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I have "worked with" (or rather, tried to find employment) through temp agencies for 5 years now, and let me tell you, in my experience, you will be offered a job through a temp agency about 1 out of every 10 times.
I have lived in 3 different cities in the past 5 years and I went to temp agencies to try to find Customer Service/Office Assistant employment. I went to agencies like : Office Team (Robert Half) Aerotek, Adecco, Randstad, Manpower, Area Temps, Kelly Services, etc. There were also smaller local agencies that I can name later if anyone is interested, but they were just as bad as the big name ones.
In my experience they would post lots of ads online saying something like "Our client, a business in (vague field), is looking for an Administrative Assistant"and they would post something like a medium to high salary range for the local area. I would submit my resume, hear from them that "My resume and experience looks great" and they would then usually say something along the lines of "We're interested in having you come in so I can talk to you more about your experience, and what you're looking for in a position"!
This should be the major red flag right here for anyone dealing with these liars. They know good and well that you applied to a specific position, so why would you want to go in and talk to them about what you're "looking for"? You APPLIED TO THEIR POSITION!! that is the position that you're looking for!
Usually if you try to set up a phone interview instead they will refuse, even if you are talking to them on the phone at the time, they will insist that you waste your time, gas, and energy going to their office to sit there for 20 minutes and tell them what they already know, I.E., discuss your resume and the obvious fact that you're looking for a job. Recently in the past 5 years, temp agencies have started to use Skype, but not all of them.
Some of the larger agencies will make you waste your time further by taking Software tests, and sometimes by filling out ALL the onboarding paperwork. Then they'll tell you something really vague like "Our client is busy this week, but they said they'll get back to us next week about setting up an interview!", or "I'll have to run this by my supervisor, who isn't here now, but I'll reach out to you soon about this position!" It's always some really fake enthusiastic response.
You will then not hear ANYTHING from them ever, ever again.
If you email or call them, they'll be busy but will email you back with another vague line like "The client's hiring manager is out of town" or maybe even "The client decided to fill the position internally, but don't worry, we have another client that we are working with and we'll get back to you about it next week"
So they'll string you along until you give up.
Why do they do this? I think they are selling the data to a 3rd party data broker. I also KNOW for a fact that these temp agencies have QUOTAS and that every single person they bring in to an interview in their office counts, so the recruiters are constantly trying to trick people into going to meet with them in their office, so they can show their supervisor how many potential candidates they have.
In my experience, it's only about 1 out of every 10 of these stupid interviews that I have went on, that has actually resulted in an ACTUAL JOB
And not all of the jobs are worthwhile, they're usually a call center type of job, or something that is below the pay range that you specified. They'll tell you "unfortunately, the client cannot go any higher than $15 per hour".
But what they're not telling you, is that the client is paying THEM $27 per hour for every hour that YOU are working, and then THEY, the temp agency, is paying you only $15.
DON"T WASTE YOUR TIME WITH TEMP AGENCIES!! The more people who boycott them, hopefully the sooner they will all just go out of business. THEY ARE ALL A SCAM!!
I wish I had not wasted so much of my time and money and energy going to interview at these scam temp agencies!!!
I have "worked with" (or rather, tried to find employment) through temp agencies for 5 years now, and let me tell you, in my experience, you will be offered a job through a temp agency about 1 out of every 10 times.
That's funny. In my early 20s, I used a handful of temp firms all the time. I always had a job. Then, a little later in my professional career, I used staffing agencies more than a couple of times. Never had a problem landing a contract, and a couple of times even converted to a regular employee. Even recently, I've talked to a few professional placement firms, and had one that couldn't match the benefits of the direct job, so they ratcheted up the salary to the point where I was strongly considering it for a few months until i could convert, but wound up accepting a different (direct) job.
Maybe, like in so many other things, this isn't a case of "all temp agencies are scams!", but maybe it's the common denominator across multiple situations that's the problem?
Unfortunately the recruiters have contact quota as a performance metrics. They will post fake jobs, bring anyone in, waste their time, steal their manager's references for sales leads, try to find out where you are applying to find out who is hiring to target for sales, and just dump you in their database.
