temp agencies

i wish more us ppl would reply though, things are not quite as peachy on this side of the pond you know.

what would the us equiv of a "cv" be?

cv = resume

The typing tests are fun! The math tests are not, if they give you those. My advice would be to sneak a calculator in your bag.

these are the ones i gleaned off the internet.

RIGHT STAFF
MANPOWER
ADECCO EMPLOYMENT SERVICES
ILLINI PLACEMENT BUREAU INC

I'm undecided about 'temp lag'. Example: job I'm in now, it's my third month. Assignment was meant to be two days. This happens all the time, and although it's better than having no work it can cut into your motivation to 'get a proper job' (if you're like me).

Worst temp job ever: one of the same friends had to sit at a school for a day and erase all the "outside the lines" pencil marks on all the standardized tests.

not to be mean, but if you're not comfortable writing a resume, you're probably better off getting another kind of job. you need to be pretty comfortable with computers, words, and following patterns that pre-date you. so the resume is a good test to see if that'll suit you.

in my experience, you can't just show up at an agency. i'd call several, set up appointments (if they'll let you, perhaps you need to send your resume before you even get an appointment), take their tests without getting too stressed about their scores.

once you're on their files, be persistent with them. i found better luck with smaller agencies that were hungry for business. ring every day or every other day asking if they've found you work. they'll find you stuff more quickly if you're on their mind (and if they want you to stop calling them)

xpost-- temp jobs can range from an afternoon to over a year. if you're there longer term, i'm with kate-- they shouldn't be paying the agency anymore, give you a raise with the money, and give you some money.

my advice would be to take the first assignment(s), and then ask if there's something that pays more. usually there is and they just wantt to "test" you as a candidate first. annoying, i know. i had long term assignments, which can be something of a drag - bear in mind that they'll treat you like an ordinary employee even though you are on a permanent probation. that means if you're there long enough they'll begin to take advantage. this is particularly true in areas with a lot of labor slack.

bear in mind that you may find yourself working for some pretty miserable companies (i.e. those that are heavy into privatizing social services in US, etc. and are under investigation for fraud) but look at it this way: when the indictments come down, your workplace will be exciting!

me personally: blacklisted from the temp agency circuit after demanding a promised pay raise in concert with several others who were promised likewise. temps really need union representation: not only will employers hire moles thru the temp agency, they'll pay everyone differently even if they're performing the same work with the same output. this isn't a shockah to many, but it makes things difficult down the road when that info inevitably leaks.

but yeah, look in the phone book under staffing agencies or something to that effect.

The only quarrel I had with temp agencies was that the work tends to be feast or famine. At the time, I was freelancing, and I wanted to have two or three days of temp work a week and spend the rest of the week doing my own writing, editing, etc.

But generally what I got was either long assignments or none at all. It was very easy to go a week with no calls, then get sent to the middle of nowhere for a month--much harder to get a steady stream of short assignments. Generally, long temp assignments have a good chance of becoming permanent, though, so if that's what you want it can be a good thing.

An upside to temping versus freelance work is that they take care of taxes and other niggling little details like that.

i don't want to be offered a permanent position or stay too long, benefits or no.

sample lines from REPORT A:
2945240857204 24-9-0248 5-24-3 000000002945294245 csifuw 3r98395 41
2945240857204 24-9-0248 5-24-3 000000002945294245 csifuw 3r98395 42
2945240857204 24-9-0248 5-24-3 000000002945294245 csifuw 3r98395 43
2945240857204 24-9-0248 5-24-3 000000002945294245 csifuw 3r98395 44
2945240857204 24-9-0248 5-24-3 000000002945294245 csifuw 3r98395 45
2945240857204 24-9-0248 5-24-3 000000002945294245 csifuw 3r98395 46
2945240857204 24-9-0248 5-24-3 000000002945294245 csifuw 3r98395 47
2945240857204 24-9-0248 5-24-3 000000002945294245 csifuw 3r98395 48

sample lines from report B:
2945240857204 24-9-0248 5-24-3 000000002945294245 csifuw 3r98395 41
2945240857204 24-9-0248 5-24-3 000000002945294245 csifuw 3r98395 42
2945240857204 24-9-0248 5-24-3 000000002945294245 csifuw 3r98395 43
2945240857204 24-9-0248 5-24-3 000000002945294245 csifuw 3r98395 44
2945240857204 24-9-0248 5-24-3 000000002945294245 csifuw 3r98395 45
2945240857204 24-9-0248 5-24-3 000000002945295245 csifuw 3r98395 46
2945240857204 24-9-0248 5-24-3 000000002945294245 csifuw 3r98395 47
2945240857204 24-9-0248 5-24-3 000000002945294245 csifuw 3r98395 48

so wait, i'm not even getting paid full wages here?? this sounds shitty, i'm thinking wal-mart stockroom again.

this appointment thing does not make me happy either. i was just gonna show up at a bunch tomorrow, now i may have to push this back again.

