Has anyone used a temp agency?

Most recently I temped for 3 months or so out of Vegas doing IT work with half a dozen different agencies and loved it. Most jobs were a week or less duration, longest was 2 weeks. Pay was very good, $15-30 per hour, just not steady enough. Totally worth doing when you're between steady gigs. What I was doing was usually called 'consulting' but its the same boat as temping.

The caveat is if you dont have any job skills in demand in your area, you'll get no work, simple as that. The agency will NEVER tell you that, however- some recruiters get paid per head, and all of them like keeping cattle (us) on hand. Remember that you are a commodity to them. Basically, if you go thru interviews talking about, for example, your teaching skills, and they offer you a bus driver job, they are just filling a hole and you will be dropped as soon as possible. If they try to hire you with no interview, the job- and pay- will suck.

You really need to be 100% on the ball at all times when dealing with this sort of thing- if you are not super proactive about everything the company will find somebody who is, and the work will stop coming in. Show up late and you may just find someone like me got called to replace you I found all of this out the hard way.

Oh, and don't confuse day labor with temping! Not the same at all, I learned. Day labor will most likely NOT pay well, as the people that have to take those jobs, well, they may not have the most options open to them.

I temped when I lost my job a few years back to make a little money until I found a full-time gig. I had worked in publishing and had some good degrees, so I managed to get placed in an advertising agency. They liked me so much they recommended me for a job there (but ultimately didn't get it). When that job finished I temped in the advertising department of my local newspaper. Again, they liked me so much that they offered me a job when I got hired at my current gig (turned them down).

My wife also temped before we got married, and they hired her on and kept her when we moved out of state as a contract employee. When we moved back a few years later, they hired her full time and she's now a manager there.

Temping is a good way to build experience and figure out what you want to do. If you do a good job, you could end up working for the company or using people there as a reference. And if the job sucks, you can leave when the contract is up and not look back.

Basically, if you show up on time, are reliable, have a good attitude and are generally a good employee, you'll go right to the top of the temp list for good jobs through the agency (you make them look good, too). Your typically temp does the minimum and just fails to show up one day.

Temp agencies suck.

If you think working for a regular employer can be bad, temp agencies are even worse. Promoting/Hiring the wrong people, ignoring the temps, and possibly even ignoring labor laws.

Waaaay back in college I took on a few gigs through the temp agency. They put me in an insurance company. Picked up my job quick, as did most of the others that were hired at the same time. The one guy who screwed up, well he had to be 'moved' to something that he wouldn't mess up. It put him in sight of the boss. Guess who got hired on full time.

Same insurance company, wanted to re-organize their files. Temps were all drafted to do the re-filing. The temps told the person doing it that it would be a nightmare the way it was supposed to be done. They wouldn't be able to find crap! Took a week to finish that project. 2 weeks later, it had to be undone, because noone could find anything.

Third and final thing - I was getting married about this time. I told my supervisor (at the insurance co, and at the temp agency) that I was going to get married and I needed a Friday and Monday off in a couple of weeks. I was told "Right, if you don't show up, don't come back..." I went and got married. I didn't go to work on Tuesday, my supervisor(s) had made that pretty clear. I got a phone call, Tuesday morning "Where are you?!?" I told them I listened to what they said, that I didn't come back after I got married.

At really bad places they can look at you like you are just a number, maybe even disposable. A temp agency knows that you ARE. And you will be treated as such.

Getting in the door is the hard part, but once I'm there proving myself has not been a problem.

JmZ