After a recent layoff from her newspaper-industry employer on a Friday, the following Monday morning Dorian Weissman registered with several Denver-area temporary staffing agencies. She wanted to extend her possibilities and find work that may translate into full-time employment.
Kelly Services offered testing in “everything under the sun,” from computer software program skills to basic English. Weissman’s first assignment was a data conversion project for a college 4 miles from her home. A Kelly supervisor met the team on-site the first day to coordinate everything. The experience was positive.
*Fired up to join the hunt*
Other job-seekers may benefit, as she has, from several aspects of the temporary agency-to-employment process. To start, it got her motivated right out of the cubicle. You can apply online, but companies like Kelly have local offices where applicants can meet face to face.
“Arrive with a resum’ © and references,” Weissman suggested. They enable the agency representative to give you a professional assessment from someone working on your behalf.
It also is a rehearsal for the job hunt. “Dress professionally when you go to the agency, just as though you are applying for a job, because you really are,” she said. Which is true, since the agency serves as an arm of its employer/client’s human resources department.
The American Staffing Association ’¢â “ the professional center for the staffing industry ’¢â “ matches thousands of people to positions every year. Nationally, staffing is an $86-billion industry, with about 6,000 firms offering 20,000 offices. Most companies aim to offer competitive wages and many include full benefits with assignments from day laborer to chief executive officer. Today, ASA said the fastest-growing segment of the industry is in the professional and technical occupations.
*This can be a good gig*
Weissman and fellow job-seekers, as well as employers, agree there are many benefits of temporary work:
– Highest on that list is flexibility for employees, as well as employers. You have greater choice of where you work and when: Take the summer off, work after school or in the evening. An employer has the money-saving freedom to hire only for special events or busy seasons.
– Learn about a company, its personnel and environment. A company’s mission isn’t always in sync with its company environment. The employer can view your skill sets and see how well you fit into its corporate climate. Ditto for temp workers, who can test drive a company’s corporate culture, co-workers, supervisor and requirements before agreeing to sign on as a permanent employee. A temp job can become a career, and actually does, for 79 percent of temps who work full-time, according to ASA.
– Add experience to your resum’ ©. Maybe you’ve trained for a new career, or graduated from college, but don’t have first-hand experience. It’s a good way to add experience to your education.
– Temp work can be your career. Not only can you add income when you need it, some job-seekers like the variety of an always-changing work atmosphere, new faces and the often-less-stressful role of a short-timer.
– Changing careers can get a lift when you get your foot/face in the door through temp work. If the business or industry doesn’t strike your fancy, try something else.
– Entry-level-only positions? Baloney. Manpower Inc., on the Fortune 500 list of America’s largest companies, lists staffing positions in the Denver area ranging from certified nurses aide to a merchandiser for Cirque du Soleil to business analyst for Ball Aerospace in Boulder. The range is diverse and even more so when you add Manpower subsidiaries like Elan, among the world’s leading IT&T recruitment specialists and Manpower Professional, among others.
– Weissman has a healthy perspective on the challenges ahead of her and admits staffing agencies offer no job guarantees. “I don’t know if they’ll help me find a job, “ she said. “But, I absolutely know they won’t if I don’t at least give it a try.”
_Marywyn Germaine is a writer with the Denver Newspaper Agency’s_
Creative Services Department.