Reading the newspaper! Just imagine how fun it would've been had there been an internet.

WORST TEMP JOB: Coallating newspaper inserts in a hot garage with a mean fat smelly man named Michael J. Fox. I stood up for eight hours, getting papercuts, while we listened to Rush Limbaugh and Larry King. The other two hours was on soft rock. I shudder more than most whenever I hear the "Fields of Gold" song by Sting or that "In the middle of the night..." song by Billy Joel.

Oh, and I didn't have to have a resume for either of those two. Nor did I need one for the styrofoam factory, the truck wash, or the hose clamp factory.

there's loads of websites about how to write a resume. just google it and shouldn't take you more than an hour or so.

are you in chicago? or another bigger city? much easier to find temp work in big cities than in small communities...

i've had widely different experiences in re phning ahead. actually i spent the afternoon of september 11 2001 going round agencies i'd booked interviews at. it was fucked up.

However, I turned up to two temping agencies and each one was, perhaps predictably, manned by brainless but exceedingly hot ladies - one in a fetching suit/ skirt that made my tongue hang out the side of my motuh!!

That made things a bit more pleasant. Shame the conversation was slightly less enlightening than morning tea with a New Labour voter.

When I got a long-term $10/hr temp assignment right after college it seemed like the best thing ever, but after a year with no raise, vacation days, insurance, etc. I started feeling taken advantage of.

wow. there should be a book written about this, or something.

is there any chance i will work at a CALL CENTER? that has always sounded like fun to me. the ones where you take calls from crazies, i mean.

You can get unemployment in California if you're a temp and your assignment ends. But CA looks to your employment nine months previous; if you weren't employed then, you're out of luck. Oh and I don't know that anyplace in the US has to give you unemployment if you were fired (it used to be that employers didn't really put up a fuss about this but after the economic stress of the last few years, they probably do now; all of this comes back to employers who have to play for unemployment insurance).

Temp agencies will take somewhere up to a third of your wages.

This is transparent to the worker in the US at most places. Office pays agency say, $60/hr. Agency keeps 1/2, pays the other half to temp. Temp only knows what th agency pays them, and is usually not able to find out how much their agency is taking off of them, because then they'd get pissed, probably.

is there any chance i will work at a CALL CENTER? that has always sounded like fun to me. the ones where you take calls from crazies, i mean.

in the uk VERY MUCH SO!! but be warned: fun it is not.

The woman who worked at the front desk of my temp agency was really hot as well.

(This in contrast with male temps, who are generally slacker underachievers for other reasons--often artistic or musical.)

Women who are successful at more demanding careers may not be as attractive on average, but are generally smarter and have their act together, which can be more compelling.

there is a difference b/w being a TEMP and working FOR a temp agency, dumbass.

The whole idea of full time temp jobs makes me uncomfortable. I worked as a twin spindle press operator for 2 weeks that was almost entirely made up of temp labour. Eventually I asked that I be taken off that job.

No. People who work for temp agencies more likely drifted into it from the pool of general admin/human resources or having been temps themselves.

It is usually not the product of a burning ambition to give other people data entry tests.

John, what I did was call in advance then come in with my resume, do a few tests, watch a video about job safety and assure them i owned steel tow boots and I was off to work. And the more you say "yes" to jobs the more they will call.

It is usually not the product of a burning ambition to give other people data entry tests.

You know, you can pretty much change some of the words in those sentances and get the way that MOST of us drifted into whatever career it is that we have now.

Did they steal your boots and leave you by the side of the road in that job?

-- The Mad Puffin (pfnwrit...), January 18th, 2005.

It’s the same in all walks of life – especially the meedja. I know a blonde girl with humungous breasts (ambition: To be a glamour model) who got a job with Paramount and proceeded to ass about on MSN all day. Her job? Front office eye candy. The film industry especially is racked with pretty girls who have less than half a brain. I’d much rather work with an unattractive girl who makes good conversation than some attractive wench who’s interests fall short of anything other than Pop Idol and Heat magazine. Seriously.

Fair point; true enough for most white-collar office jobs, and most of the trades and the service sector.

Probably not as true of: nurses, doctors, teachers, chefs, laywers (to an extent), artists, musicians, journalists, actors, filmmakers, politicians, scientists, police, librarians, firefighters, athletes, writers, architects, graphic designers....

The sort of job that you can imagine someone saying they want to be an X when they grow up.

Yeah, but I don't see many people who have the job they dreamed of as a kid posting to ILX much, do you?

I basically decided I wanted to be a designer 12 years ago (when I was 15) and here I am!

