Rant about temp agencys

Well, Ive registered with all temp agencies in this area I live. Some were by choice, some were stop bys when in area, others were from misleading ads in the classified section of the paper and others were from seeing my resume on the career websites.

All require lots of paper work to be filled out. Not that stressful, most makes sence, but one just bothers me deep down inside. It takes 2 hours and sometimes watching a video to get it done.

Seems that regardless of your resume, they need you to reenter it on paper or computer. One temp agency who saw my resume online, asked me to email it to them, then when I visited them, they wanted a printed copy and directed me to a computer to enter the same info into the program.

Some ads in the paper for jobs required you to apply in person. Upon googling the address, turns out they were a temp agency.

After filling out the paper work for said job, they say the position is filled, but would keep you on file for other jobs. I get quite a few spam emails a day stating the same thing, position was filled.... come to our website and fill out anyway for other positions.

What got my goat was the call I received the other day at work. I received a call from a temp agency I was just at a few days earlier. I saw the name on the screen of my phone and recognized who I was speaking to. He was talking to me about the need for customer service reps needed for company currently working at. I told him much what I told him in the interview that the company has down sized 600% and did not have a need. Upong further questioning I revealed who I was and he slowly remembered me. He had not made any progress on the lead he told me about.

I am guessing the temp agencys are more of less using job seekers as backdoor ways to find out contact in businesses, HR people, etc for businesses to cold call and sell their employment services, than actually finding folks jobs?

I know shortly after joining the big three career websites, my boss got lots of calls and visit from folks at staffing agencies to fill their needs.

I just find it difficult to accept someone with 17 years customer service experience, 2 associates degrees, 2 years engineering experisnce, etc can only find call center jobs at 8-12 bucks an hour.

I sure feel for you cobb! Been there myself. . .

The only "temp agency" that really helped me out was one in Menlo Park California. I've signed up and interviewed with a number (and I mean a lot!) of the BIG Name (and small name) Temp Agencies around here, even with the college I graduated from—and only ONE (1), the one in MP, found me a couple of jobs that paid $20.00 hourly. I believe they've been bought out since then. Did work for a time at a company formerly called Failure Analysis now Exponent Inc. and Wind River.

Now I'm a commercial painter. . .How'd that happen? :thinking:

Hope things work out for you. Hang in there!

Been there; done that. Temp work is brutal.

A temp agency rep's first priority is making contacts on the employer end. That's how they build their portfolio and get ahead in the business.

If your rep is not calling you with any good jobs, that means one of two things:

(1) They don't have much of an employer portfolio built up yet; or
(2) You don't have a proven track record with them yet.

You can't do much about the first problem, except to change agencies or reps. As for the second problem, you can take every job that comes your way that you're qualified for. Reps have plenty of warm-bodied applicants to choose from and will often stop calling someone after they reject a job or two. They tend to give the good jobs to temps who have proven reliable, because good temps create satisfied employers and repeat business.

If you hang in there and consistently apply yourself, even on "nothing" jobs, you'll eventually catch a break.

Webster223

I moved to Chicago and couldn't find a job for the life of me... competitive job market, to say the least. So I went to a temp agency, and they had me driving 2 hours out in the suburbs, all to sit in front of a computer that's half as old as I am and enter data that, to say the least, wasn't very interesting.

Then, they ended up putting me in a construction trailer for a development company, answering phones (yay), and doing administrative stuff, where I was hired on by the company. The people there found out I had a degree in photography, and said they needed photos of the site... which I took, they liked, and it went from there.

Now, 4 years later, the project is long long over, and I'm working downtown Chicago full-time as a the company's architectural photographer - I get to travel to our other locations around the country and photograph their buildings, and build up a sweet portfolio in the process... all while my company buys my equipment

I'm not trying to make you feel bad, but rather, trying to say that sometimes, things work out in a way we would never have expected them to.

john

Cobb

Sorry you haven't found a job yet!!

Hang in there and keep plugging away. I believe your best chances of getting a job are going to be by networking and increasing your interview skills. It might be a good idea for you to get a book on interviewing; it's amazing how little things can make a difference especially if there are a lot of people going for the same job. It's all about presentation and developing the relationship in the interview. People will hire the people they like the best even if the skill set is not equal. HR people will find a reason to not to hire as well as managers if you do not connect with them.

Good luck and PM me if you would like to talk about this, I think I still have your resume at home.

Well, quite honestly, I don't. If you have spent 17 years in Customer Service, then those are the skills that they will take into account, everything else, other than your employment history and your ability to get along with co-workers becomes pretty much irrelevant.

Any employment agency is going to be working for the employer since they are the people who pay their fees, they're not working for you to find you a job, but rather plug you into a hole that they can fill and collect their fee.

If you want to get a decent job in your area of interest (presuming you have qualifications) you generally have to go out and look for it. Maybe I have you mistaken with someone else, but didn't you go through some sort of rehab program? If so, didn't they talk about going out and looking for jobs verses registering with agencies?

cobb said:

I just find it difficult to accept someone with 17 years customer service experience, 2 associates degrees, 2 years engineering experisnce, etc can only find call center jobs at 8-12 bucks an hour.

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Actually Brighteyez there is nothing wrong with working with agencies if it is just part of your total game plan. I place people on a contract to hire all the time and these jobs can easley pay over a 100K a year. Many companies want to try before they buy and a contract arrangement allows for that to happen. Furthermore if a candidate wants to network into a company or a profession then working a contract job in that field will help get experience and to get to know people with in the profession or company. In a lot of cases the requirements for a contract job may be a little lower for the candidate and if you have had a lot job changes sometimes contract is the only way a company will even consider you.

And just to add something else to this thread, looking for a job can be very stressful and demoralizing without success, lets try to be supportive.

