Beginning in 2018 (and continuing into 2025), Mike Podesto, owner of Colorado resume writing and reverse recruiting firm, Find My Profession, started writing “reviews” that troll hundreds of professional resume writers and reverse recruiting services.
I think of his style as “disinformation marketing.”
Mike Podesto
Mike sells services to job seekers via 2 websites, findmyprofession.com and resumezest.com.
He also does home repairs via HandymanParker.co.
Mike is not one of my clients or a business associate.
Mike Podesto’s “Reviews” on FindMyProfession.com
Mike has attacked and tried to divert business from hundreds of other resume writers and reverse recruiters. His tactics have included:
- False, negative descriptions and “reviews” of other resume writing and reverse recruiting services on his site, findmyprofession.com
- Using Google ads to direct people searching for competitors to his false, negative descriptions and “reviews”
- Fake 5-star reviews of his company on Trustpilot, Sitejabber, and other third-party review sites
- Fake 1-star reviews of other career services providers on third-party sites
- False claims that other career service providers don’t have public reviews when they do (particularly on LinkedIn)
- Libelous websites, posts, and accusations about other career service providers
While Podesto claims his employees or contractors write the competitor information on his site, that’s likely not true.
One of Find My Profession’s reverse recruiting competitors, My Personal Recruiter (MPR), recently shared a couple of LinkedIn Messenger interactions with one of Mike’s employees.
In the first clip, they acknowledged they didn’t write the MPR review attributed to them.
When they asked Mike Podesto and his blog manager to correct the attribution, FMP swapped in the photo and name of another writer; the employee apologized for that in the second clip. They also noted that they don’t like Find My Profession’s black hat SEO practices and find them unethical.
Seriously, why would you believe findmyprofession.com’s content if you can’t believe its author attributions and the company’s employees find its marketing practices unethical?
Responses to Mike’s Behavior
In 2019, the BBB asked Mike to prove or remove his claims from his website and other locations. They censured him when he didn’t.
As a result, he added an “advertising disclosure” on some of the “reviews” on findmyprofession.com.
However, in 2022 he removed those BBB-requested and FTC-required disclosures. He recently added a non-compliant link in very small print to some of his “reviews.”
Thus, most of his readers don’t understand his egregious conflicts of interest, and they might not understand that his “reviews” constitute ads hijacking them to his Find My Profession and ResumeZest websites to buy career services.
Beyond the BBB, as career-oriented organizations and publications became aware of his behavior, they expelled Mike and restricted his ability to post on their sites.
In addition to his public attacks, Mike makes threatening phone calls and writes emails to bully resume writers and other career services providers who object to his marketing practices into fear and silence. He has also threatened to harm their spouses’ businesses.
Federal Court Proceeding Against Mike Podesto
His behavior caused one of the subjects of Mike’s harassment to file suit against him. The federal court proceeding, Weiner v. Podesto, alleged libel, libel per se, deceptive or unfair conduct, and material misrepresentation.
During the suit, which appears to have been settled via mediation, Mike admitted to many of the allegations while under oath. His admissions included libelous activities and writing the fake 5-star and 1-star reviews noted above.
New 2024 Federal Trade Commission Regulations
As of October 22, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission has explicitly made many of Mike’s activities illegal.
It will be interesting to see if the FTC, law enforcement agencies, “reviewed” companies, or individual clients take action against him.
If you’ve been a victim of a fake review, either as a career services consumer or provider, you can report the fraud to the FTC here. It takes less than five minutes.
The 10 Best Resume Writers
With that background, let’s look at Mike’s lists.
His website, findmyprofession.com, currently contains lists of best career services provider in many cities:
Allentown, Atlanta, Austin,
Boston, Bridgeport, Buffalo,
Calgary, Charleston, Charlotte, Chicago, Colorado Springs, Columbus,
Dallas, Denver, Detroit,
Edmonton, El Paso,
Ft. Worth,
Grand Rapids,
Hartford, Houston,
Indianapolis,
Jacksonville, Kansas City,
Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Louisville,
Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Montreal,
Nashville, New Orleans, New York City,
Orlando, Ottawa,
Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Providence,
Richmond,
Sacramento, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, San Antonio,
San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Silicon Valley,
Tampa, Toronto, Tucson,
Vancouver, Ventura, Virginia Beach,
Washington, DC, and Winnipeg.