They are generally not an efficient use of your time and often not a source for desirable jobs as their clients are often as scummy as they are.
That's funny. In my early 20s, I used a handful of temp firms all the time. I always had a job. Then, a little later in my professional career, I used staffing agencies more than a couple of times. Never had a problem landing a contract, and a couple of times even converted to a regular employee. Even recently, I've talked to a few professional placement firms, and had one that couldn't match the benefits of the direct job, so they ratcheted up the salary to the point where I was strongly considering it for a few months until i could convert, but wound up accepting a different (direct) job.
Maybe, like in so many other things, this isn't a case of "all temp agencies are scams!", but maybe it's the common denominator across multiple situations that's the problem?
That is the nature of the CD WE forum, negative curmudgeons who can't see the common denominator and people who deal in absolutes
Take all 3rd party recruiters with a LITERAL grain of salt. Most of them 90% of the time are just collecting a rolodex wasting your time.
If I spent 500 hours talking to recruiters over the past 7-8 years, I'd say about 5 of those hours were actually productive and led to a job or valuable insight.
You are just a number. If you are bored, talk to a recruiter. If you want to find a job, network and apply direct.
Now - INTERNAL recruiters at Fortune 500's are a slightly different story. But even then, be skeptical and proceed with caution.
Unfortunately the recruiters have contact quota as a performance metrics. They will post fake jobs, bring anyone in, waste their time, steal their manager's references for sales leads, try to find out where you are applying to find out who is hiring to target for sales, and just dump you in their database.
They are generally not an efficient use of your time and often not a source for desirable jobs as their clients are often as scummy as they are.
I've been debating on whether this was true. Now that I have seen someone else confirm this I am absolutely not responding to ANY recruiters that bother my LinkedIN inbox ever again.
I can't believe they are paying these guys to just contact. Is it because they are all incompetent and there would be 100% turnover within 3 months if they were held to actual successful candidates placed like in the old days????
It's how they drum up leads. They have contact quotas and in order to keep your job you have zero choice but to do it.
They post fake ads and then want to find out who your contacts are, prior managers, references, if you have interviewed anywhere etc... all while pretending they have a job for you, which they don't.
The "recruiters" at temp agencies are complete lying bottom feeders.
Let me give you an overview of my background -- I have a BA in a Liberal Arts field, and already had years of experience as an Admin, as I began working in High School and I also worked in College. I got excellent grades in college. I am good at my job and have never been fired from a job. I don't have tattoos or a criminal record. I was raised to be an honest person and that's what I am. But these temp agencies have made me extremely jaded
The first temp agency I worked with I was very lucky to have a very, very nice recruiter, an older woman who seemed to actually care about me, and she got me a temporary job that lasted for 5 months. While I was in the job, all the other employees talked trash about me and gave me their work. Another temp who worked there quit, and then the boss just gave me her work instead of hiring a new temp, so then I was doing the work of 2 people for the same pay. I didn't bother asking to stay there.
Another job I got with a temp agency -- I was in one of the most expensive cities in the country, and a recruiter told me about a job that the starting pay was $13.50, but that in a few weeks, if I did a good job, the company would hire me for about $45,000 per annum. So I accepted the job thinking that it would eventually pay better. I should have gotten that in writing. I was there for a month and a half and I asked my boss about a pay raise, and he told me he would have to check with his boss and get back to me. He then began avoiding me whenever he could, and if I asked about what his boss said, he would shine me on. I ended up being there for 4 months. Nobody EVER complained about my work performance, in fact, the other district office wanted to give me more work to do, but my boss, who was in charge of hiring me, continued to avoid me. The temp agency was no help. They talked to me once during the 1st week, and then after that, I heard nothing from them. They would just fax over a time sheet every week for my boss to sign.
One week they faxed over an invoice by mistake, and on it it showed how much the company was paying the temp agency: They were paying the temp agency $28.00 per hour, and the temp agency was paying me $13.50. For every hour that I worked. I had to leave that job to take a higher paying one. As I said, nobody complained once about my job performance, I did excellent work. I think the company must have signed a long contract with the temp agency, and that is why they wouldn't hire me full time. When I was at the company, 3 people quit because of the boss, they said he was not a good leader.
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