Thank you,CCL. I knew there was a reason I didn’t want to whore myself out to Kelly but couldn’t think why. That’s exactly it.
IDBB
Huh?
IOW, thank you for providing me with a plausible reason that I can retrofit to some random decision that I made by rolling dice.
I’m certainly not condeming your choice to avoid temp work–I wouldn’t do it myself–but you kinda sound like you’re just doing whatever the hell you want and backpedaling to come up with reasons for it.
Sometimes life sucks, and you have to do really unpleasant things. We all wish it weren’t that way, but what separates adults from children is what they do when it comes to the time for unpleasantries.
CCL,
Did you register with Kelly or someplace else? Your experience doesn’t sound like the same Kelly Services I used to work for (admittedly a long time ago while I was in college). If a job sucked, I could just call the office and say I wanted to be reassigned. And I had plenty of work through them. I did register with another company but only got offered one job with them, which I turned down. So I learned that there can be a big difference in job availability according to the company you register with.
Almost every place I worked during that time had at least one employee that had been hired on permanently after starting as a temp. Made me think that if office work was something I’d wanted to do as a career, temping was a good place to start. Both you and the company get a chance to see if you’d be a good fit there, which is something I sure wish I’d had a chance to do with a couple of the places I’d accepted permanent employment from later on.
Anyway, I wish both you and IDBB good luck on the job search. It’s a mess out there.
I’ve tried Kelly Services too for a job. I liked it because it’s one of the places where you can get some training with certain programs and get tested on things that you’ve never been tested on before.
I never did get any job through them, but I still thought it was a good experience. As for actual temp work, my mother managed to land a couple of jobs through hiring agencies and temp work, so it worked well for her. Hehehe
Another veteran temp here, including with Kelly. Temps are constantly bailing on assignments (in fact, I got a lot of last-minute work filling in for other temps who decided they had better things to do), so you shouldn’t be trapped by working there.
Yes, most of it is drudge work. But at least it’s drudge work that pays the bills without committing you to a long-term contract, and you can jobhunt at the same time. You do, however, need to pester the hell out of temp agencies if they’re not calling you with work; if you’re name isn’t top of their “to-call” pile, you don’t get called.
Also, sign up with more than one temp agency. If one agency doesn’t give you a call, maybe another one will.
Another reason I hesitate to call a temp agency is because I have limited driving skills.Yeah…I know. I’m 24 years old. I should have fairly decent driving skills by now but I don’t. I’ve never even driven on a highway or free way. I realize that makes a freak but add this to it…I didn’t start driving till about 3 years ago. I’m afraid if I registered with a temp agency they’d want to send me to Dallas,Plano, McKinney or Ft. Worth. CG doesn’t have the time or the schedule flexibility to drive me all over Texas for a job that’s only gonna last a day or two.
But on the good side…I am scheduled to call the mgr whom I interviewed with at Banana Republic a week ago on Tues. I also interviewed with Galyan’s and though they are dragging their feet a bit, they are supposed to have a decision as to whether or not I will be hired at Asst Dept Head in two weeks.
It’s hard to find work when all you have to your credit is a HS diploma. I know…I know…I could go back to school or I should have gone to college. I did attend 2 years at a community college but flunked out because of my maths scores.I was never big on school…not much of a scholar at all. Heck…I didn’t even know what I wanted to do with my life when I graduated back in 96 and I don’t know what I want to do with my life now. Going to school wouldn’t accomplish anything. The only thing I’m even remotely interested in would get me nowhere unless I had experience and without a job you can’t get experience. It’s a vicious cycle.sighs
Oh well…I’ll keep looking.
IDBB
I_D_B_B–what’s stopping you from improving your driving skills? With being out of work, you probably have some free time, and there’s no better time than the present to remedy your driving problem. Would your SO be willing to teach you, perhaps? Millions upon millions of people drive on highways everyday–there’s nothing particularly hard about it. It’d probably make you feel better about yourself, too–it always makes me feel good to conquer one of my fears.
Good luck.
I worked temp jobs, and I don’t drive at all. A good temp agency will work around that and only send you to work where you specify. And you can turn down any job, for whatever reason- you are not obliged to take any position you don’t want to take. You mentioned that you don’t have much experience. Temp jobs are a great way to get experience, build up a resume, and rack up the references.
This is assuming that transportation is a real concern of yours. If you just don’t want to work temp jobs, well, don’t work temp jobs and you don’t have to justify it to anyone not personally involved in your finances.
Don’t you appreciate the irony that you vented about unwanted, unsolicitated advice, and you are being pelted with unwanted, unsolicitated advice? Okay, mom mode over.
Crap, sugaree, you’re right. Sorry, I_D_B_B–I was just trying to help.
I got my current job (which is a real, permanent job), through a temp agency. Apparently, this is an extremely common situation. When I moved to Michigan, I registered with three temp agencies and called and called and called them until they sent me some work. And my persistance paid off.
And I wasn’t a whore. I resent you calling an honest days work in an office “whoring yourself out.” I made (quite a lot) more as a temp doing stupid paperwork before I got my current job than I ever did working retail, which is apparently your highest goal, I_D_B_B.
If your posts are any indication of your real life communication skills, I see a long future in dead end jobs.
Yes, a bit of delicious irony, isn’t it. Yet not completely true. If my insight is aimed true, our dear girl is reaching out, looking for advice. Or else she would not have even begun the thread. 
