The Job Hunt - Temp Agencies

Aaaccckk! I’m out of work. I know now that ESP is a job requirement in most places, but little did I know I that I would need to learn how to juggle, too!

Job hunting in today’s market for the administrative side is crazy. I am a writer, and it’s necessary that I work a regular job to pay the bills and that happens to fall into the administrative assistant category. Call it what you will – executive assistant, marketing specialist, administrative assistant, proposal specialist, production assistant… when you’re sitting in a cubicle at a computer and taking direction from others, it’s an admin job.

Searching for a job is very different than it was even five to ten years ago. You don’t look in the newspaper anymore. You don’t walk into a company office to drop off your resume as you did in the past, and hope to get a phone call. You check Craig’s List, Monster, Career Builder, and other various and sundry online sources. You share your resume with friends and acquaintances at other companies, asking them to pass it along.

And you use temporary agencies; even they have changed. Loyalty to one agency was once celebrated, and the longer you were with an agency, the better the opportunities that came your way. Today, it’s important to sign up with multiple agencies and hope to get a phone call.

Lately, I’ve observed that employers are taking advantage of the tremendous pool of available administrative workers, offering anywhere from $8/hour to $10/hour for experienced assistants who were making a well-earned $40,000 to $60,000 or more a year. These are desperate times, and even with rising gas and grocery prices and everyday household expenses (rent/mortgage, telephone, internet, heat and water bills), $10/hour is better than Zero dollars an hour. Often enough, unemployment benefits pay better than a $10/hour position, especially with gas prices today. But if you’re me, unemployment benefits are a last and desperate measure. I’d rather work.

Here’s the math: $10/hour x 40 hours = $400 week before taxes or $1,200/month gross. Let’s say that rent for a one-bedroom apartment is around $750-$800/month. Gas/electric bill is $100/month, groceries $240/month, car insurance $50-$150/month; we’re already over $1,200... and we haven’t put gas in the car or paid the internet bill or a minimum credit card payment.

Next, temporary agencies are lacking in two different ways.

Agencies are not taking care of their expert-level and dependable job pool. These are the temporary workers who show up every day on time and bring in the most money. They are the experienced administrative types that companies love and that give the agency more business. Agencies need to keep this pool busy and not ignore them.

Furthermore, if an agency sees a resume without longevity at a few positions, rather than reject that applicant out of hand for short job tenure, ask the applicant the reason for the job hopping. More often than not, there are reasons that are out of the applicant’s control such as cost cutting, head counts, job elimination.

No agency should ever email or tell an experienced applicant that they don’t meet their standards. This pool of applicants is smart and has a long memory. These applicants are the employees who will hire temporary agencies in the future when they land a permanent position. If an agency treats them poorly, you can be sure they will not use that agency in the future. One of my favorite sayings is,”Karma is a mo-fo.”

Last, agencies are famous for calling an applicant in and promising them an interview in the next day or so with a company that the agency says is ready to hire, or in desperate need of someone with your skills. (This is where the juggling comes in.) Too many times I have waited for that one telephone call, wasting energy and time and turning down other opportunities because of an insincere promise. Today, the admin has to watch out for number one and take advantage of the opportunity today, not what was promised tomorrow (and not happening).

I’m sure a lot of agencies mean well, but stop promising interviews tomorrow or the day after if it isn’t reality. You are losing your applicant's trust.

If you are looking for a job, be persistent. Call the agencies you’ve signed up with every single day. Take that one-day assignment. Take that two-week assignment even if you might have an interview opportunity the next day or next week. If you are dependable, experienced and hireable, they will still interview you. If they don’t, good luck to them and move on to the next day.

Good luck.