Even though he doesn’t appear to have hired any of the career services providers he lists and “reviews,” Mike has written negative, frequently wrong information about working with them.
Beyond that, he rates Colorado-based Find My Profession as the #1 company in each category and city he features.
Right (cough).
ResumeZest
He also ranks his other brand, Resume Zest, #2 on most of his resume writer “reviews.”
Find My Profession Reviews
While Mike reviews career services providers he hasn’t hired, you can find reviews of Find My Profession all over the Internet.
Since Mike admitted under oath to posting fake, positive reviews of his company, I don’t trust his Google, Sitejabber, BBB, Reddit, TrustPilot, and Yelp reviews.
One example of a review Mike didn’t write appeared on thebalancecareers.com, which used to offer a paid resume writing service review and advertising product.
The reviewer he paid summarized Find My Profession as “expensive” with a “mediocre product.”
It appears Mike wasn’t happy with that candid evaluation because it changed after The Balance posted it.
As of 2022, it seems to have disappeared from the site. I kept a screenshot of the original review.
The 10 Best Resume Writing Services in America
In addition to his “10 Best Resume Writers” posts, Mike has rated his company as the best resume writing service in all of America and several states.
You can find these or similar articles on findmyprofession.com:
- 10 Best Resume Writers in America
- 10 Best Resume Writing Services in California
- The Best Resume Writing Services in Texas
- The Best Resume Writing Services in Florida
- 10 Best Resume Writing Services in Ohio
The Best Resume Writers in India & Australia
Yes, you read that correctly. Mike ranks his company as the best resume writer in India. As the crow flies, it’s 7,700 miles from Golden to Dehli.
Moreover, he rates his company as the best resume writer in Australia. Golden to Sydney is 8,325 miles.
He also touts his company as the best resume writer in Paris [insert Gallic shrug].
The Best Executive Resume Writers
Beyond his geographic claims, Mike has written several posts naming his company the best executive resume writing service.
He also has multiple posts claiming to be the best:
- C-level resume writer
- CEO resume writer
- CXO resume writer (fill in the X)
The Best Way to Find a Resume Writer
If you want to find the best resume writer for you, I’ve written a guide that walks you through how to do it.
I describe 2 approaches, one easy and one that requires a little more effort, to find a resume writer who will meet your unique needs.
I don’t recommend specific companies or writers because I don’t have the information about you I would need to make a helpful referral.
You will benefit the most from finding the best resume writer for your facts and circumstances.
Even though it seems easy, avoid picking a name off lists of dubious credibility. If you see anything about an “advertising disclosure,” you’re looking at an ad.
The Best Career Coach
Mike also proclaimed his company the “best career coach” in several cities.
None of the people on his LinkedIn employee list have coaching certifications.
The Best Executive Search Firms
Mike has also declared his company, a B2C job search company, the best executive recruiting firm in America. They don’t do recruiting.
Will Mike Podesto’s Reviews Continue to Expand?
Will Mike continue to write “reviews” on findmyprofession.com that claim he’s the best *whatever* in the world and disparage competitors?
7 years after I first published this, that seems to be the case.
Sadly, his posts divert job seekers looking for a resume writer or other career services provider to a deceitful marketer who can’t, by admission, find a good job for himself.
That person spent less than a year recruiting junior software developers before anointing himself a career expert.
The Benefits of Being Trolled by Mike Podesto
All that said, I have found a bright side to Mike’s harassment. I’ve:
- Learned a lot about white hat (OK with Google) and black hat (not OK with Google) SEO techniques.
- Confirmed I have many friends in the careers community and made some new ones.
Good Luck? Bad Luck? Who Knows?
Being trolled turns out to be like the old farmer story, “Good luck? Bad Luck? Who knows?”
If you would like to see valid, verifiable reviews
of my executive resume writing service, written by my clients,
please click here or visit my LinkedIn profile.