Anyone here work for a temp agency?

I am going to be graduating in the coming December (hopefully) so I have to think about my options for the future. One of the things that I have been considering, which has been a dream of mine in the past, was to work in NYC. I have been perusing monster.com looking for job opportunities in NYC, and although I have found a few, I have encountered a specific temp agency that seems to cater to people who are bilingual. I think it is called Euromonde, and it seems like it would be a good thing for me since I can speak Spanish and German.

My question for all the dopers out there is, what is it like to work for a temp agency? How quickly can you find work after you sign up (or whatever it is you do.) Do they normally last long? I don’t know if I’d like to stay in NYC for a very long time, but it would be nice to live there for a little while at least. I can’t really be sure if I’ll like it there, so it seems that a series of temp jobs would be ideal.

Basically I am asking the following questions:

What’s your experience with temp agencies, and how reliable are they in finding a job (of any kind) even if only temporary. I am young, so job security isn’t an issue and I am not looking to put down any kind of roots, but just to check it out for a while.

I temped for two years. Basically, the ease with which you can get work temping is based on a number of factors:

  1. your skills
  2. your pickiness
  3. the economy
  4. your persistence

The above are in no particular order. In a place like NYC I wouldn’t expect you to have much difficulty, so long as you’re not terribly choosy about what you will and won’t do. Best thing to do is to register with several different agencies, and don’t wait for them to call you.

Good info,

I am truely not picky about what kind of job it will be. My skills aren’t really anything above the typical Liberal Arts college graduate except my language abilities. The pickiness is certainly very low because it would only be a temporary situation.

When I started all I had was good typing, basic Word and really basic Excel. You can learn a lot on the job, plus any decent agency will offer training in MS Office programs. But even without those you should be able to get some work - there are plenty of filing jobs around for example.

I temped for about 3 years off and on.

If you’re going to NYC, go apply at as many as possible and you will probably have work every day. Get dressed every morning as if you’re going to work, call all your agencies, and take the first offer that day. Once you say yes, you’re already ready to hit the door.

Temping is a great way to meet lots of new people in a short amount of time: people that can later be used as references. If you have no direction, like I did when I became a temp, you may end up finding your calling. I had no idea that I was cut out for law until my temp agency kept sending me to law offices. I ended up going back to school to become a paralegal :slight_smile:

The bad side to temping is that your money might not flow the way you want it to. Some assignments can last one day. Some can last weeks or months. Some can start out being strictly temporary and all of a sudden they fall in love and want to hire you permanently. You may have a nice steady assignment that lasts a month and then boom, you have no assignments from anyone for 2 months. It totally varies. However given that you’re going to be in NYC you probably will work every day provided you’re aggressive.

Keep in mind that these agencies you work for will have thousands of people they could call to fill the position: and they pretty much don’t care who they send as long as they’ve got skills and won’t embarass the company. Call them first, while they are flipping through the Rolodex looking for someone to call.

Here’s the secret, Merkwurdigliebe: it’s really easy to be a Great Temp. Be efficient, reliable, and friendly. That’s it. Those three qualities put you head and shoulders over most of the temps out there. And once you get a reputation as a Great Temp, your agency will work hard to keep you on assignments.

Register with three or four agencies. Call them every other day to let them know that you’re still available and interested. Once you get a few steady gigs with the same agency and have proven that you’re a Great Temp, they should keep you in business pretty steadily.

Temping beats the pants off retail, IMO. The work is easier; the pay is better; and you usually have to deal with fewer annoying customers. It’s a good way to find a permanent job as well. Many companies try out temps for a few days in what’s basically a working job interview. (At least this is the case in North Carolina; I can’t speak for NYC.)

Good luck!

I agree with the posters here, temping is a great way to gain experience. Every temp job I had I picked up at least one new skill. You get to see how different companies really operate, and how they treat their employees. Sometimes you will say, “dang, I’m glad I’m only here on a temporary basis, I can’t wait to leave this place”. But on the other hand, you get to sample many different companies and if you like them, and they like you, chances are you will find a great place to work as an employee. It’s kind of like dating companies, and if things don’t work out, there’s no hard feelings in the end.

12 or so years ago, I temped on and off for 3 years in both Cincinnati and in West Chester, NY. I worked fairly steadily but the pay wasn’t great. It was great getting your foot in the door, however, and I had job offers at pretty much every place I was assigned. If you do a good job, you’ll probably have no problem landing a permanent job.

That being said, temping isn’t for everyone. There are certain personality types that do better than others. You have to be confident, you have to be friendly, and more than anything you have to be resourceful. A lot of times you are given skeletal training and it’s up to you to ask good questions and to not be afraid to speak up and say that you don’t understand something.

BTW, a lot of temp agencies provide basic computer training if you need it.

Good luck!

The others have given you very good advice. I have only had great experience with temp agencies.

I got one really great job at the film studio through a temp agency. Floated through a few departments until I found a job I liked and got it.

Another important reason to use a temp agency is that a lot of employers ONLY hire people who have worked temp. They like the fact that there is no risk…they don’t hire you until after you have proven yourself, and if they don’t like you they can fire your ass and get another temp tomorrow.

I once temped for someone who went on vacation, and by the time that person returned, the whole office had gone into the boss’s office and told him to hire me and fire that other person. He did and I got the job.

By the way, legal temps are the highest paid of all - so I would make it a point to get into at least one legal temp agency. A lot of places don’t even care if you have legal experience as long as you can type, use Word or WordPerfect and can dress well. The hard part is putting up with the lawyers.

And call in every day. At some point your agency will get you a job just so you will stop calling them every day. Seriously.

I have had lots of temp jobs in my past (I liked to travel) and many turned into regular, full-time jobs. I’ve done different kinds of temps, everything from secretarial and day-labor. Everyone here has given you pretty good advice, and I agree that being friendly and dependable is a big bonus in temping.

When I lived in London, I technically worked for a temp agency. I say “technically” because they sent me to Marks and Spencer for a job and I was there for better than a year.

For nearly 15 years I worked as a temp, besides having a semi-regular part-time job. I consider the results mixed.

The good things:

  1. Lots of free time.

  2. If I really didn’t like the job, I could call the agency and be out of there the same day. That only happened once, and it involved telephone solicitations where we were directed to tell lies to the people we called. There’s very little risk involved – however, if you turn down or quit nore than a couple of positions, they will stop offering them to you.

  3. I could sometimes pick between 3 or 4 positions.

  4. Employers don’t have great expectation for temps, so it is easy to stand out.
    The bad things:

  5. Lots of free, as in unpaid, time.

  6. You have to work a LOT for an agency before you qualify for any benefots at all, like earned leave or holiday leave (or a premium paid for working holidays). If you’re working jobs for 2 or 3 agencies, odds are you won’t accrue enough hours at any one of them.

  7. None of them offered health insurance that I could afford.

  8. Most general clerical jobs offer only a little more than minimum wage. I was very skilled in Word, WordPerfect, and Excel, and those jobs typically paid a buck or two an hour more.

  9. The jobs will be, by and large, drudge work that their regular staff doesn’t have time for. If you’re at one place for a long time – more than a couple of months – this might improve.

  10. Income can fluctuate pretty wildly from month to month.

It’s that last thing, combined with your preferred location, the insanely expensive NYC, which would be my main worry. I’d be very hesitant to move to the area with this as a plan, but if you’re already in the area, I say go for it.