When looking for a job, one of the best, and quickest ways to find one can be working with a temp agency. They have several clients that come to them in search of just the right candidate, your competition isn’t quite as heavy, and they vet you ahead of time, so you usually don’t need to complete individual background forms for every job they send you on.
Working with a temp agency can also be quite frustrating as they’re now the middle man between you and potential employers. Your dialogue is with them, not with the company you’re interested in, so should an issue arise or should you have a question, you can’t go right to the source. Good or bad, working with a temp agency has helped me grow in the job process by teaching some very valuable lessons. Here are a few you should keep in mind.
Company culture is more important than money
You get an offer, you hear the pay is within the range of (or more than) what you’re looking, so you accept … right? It depends. If you got bad vibes at any point in time during your visit to the company, you need to think long and hard about whether or not it’s something you can deal with 5 days a week for the vast majority of your day.
I found myself in a situation where I was super excited about a position, the pay, and the smaller office size, then quickly realized it wasn’t going to work out because it was Pettyville USA amongst the 5 of 6 other individuals in the office. Two of them actually left within my first few weeks of being there if that gives you any indication of how bad things were.
Ask ALL the questions
Working with a temp agency has taught me that a job interview isn’t just for the company, it’s for you too. I’ve always had questions at the ready to ask during a job interview but interviewing with companies through a temp agency brings on a whole new set of questions that should be asked to help you decide if that company is going to be a fit for you or not. Those questions aside, there is information you find out from the agency that you should think about framing into a question for the hiring company to gauge if you’ve been given accurate information.
I’ve been told the starting pay for a position is XX (lower than my preferred rate) and the hiring pay is XXXX (within range of my preferred pay) but when I’ve interviewed with the hiring company and asked when they saw the position going permanent, was told there were no plans for the position to go permanent at the moment. Without asking I would have been under the impression the job was going to become more than it really was, meaning my pay would increase to the amount I was actually looking for.
You HAVE to be your own advocate
I was recently offered an amazing position that came through from a temp agency. It was in a field I was excited about as I’d gotten a taste of it from a previous company I worked with and was so proud of myself when I landed the position out of many candidates who probably had far more experience and credentials than I. It was working with the government, so there was a pretty extensive background check that came along with it.
Even after doing everything right on my side, several people someone at the temp agency dropped the ball and didn’t provide me with the correct information for a vital onboarding piece. Even worse, it could have been corrected early on except I reached out many times to no avail. I wasn’t getting a response back and by the time I did, it was too late. Scratch that, someone did reach out a week from my original “hey, this is going to be an issue” email but was told to “just go with it” and if there was an issue, we’d “cross that bridge when we got to it”.
Unfortunately, that bridge didn’t exist and in the end, I lost the job before it even started because no one cared enough about me to respond to my emails in a timely manner. The information I gave at the beginning of the process was disregarded and I was told to give something else the hiring company didn’t use. When a totally different individual at the agency finally reached out, they disregarded yet again that there would be an issue and I was still told to submit the incorrect information and “we’d” crossed that bridge if we got to it but in actuality, I was left out to dry with no job and that individual was nowhere to be found.
Moral of this story: no one cares about you like you do. They have a job and while their job is to get you a job, as long as they place someone in the position, they’re still getting paid their fee. While it is their job, as the middle man, to provide you with all the information you need to know, they don’t always know and no one knows your information like you do. If you’re being told one thing by the agency but you’ve read something different on the hiring company paperwork, go with that. Always remember to advocate for yourself.
Don’t forget to shop around
As a person who is fiercely loyal, it was difficult for me at first to put my information out there for several agencies but it can only help your chances of landing a position. All agencies don’t have the same jobs. Keep that in mind for different offices of the same name as well. The same agency on one side of town will also have different jobs on the other side of town, so make sure you’re checking in with them as well.
I’ve received a position from a different office that my main office (the one I completed my paperwork with) knew nothing about.
Continue to check their website
Often times, when you reach out to an agency, they ask you what your desired pay range is, what type of jobs you’re looking for, questions that will help them funnel out positions that don’t seem to be a fit. Somethings hit their website that either fall outside of what you told them you’re looking for or it could be something that your particular agent isn’t handling. Either way, keep an out on the website for things that may be of interest to you that you can contact the agency on in order to place yourself in the running for the position.
Invest in relationships
The most important thing to keep in mind is it is not always what you know but who you know that can land you a job. The perk of being placed with various companies through a temp agency is the new relationships you can build in various industries and businesses while you’re looking for your perfect fit. Relationships can also take a temporary position to a permanent position.
In my last position, I got my foot in the door as a very parttime temporary Receptionist but ended up being hired as an IT Accounting Specialist for several years. I was job sharing with the regular Receptionist while she worked on a special project at the company. This meant I was only there 4 hours per day, 5 days a week, so not making enough to survive with two kids.
Once I realized how much I loved the company culture and the company as a whole, I spoke with Human Resources to find out if there was any way for more hours. Because of the relationships I’d built, they were able to find something. I created new relationships in that position, which lead to a permanent position within the company in a field I knew nothing about but my boss had complete faith in me I could handle.
Do you use temp agencies to get jobs, look on your own, or do a combination of both?
