Author Topic: Has anyone ever used a temp service for employment?  (Read 6159 times)

Stachetastic

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Has anyone ever used a temp service for employment?
« on: July 23, 2015, 10:25:59 AM »
My husband's unemployment stretches ever longer and the frustration is mounting. He has been working for a friends who is a contractor, so he has at least had income, but it has been sporadic due to the weather. Once winter hits, there will be no work for months.  Has anyone used a temp service to get your foot in the door? I feel like we've explored every connection we have, networked our asses off, and still nothing. It's time for a plan B.

ROY2007

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Re: Has anyone ever used a temp service for employment?
« Reply #1 on: July 23, 2015, 10:50:00 AM »
I started with a temp agency when I was fresh out of college. The contract was with Target. The job was not exactly in my field of study and didn't pay well. After 6+ months as a contractor I was hired on as a Target employee. Stayed in a similar role for 1.5 years before being able to make the move to something more in my field. It took a while but it was a way to get my foot in the door. There were about 8 other coworkers who did the same thing.

Farmgirl

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Re: Has anyone ever used a temp service for employment?
« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2015, 11:10:14 AM »
I used a temp agency three years ago to find my current job.  I live in an area where high paying bookkeeping jobs are really scarce.  If I want to drive an hour, it would be different.  Anyway, after a bunch of really bad interviews (I'm talking $12 an hour and the employer had interviewed 20 applicants), I was just about ready to sell apples on the street corner.  And then, on what I had decided was my last cattle call, I ended up in a temp to perm situation with a company that has been very fair and decent.

The advantage of using a temp agency in my opinion is that you're not one of the hundreds of resumes an employer has to look through.  You have a better chance of scoring something that will last long term.

Originally, I had hoped to get a series of short time gigs.  Go in, do my thing (accounting), and leave.  But there were not that many opportunities like that who wanted to pay decent money.
« Last Edit: July 23, 2015, 11:50:33 AM by Farmgirl »

DecD

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Re: Has anyone ever used a temp service for employment?
« Reply #3 on: July 23, 2015, 11:17:10 AM »
My husband did in Los Angeles.  Worked a job for 6 months, was about to get a fulltime offer when we moved.

A friend did with a university.  It transitioned to a fulltime job.

I did back in college, just for a summer job one summer.  It was a tedious horrible soul-sucking job but it paid better than most things I'd investigated.  It reminded me why I was in college and not going for minimum wage.

Stachetastic

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Re: Has anyone ever used a temp service for employment?
« Reply #4 on: July 23, 2015, 11:32:13 AM »
Thanks for the replies. My husband has been laid off after 14 years working for the state. He has a BS in economics but has worked in recreation therapy and administration his entire career. So a difficult transition to something new, for sure. We really don't know how to optimize his experience and education into anything else. I am hoping a temp agency could maybe help with this.

Stachetastic

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Re: Has anyone ever used a temp service for employment?
« Reply #5 on: July 23, 2015, 12:21:30 PM »
Funny you should mention UPS. He worked there in college and we've talked about it a bit. They seem to only post part time positions in our area, though. I'm wondering how log it takes to transition to a full time position.

Stachetastic

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Re: Has anyone ever used a temp service for employment?
« Reply #6 on: July 23, 2015, 01:13:59 PM »
Funny you should mention UPS. He worked there in college and we've talked about it a bit. They seem to only post part time positions in our area, though. I'm wondering how log it takes to transition to a full time position.

My father was a part time preloader for about ten years and is now nearly fully time. BUT it's a union job, so full time positions are hired internally based on a union list that's ranked by seniority. I think he may have turned down a couple FT jobs because of family circumstances before he took his current one this winter. So FT work availability is entirely dependent on your particular center. What I can tell you about my father's center won't be particularly relevant for you.

Part timers also get full bennies and qualify for a pension, so if you are reasonably mustachian, it may be okay for you to combine a PT UPS job, plus some other PT work.

Wow ten years is a long time! But good to know about the benefits. That's the biggest disappointment with all of this. My husband has been working so hard to bring in money, and we are able to get by without much worry. But he's been missing out on any benefits for over a year now.

choppingwood

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Re: Has anyone ever used a temp service for employment?
« Reply #7 on: July 23, 2015, 01:41:41 PM »
I worked for a temp agency off and on for a number of years. I was self-employed, but during down times or when I was waiting for a contract to start, it paid some mortgage payments. I wasn't working in my regular field, so it didn't lead to other things. However, as an HR Manager, I can tell you it wasn't unusual to hire someone for a long-term contract and eventually permanently who we had first hired as a temp.

It was lousy pay, but it brought in what I needed. I had to hunt around a bit to find the right agency for me, but I ended up working in some really interesting places. It also breaks the isolation of not working, when you want to be working.

