the prescreen with me and said she would be in touch with jobs she felt would be a good fit. Needless to say I have yet to receive an email or call and it has been a month! I have emailed about 3 positions I saw on their site and Julie responded saying she didn’t think I had SEO and SEM experience when it clearly stated so on my resume.
I received a call from a competitor recruiter the next day after my pre screen and within 3 days they had me setup for my first interview with a great position within a corp. 3 weeks later and I have received my offer letter and I will begin my new position. The Creative group is a joke when it comes to recruitment and I have already told numerous people not to use your services. There are far better recruitment groups out there who actually contact you when they say they will.
This is coming from someone who has worked in Sales, Customer service and Marketing for almost 10 years.

You should not waste your time with this company. I registered with this company two years ago and never heard back from a person proactively. It is the classic recruiting scam. You submit a resume, someone calls you to drive to downtown Charlotte for an appointment out of your time and expense (you don’t have parking validated) unnecessarily and you never hear from that person again.
The «recruiter» Amy Leeper was fixated on my newspaper experience from several jobs ago; she kept saying «We don’t usually don’t get calls from employers in the journalism field.» She continually ignored that I had not worked with a newspaper in nearly a decade and that I had more than 18 years of professional experience in mass communications (working in disciplines of journalism, design presentation, sales and marketing communications), but yet insisted I had no mass communications experience.
Leeper continually asked pre-​screened questions and questioned my experience to the point of being nearly insulting. Moreover, when I asked her questions about her background it was very clear she was very inexperienced (a look at her LinkedIn account revealed that prior to working for Robert Half she worked as a box office manager for a theater and as a production assistant for another theater — likely as college internships). I looked at the backgrounds of Leeper’s co-​workers and some of the people who claimed they were hired for full-​time jobs via The Creative Group, and they had considerably less experience than me.
I never heard anything else from Leeper personally, but yet she kept putting me in email blasts about positions that largely were filled. When I did inquire about one position in which I was interested, I jumped through so many hoops for her to submit a resume that she had on file that it was not worth the effort. I was later told that «I wasn’t the right fit» for the job (being a black male, I take that as code that «they don’t want to hire a black male»).
Don’t insult my intelligence. I am not going to apologize that you apparently can’t wrap your head around the concept there are black males in the mass communications field. I told Leeper and The Creative Group not to contact me because it is evident there are only certain people they want to help.

I have worked with Amy Leeper on a number of occasions for Marketing opportunities in the Charlotte area. While we ultimately weren’t able to find a match with a client, and I took another position, Amy and Gen are excellent in the staffing field and I highly recommend them.
I have spoken with other recruiters, have been a recruiter myself, and understand their business. Amy is excellent at maintaining consistent contact and providing me feedback, which is what many other recruiters and staffing agencies consistently fall short on.
The market is tough, and business employers/​clients do hold significant bargaining power. The market is also tough especially for younger recent graduates such as myself. It may not always work out in the end. But working with your recruiter is a mutual relationship building process and building it will maximize your chances of employment. The Creative Group will give you 100%, will always be willing to help, and build the relationship as long as you’re honest, candid, and do your best as well.

I’m so glad that I made the decision to join The Creative Group. My recruiter, Amy Leeper is a great resource! She works hard to place clients in a position that not only fits your salary expectations but your career goals.

I can’t say enough good things about my experience with The Creative Group! I owned my own small agency for 13 years, sold it, and entered back into the corporate world, only to be laid off a year later. I contacted Amy Leeper, interviewed, and she immediately began sending me leads. Some were hot, some were not, but that’s the way it goes. After reviewing my goals and broadening my search, she began to deliver some freelance and temp jobs. Finally, we found a great 6 month contract that ended up getting me a full-​time offer from the firm. If not for the help of The Creative Group, I’d still be blindly sending out resumes and responding to online job boards without success.

My experience with TCG has been positive so far. After 10 years of staying home for my family, I decided it was time to go back to work. I emailed TCG regarding a specific position I saw. Having the skills they were looking for, I started the application process which began with an online test. The process from the beginning to the end was relatively seamless.
My recruiter, Amy Leeper, always followed up with me after each step, and it was clear that her relationship with the client was solid. I was offered a contract position, and after accepting, Amy continued to check in with me throughout. Weekly emails from Amy keep me up to date on available positions as well.
Regarding the position, everything was pretty straightforward; expectations were communicated clearly. I found the information on their website regarding benefits to be somewhat confusing, but after a little research, I was all set.

Still on the hunt for a job & while I am registered with TCG in Washington, DC, I needed to complete an interview here to obtain any jobs in the area.
Here’s how the appointment went:
10:10 AM: parked my car in parking deck
10:20 AM: got to office
10:30 AM: appointment time
10:40 AM: was taken by receptionist to room to fill out/​review/​sign off on paperwork previously completed at DC office
10:48 AM: completed paperwork
10:48 AM — 11:10 AM: waited alone in meeting room
11:10 AM: recruiter arrived
11:10 AM — 11:20 AM: reviewed resume and goals
11:30 AM: back in car
I really like the recruiter, Amy. She was nice & very complimentary about my work experience. She explained the process and was confident in her ability to find me work. What I am not happy about was the wait time, especially considering they don’t validate for parking. As someone who is unemployed and looking for work, having to pay for parking is a huge problem. I ended up having to pay $ 10…which for a 10 minute interview was rather disheartening.
They do offer temp, temp to perm and permanent placement. Salary is pretty competitive for their job offerings.