Our biggest demand is for people with Class 1 driving licences, or fork-lift qualifications - quite often on Friday afternoons the staff end up ringing round the unplaced drivers because a client needs a driver to fill a night shunting shift, or something similar.

(being in an industrial area, most of our temps are involved in manual work - factory line workers, drivers, and so on)

"what areas do you want to work in? catering? industrial? clerical?"
"er, all three"
"all three? are you sure? parrt time or full time?"
" both"
"????"

i want any chance of any job u idiot! the job market is fucked! if you tick every box there more chance i get a job! i am flexible! my tiny mind can deal with doing a part time assignment, then a full time one!

man temp agencies are mashed up. in the uk i found r33d the most business like, took you the most seriously, and were most demanding of you, in their requirements.

one temp agnecy in watford said to me "what transport do you have?
me: "no personal, i will take the train"
"oh dear sorry that will take too long"
me: "it wont, its only 15 mins from b3rkh@st3d, faster than driving"
"no sorry, theres a 30 min cap on public transport travel. anmy applicant outised a 30 min cordon is judged to be too far away"
me: "how long does it take you to get to work?"
"er from croxley green (about 1 mile away from watfiord town centre) about 40 mins"
me: "so i live 20 miles away and it would take me 25-35 mins to get to an assignment, you live mile away and it takes you 40 mins in a car, but 30 mins on a train is longer time period than 40-50 mins in a car according to DipShit TempingFucks"
"er......sorry"

knobs
i then got a job in a credit card company that embossed Nectar cards!that showed em!

"the agency should ask you what sort of areas you want to work in what is maddening is that they cant understand people who cross the lines between their categorisations"

yeah when i called the first and only question asked of me was what kind of work i was looking for and i had no idea what to say so i just kind of went ummmmmmmmmmmmmm...whatever and she seemed fine with that but they'll probably grill me till charcoaled tomorrow. but i am def going to try for "incoming calls" work and i thank all of yas cuz this has been a huge help.

yeah, blacklisted. going to the boss to ask for a promised pay raise with a number of coworkers who were promised same resulted in a mighty fine blacklisting once i was forced out. i say forced out because i wasn't fired - my supervisors just began to ridicule my research background (i temped after being unable to find work that suited either my undergrad or grad degree) because this was a fiercely anti-intellectual firm. my temp rep was worthless - pretty though she may be, her allegiance was to the client and not the temp.

/xpost

Have you considered a day or 2 course in basic jobhunting skills? It'll help you get a good resume together, teach you how to act in an interview, how to dress to impress, work out what kind of work you're good at, as well as wanting to do.

i figure temp jobs = taking advantage of ppl in desperate situations = they won't have much choice, right?

I owe my current career trajectory to a legal temp agency. Not a bad way to go. You dont really have to do much work w/r/t looking for a job because most big firms solely rely on the agencies to screen everyone, plus its free. Its only really heinous if they never hire you full time. Alot of that goes on these days - keeping people on as temp, working them 35 hours a week or less to avoid paying benefits. Pretty common, tho.

My worst work experience of all time was working for this one placement agency that did document coding on the side. The whole time the lady in charge was assuring me that she was looking out for work for me, all the while I'd work coding class action medical documents for said lady's fucking retarded daughter. THERE WASNT EVEN WATER TO DRINK.

Beyond that, I wouldn't even entertain the idea of going suitless to an interview. Although, if everyone else did I'd be a shoe-in.

Plus I showered.

i shower but it's not really for the hygeine.

i forgot to do laundry too and there is no chance it's getting done now.

JUST LET ONE RIP DURING THE INTERVIEW MAN! GO ALL THE WAY! RIGHT IN HER FACE DO IT

i almost shaved tonight but then i didn't. i won't shave tomorrow either.

As I said, you *are* expected to make an effort. The clients might be desperate to fill their vacancies; but there's always a big supply of willing people, and most of them will be more willing to shave than you are. Our applicant database is full of notes like "unshaven" or "untidy-looking - do not use if poss". There are certain standards that you're expected to meet.

Would you hire you?

Be careful with this. It's casual everyday where I work and prospective interviewees are told this but IT'S A TRAP. If you don't come to the interview in a suit you will not be hired. Sick.

xpost (okay guys - I think it's quite obvious he doesn't really want to find work)

Another trap- a partner took us out to lunch and asked us what kind of wine we'd like. Of course drinking during office hours is forbidden so everybody declined. We were commended by the partner for following firm standards.

When did you work for EEI? I work (if you can call waiting around hoping that the phone will ring working) for them now.

Have some fucking responsibility for once. You're acting like a spoiled, dumb little kid.

ps SORRY FOR NOT BEING GREEDY ENUFF PPL

??

xpost

Crikey.

Well it's looking good anyway. :)

Yeah, John is really keeping it real.