What I am seeing, playing armchair psychologist, is a wonderful, well spoken young lady who is merely lacking in direction. And at 24 (begin my own fatherly nagging here) needs to realize that adulthood is onset and a “life compass” needs to be set.
No, not painted in to a corner of which one cannot escape (a very real and common fear at that age), but accepting that the onus is on herself to start making decisions about what she wants to do when she grows up. (Understand, at nearly twice her age, my wife and I still ask ourselves that!)
Start asking yourself, Bad Boy Digger, what you WANT to be, I can see you are mired in what it is you DON’T want to be. The “Goth outside, Redneck inside” is a dead give away to that, trying so hard to NOT be something or someone, that you don’t allow yourself to explore what would really make you happy in life.
The motivational speakers often use a question that, while a bit hackneyed, does make a bit of sense. “What do you want written on your tombstone?” In other words, what do you want to be remembered for? Right now, it is a person who doesn’t have a job, is frustrated about mom’s nagging, disdains her redneck Texas roots, thinks Barnes screwed her, and that even getting temporary employment is somehow selling out. Not a very good epitaph!
By your age, I can assume your mom is not too far in age from me. Given that, I know that, while not perfect, she does love you, and in her own way feels she is helping by nagging. Moms do that. So do Dads. And as I have gotten older, the more I realize they were far closer to right, than to wrong. Scary, I know, but true! 
So, take the time to sit down with yourself, in a quiet room, no music even, and start writing down just what it is you want out of life. Don’t hold back, write everything, be it a redneck truck or a goth hearse! What do you want do for a living? What fields interest you? What do you want in your personal life? To be married? Single? A parent? A hermit? Keep writing, reams if necessary, to get to know thyself, the REAL I Dig Bad Boys.
Next then, review what you have written, and start to ask the questions “How do I get there?” More school? Temporary employment through Kelly? A lead in job, while not glamorous, will give you exposure and access to that dream position?
Once you have started answering those questions, it becomes infinitely easier to focus in on how to get there. Measure the little victories, find happiness in the small steps toward your ultimate goal.
None of what I offer is easy. Simple, yes, but not easy. It takes soul searching, a LOT of it, and even more self honesty. It then becomes a challenge of self motivation, and breaking through the fear barriers of territory you never thought you would be in. And with that, undescribable happiness.
Trust me on this, I have been there. After all, not so long ago, I was your age.
I thought it was your dad who finally talked you into getting off your butt killing your uncle.
IDBB, you can either continue making excuses and limiting yourself, or you can get off your ass and do what needs to be done.
My MIL, a lovely woman in most respects, just did the same thing to me. When we’d go over for Sunday dinner, she’d hand me the want ads and make suggestions on where to look for a job. I thanked her warmly, and continued the search for a job. I just got an indefinite-length temp assignment for thirteen bucks an hour. Patience pays off, it’s true, but so does getting off your ass and just doing it.
If you need to work for Kelly or any other temp service, then do it. There’s no shame in temping if they pay a living wage and you can learn to do new things, which most services will train you to do. At this point, it seems to me that you can’t afford to be all that picky about what kind of work you do.
Robin
One more bit of your mom’s advice that you’d want to be careful about: Refinancing a mortgage isn’t always a good idea.
Be careful about where you go for refinancing, how much you’d be paying in points and other fees and the actual differance in the interest rate you’d be paying.
I’ve read a lot about people who have been screwed over by Household and other reputable-sounding companies with less-than-reputable tactics.
Usually hunger, lack of electricity (no computer) and no movies work wonders on attitude… YMMV
Amen. When I was laid off from my last job (about 5 years ago). The first job I took was a temp job working for a former boss at his new company. Then, I worked for a temp agency. The assignment turned into an offer from the company for whom I was temping, and that turned into me getting three nice contracts which have spent the last 4 years following me from the original company to two other companies (these companies pulled their Anchorage offices and the prime contractors opted to go with me as their Project Manager, rather than hunt for a new sub contractor).
Last time I looked in the mirror, no “whore” was looking back.
And honey? Frankly, based on your last several threads, you don’t seem to have a very realistic grasp on your people skills. Not to be mean, because I LiKe you, and you seem sweet and friendly in SPITE of that, but still. You may want to consider introducing yourself to real life at some point.
It may not be true of you, and I apologize if I’m misreading you, but based on your posts here, you appear to have a wee bit of an “entitled, hipper than thou” problem.
IDBB, if you don’t mind a little bit more unsolicited advice, go ahead and register for temp. work and be upfront about your transportation problem – that you’d need something fairly nearby to drive to or where you can get there using public transportation in a reasonable time. And specify that you’re interested mostly in temp-to-hire or long-term temp. positions.
I can vouch for the local (Raleigh) franchise of Express Personnel – they’re terrific to work with and for, got me my current job (long term temp. at a place where all employees but senior management started as temps. and then were hired as permanent employees), and understood my capabilities and limitations very well. Since it is a franchise, I can’t speak to how any offices in your area might operate – but I figured sharing my own experience would not be amiss.
And these places generally love to get competent and reliable “associates” because that’s what their clients need. From what I’ve seen of you online, you’re quick at picking up and grasping what other people are saying – capitalize on that by being the “fast study” that everybody wants in a temp.
Good luck! 