AZDude

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Re: Has anyone ever used a temp service for employment?
« Reply #8 on: July 23, 2015, 04:51:43 PM »
Right out of college I worked for a temp agency. It sucked. You make like $9/hr doing menial tasks working with people who think showing up on time and staying the whole day is asking too much. After a few months I was offered a full time time job, and of course being young and stupid I turned it down because I was going to get that bigtime offer any day... About a year and a half later I finally landed another full time job making less than what was offered at a company I hated.

Basically, temp employees are so terrible that any regular person with moderate intelligence and half-decent work ethic will look great, and probably get a full time offer from someone eventually.

hyla

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Re: Has anyone ever used a temp service for employment?
« Reply #9 on: July 24, 2015, 02:56:47 PM »
I've signed up with a few in transitional periods and did not get many days of work - I think the problem was a mismatch between my work experience (outdoorsy natural resources jobs) and jobs the temp agencies were trying to fill (office business type jobs).  Conversely, a roommate who had experience working as a secretary did very well getting work through temp agencies.  When your husband is getting together a resume and signing up with temp agencies, try to ask the agencies what skills they are looking for and make sure to emphasize any relevant experience he has. 

MicroRN

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Re: Has anyone ever used a temp service for employment?
« Reply #10 on: July 24, 2015, 03:50:27 PM »
I did while I was in college.  It wasn't bad.  I made ok money, and didn't have to track down my own jobs, plus I could refuse ones I didn't have time for.  I started with a few short-term things (1-5 day office work), and as I got positive reviews from temp sites I got longer term gigs.  The final one I was in lasted 2 months, and they offered me FT at the end of it.  Pay was ok ($12/hr for work that only required a HS diploma), but god it was boring.  That job was just scanning hard-copy medical records to digital.  I'm guessing the usual employee quality was pretty low, because I got "promoted" to QC after one week there as a temp, and the FT position was as an assistant manager.   

CHOPAG

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Re: Has anyone ever used a temp service for employment?
« Reply #11 on: July 25, 2015, 11:18:53 AM »
I've done it twice, in two different large cities.

When I was in my twenties, I did catering temp work, which led to getting hired to cater and bartend weddings and other events at a country club. I actually met the older brother of a college acquaintance of mine at one of the events who would have been my contact for a job at a big consulting firm, but it happened right before I decided to move away, so I didn't pursue the opportunity. Who knows, it could be an unconventional avenue for networking for your husband.

I also did office temp work that led to working at the company where I've been for the last 13 years. I temped for seven months in an association web department at which point they created a full-time position for me. I think I was in a weaker salary negotiating position due to starting that way, but it was a good way to test out the company to see if I liked it and liked the work. I've been promoted several times, so I have a pretty good salary at this point and I never would have known about the company otherwise.

At any rate, good luck to you and your husband.

Papa bear

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Re: Has anyone ever used a temp service for employment?
« Reply #12 on: July 25, 2015, 11:54:06 AM »
I worked for a large staffing agency for 5 years in recruiting, sales, and management and now started my own in the medical field. Pm me if you have any specific questions about the industry, pay, negotiations, benefits, expectations, or anything at all.


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ShoulderThingThatGoesUp

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Re: Has anyone ever used a temp service for employment?
« Reply #13 on: July 25, 2015, 12:37:02 PM »
My wife used one during a transitional period. Some of the jobs were mind-numbingly awful, but she got a full month that was pretty good. She ended up with a FT position that was pretty good off of Craigslist, oddly enough.

shadowmoss

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Re: Has anyone ever used a temp service for employment?
« Reply #14 on: July 26, 2015, 04:57:20 AM »
I work in IT, and I used several temp agencies over several years in between full time jobs.  In fact, one place has started sending me requests to do one-day jobs again, and I haven't lived in that city for 7 years, or worked for them for over 10 years.  For me it was a way to keep networking and not sitting home getting depressed, even if the jobs offered at times didn't pay much more than unemployment insurance would have paid me. I got my current full time job by tracking down the head hunter I worked with a couple of times when I came back from Honduras and was starting from scratch again.  He was with this company now filling their fulltime slots, and set me up with the interview.  Good way to network, especially for a technical field.

math-ya

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Re: Has anyone ever used a temp service for employment?
« Reply #15 on: July 26, 2015, 05:17:16 AM »
I used to work for a consulting firm that also has one of the biggest staffing agencies in the country. When I wasn't out on a job- I sat in the office, and I would hear the recruiters talking and giving tons of interviews to potential temps to farm out. I was horrified to learn the criteria of how they judged these people. In this order- this is how they qualified candidates. 1 looks 2 personality 3 ability to do the job.  So most of the time an interview would end and the recruiters would all talk about a person- and the number one thing of topic is always looks. They were mean too- making fun of most people. I heard soany hilarious insults. This was standard company practice too!
Make sure you look good on your interview.