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Question about temping agencies

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
I wonder if anybody could help me with this query.

I have been doing secretarial temping for a long time, mainly during university holidays and have recently changed agencies to one that does shorter assignment based work.

The thing is, I keep getting rung up by my agency who tell me about a really wonderful position where I'll get more money, and might be closer to where I live but then I'll never hear about it again and end up getting something not so good. I am well qualified for most secretarial work, so my question is this - when the agency is notified about a possible vacancy for its temps - do they put several people forward to the external company or do the agency choose from the temps themselves.

I know that having little choice about what you do is a pitfall of temping, but I would just like to know how the system works.

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I think it depends on the agency and the client. Some clients will allow the agency to just send someone, but some clients want to receive three or four CVs in order to make the final choice themselves.

    And sometimes agencies just bullshit to keep you on their books.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kermit wrote:

    And sometimes agencies just bullshit to keep you on their books.

    Hmmm that is what i was worried about.

    What are other's experiences?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    i agree that agencies are bullshit, they lie to you constantly about work the supposedly have advertised and when you call them up they dont seem to know whats goign on or your not talking to the right person cos they have gone out to lunch. I get the feeling that if they like you then they are more likely to do you a favour and actually get you a job.

    The guys are so cocky and the women have fat arses from sitting at their desk all day eating and showing off their new cheap designer crap that they got on their lunchbreak.

    They arnt worth the money they earn, I hate them - you really have to push them to get work from these lazy f**ckers
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    That's actually very very unfair.

    You don't have to "push" them to get work, but you do have to get off your arse and do something yourself. The bigger national agencies have that many temps you need to apply for their vacancies, though the smaller ones will offer decent and real jobs to temps they like.

    I was a bit unfair when I said "bullshit", but they put forward more people for work than necessary to make it look like they are doing work for you.

    If you only try through one temping agency then you're being silly, IMHO. It's always good to play them off against each other, it tends to concentrate the mind a bit.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The best agency I worked for was Adecco in Newcastle. There was a really lovely girl working there and she helped me a lot in starting to work full-time. She helped me to pick out things I'd done through volunteering and apply them to me having 6 months work experience already. :)

    The worst I worked for was Kelly Services. I had a position working 8:30am til 6pm at BT and it was awful. They wouldn't move me to a different job and I ended up jacking it in.

    I went back a year later to the agency to see if they had any more work available and they'd blacklisted me! Psh.

    I tend to avoid agency work. It's good if you can get it (usually higher wages than permanent AND you can generally pick and choose once you've become established which jobs you take on), it's terrible if you can't or end up in a bad job.

    I hate it when they advertise positions on their windows.. none of them *actually* exist.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
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  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I've got about 5 agencies I use when i'm at home and play off against each other regularly. I'm well known on the books though as well after 6 years of temping for them all on and off, so really I can now phone up and as soon as they know I'm looking again I go to the top of the "priority to get in a job" list.

    Was harder when I was new to the lists and I did call them up 2 or 3 times a week, so my name was remembered and they couldn't really ignore me for that long. I've had some good jobs and some bad jobs, but generally the bad ones have just been for a week or so and I've been warned before accepting them. But beggars can't be choosers when your in a small town and need to pay uni debts off as much as possible during the holidays.

    Have to say I do prefer the little local agencies rather than the national ones, just find they're friendlier and care a little more about what they do.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The best agency I worked for was Adecco in Newcastle.

    The best for me was a smaller independent agency in Newcastle called Solutions. They were really helpful, and, speaking as an admirer of nature, the staff were quite nice;)
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