Looking for the inside scoop from recruiters at temp agencies (job, company)

[Dadschum]

This post inquiries about staffing or temp agencies(Randstad, Robert Half, Office Team, Accountemps etc.) not headhunters orrecruiters or retained searches.

Over time I have worked with a number of these staffing agencies. I do use a multi-prongedapproach to finding a job but I am interested in inside stories or scoops frompeople that work for these agencies. Specifically, the recruiters themselves, their training, and their approach to the job or anything else you can share. I am not interested in becoming a recruiter; I am just someone who usesthis approach as one of them to finding a job.

My observations thus far:

• Most recruiters are quite young – usually mid-twenties or so with very little work history themselves. (I always check them on LinkedIn as soon as I make contact with someone.)
• What attracts young people to these jobs?
• ]Turnover is extremely high. I might be dealing with someone for a few months, and a few months later when I call again (perhaps after an assignment has ended) he/she is gone and I have to start over again.
• I realize I am not the client; the client company is their client. I am just a body they are looking to fill a role.
• I have learned that I have to be extremely specific about what I want and don’t want in terms of type of role, hourly rate, geographic preference etc. Yet they still often need reminders when they suggest something outside of my parameters.
• Often they will suggest a role via email but only provide half the information.]I know they often can’t tell me the name of the client company but it would be nice if I got the location, hours, pay, job description etc. all in one fell swoop.
• Once they submit you for a role, you may never hear back from them.]And it often takes multiple calls and emails to get any feedback or at least an answer that the client company passed me over, or often, the reason given is the client company pulled the job or “went in another direction”.
• Are they trained to not call you back or to be rude and ignore you?

So –for those of you who have actually worked as a recruiterat these places, what is your training, what do they tell you to be successful? Really curious so that I candeal with them better.