I am still working my old job as a telemarkerter with nothing other than hourly pay. I am free to come and go as I please, no vacation, etc.

I am starting, yet another dreaded call center job, part time, slightly more than I make now with all the benefits in the world. Going to try to wing both jobs since one is day, one evening and pay off other final obligations and save for the new car I want.

I was called from a resume on monster, the person remembered me from a pervious job I had interview for when this person worked for that bus.

The Sears Tire job I worked was from reading a classified ad, filling out the stuff online and going for the interview. That job was too physical, I did last 3 weeks.

I am just dissapointed in the temp agancys and the one that called me at work to sell the business customer service reps just kind of made me mad.

I think the disability industry maybe the best avenue for me, but when I was there, I was in pretty bad shape, may of burned some bridges and of course now I am able may bring more questions than answers.

I was in an electric wheelchair, blind, chronic pain. I had pain since I finished highschool ten years ago that seldom let up. I would lay in bed and unable to sleep and just get back out to start the next day.

Of course, my only answer would be STEROIDS and hard work to my solution to my health. Who would hire a guy who admits steroid use in this day and time? I can pass a drug test, done that a few times already and dont say a word about disability.

I did a bit of job hunting training in rehab, community college, university I attended. I ace the stuff where as others fail miserability. Further puzzles me. I think 3out of our class of 30 aced the mocked interview.

I visited the community college and university career centers every few weeks to see what they have available. I also get those employment guides too for hunting.

I go on a few interviews a week, one just recently for a trucking company, lead from a resume website. I may commute 10 miles a day round trip to work, but I go through 90 bucks a month in diesel for a car that gets 30mpg. I also cruse shopping strips everyday and stop in places with resumes that have signs posted for help wanted. I get to fill out some applications, I get told they are currently staffed and not looking, so I just move on.

I hate to turn this into another career thread, I was just mad that last temp agency required 3 copies of my resume, required I filled out the computer info, then called me, ME, ME, ME to see if my current employer needed a new customer service rep.

cobb said:

I hate to turn this into another career thread. . .

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Yeah, I noticed you've started several of those over the past few months.

In any case, all my friends that do not have four-year degrees seem to top out at about $8-12/hr. You could see if you could get on with Schwan's. I have a friend without a four-year degree that did that. He enjoys it and it pays quite well.

JM-99

Temp agencies suck...

Here in the netherlands, they get 2 to 3 times more than I get for the hours I work... They report my shift allowance to the tax office for the highest rate (which is over 50%) because it's too damn hard for them to do it all properly. So I get a tax refund once a year instead of a little more each month. Not to mention that they treat me like dirt...

Then there is the company where I work... everyone gets a company phone (duh, its a phone company) except for temps. Everyone gets a company discount on health insurance, except for temps. Everyone gets to take courses to improve themselves, except for temps. The temps do the same work for less money, as the temp agency takes a bigger cut than they are supposed to do. The temps are under a lot more pressure, as they are easily replaced and have zero job security...

Being a temp sucks... thank god my manager recognizes what I'm worth to his department, now if only the human resources department would cooperate and get me a decent contract...

Cobb,

I hope that you find what you're looking for one day. It will probably happen when you least expect it.

I really wish I could go back to work. I am really looking forward to that day. Looks like it will be a long time though.

Right, there is nothing wrong with working for an agency (the employee is an employee of the agency, not the client,) but the employee will not get the company benefits as they would if they were a real employee, only the salary. But people often get the wrong impression about employment agencies being there to help them find jobs. They don't realize that your principal is the customer. Any body that you stick in to fill the possession is to your benefit and to service the needs of your customer (the employer,) it's not for the the good of the job-seeker, they're just there as a resource pool for you to draw upon.

Cobb, like many others, seems to be under the impression that an agency might actually help him find a job. The reality of it is that he probably stands a better chance at getting the same job if applied directly to the employer whether it is an ad or even a cold call, rather than having an agency respond to the same ad with his resume. And the sad reality is that many employers will bounce an otherwise qualified applicant if they apply for a job opening directly (advertised or not) and then their resume also gets submitted from an agency. As such, one should never allow an agency to blindly send resumes out, nor should a job seeker ever authorize their resume to be sent out unless they know exactly where it is going.

Additionally, many job seekers are not aware that an employer has to pay an agency a substantial sum for temp employees that are converted to permanent hires, or for any direct hires; often in the neighborhood of 33-50% of the annual salary (exempt) or base pay (non-exempt). So if you apply directly to an employer or seek out a position that is not advertised, saving the employer that fee may help swing the job offer. (or in some cases it can result in a substantial signing bonus)

And many companies offer referral bonuses to their employees who refer potential candidates to fill available positions. So if the individual has employed friends, using that network can be to their benefit as well.

I will acknowledge that there are candidates that may not be of interest to prospective employer because of one or more significant gaps in employment (illness, disability, personal leave of absence, incarceration, caring for ill relative, etc.) Unfortunate and unfair as it may seem, individuals falling into that category may indeed be only be considered for menial positions, and in some cases only from an agency as a temporary employee whose status can be easily terminated.

Lebkuecher said:

Actually Brighteyez there is nothing wrong with working with agencies if it is just part of your total game plan. I place people on a contract to hire all the time and these jobs can easley pay over a 100K a year. Many companies want to try before they buy and a contract arrangement allows for that to happen. Furthermore if a candidate wants to network into a company or a profession then working a contract job in that field will help get experience and to get to know people with in the profession or company. In a lot of cases the requirements for a contract job may be a little lower for the candidate and if you have had a lot job changes sometimes contract is the only way a company will even consider you.

And just to add something else to this thread, looking for a job can be very stressful and demoralizing without success, lets try to be supportive.

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