Has anyone worked for a Temp Agency?

[Visionray]

I've resorted to going back to looking at temp agencies to find a job. I've done this once before at www.aquent.com and the experience was OK, but not the greatest. They hooked me up with Verizon where I did a little flash video work for them. Aquent kept telling me that this would be a "temp to perm" position, but in reality Verizon just needed someone to come in and finish up one of their projects because they were in crisis mode.

So basically they used me for what was needed and sent me off. That's ok I guess, but I hate the feeling of just not belonging somewhere you know? I'm not sure I want to jump from cubicle to cubicle and make $35 an hour while the temp agency bills them $80 but that's the price I pay I guess for them finding me work.

Does anyone else here work with temp agencies and if so what is your experience with them?

[japangreg]

I got my present position through Boss Staffing - been here for 5 years this Sept., so I guess it's worked out okay.

What are you looking for? Flash/tech based stuff? What type of position?

[Visionray]

I got my present position through Boss Staffing - been here for 5 years this Sept., so I guess it's worked out okay.

What are you looking for? Flash/tech based stuff? What type of position?

That's cool, I just got off the phone with someone from Boss. I'm going into an interview on Tuesday where I guess I will be taking some tests, they asked whether I wanted to do the Dreamweaver/CSS test or the Flash test. I told them Dreamweaver because I thought it might be easier. Did you have to take these tests and if so were they hard? But yeah I'm interested in finding something in web dev and/or flash or even video production. Anyways, glad to hear the experience at Boss worked out for you.

[Visionray]

one more question for you.

Since you are at this company permanently now, does Boss still take a cut of your pay? Or can you get rid of the temp agency connection if the company hires you full time?

[TallGuyLittleCar]

one more question for you.

Since you are at this company permanently now, does Boss still take a cut of your pay? Or can you get rid of the temp agency connection if the company hires you full time?

they have to pay boss a certain amount. It varies I believe as boss has relationships with many companies and to some degree works as a headhunter for those companies.

My limited experience with boss has been good.

[japangreg]

I really don't know what happens with the pay - it's not something that I ever see in terms of salary. I know from a few headhunters that some take a percentage of your salary from the employer for placing you as a one-time fee; don't know if they can actually draw on it forever.

I don't remember the tests being that hard - but I also don't do WYSIWYGs, so I think my test was more HTML/CSS based. Nothing scary - I'm sure you'll do fine.

What kind of position/company are you looking for?

[Visionray]

cool thanks for the info guys.

What kind of position/company are you looking for?

To be honest at this point I will take anything lol. Ideally I'd like to work for a small company that either needs a webmaster/web developer or a small design firm that needs flash developers. I kind of screwed myself because I worked for 5 years as the webmaster at the National Defense University and the work I did there was pretty dry, as in, the sites I developed were very boring looking since it was government and their standards for design were very low lol. My sites were more "function over form" if you know what I mean. Thus, my portfolio is kind of shoddy at the moment. Anyways thanks for the info, good to know that Boss is legit.

[creativeinsomnia]

Usually headhunters will take a flat fee if you're going for a permanent position. The norm is that they will get 20% of your hired salary and then they're done.

When you work hourly on a temp project...they usually make 50-100% of what you get paid an hour which is ridiculous. We've hired some people from temp agencies and they had this clause where if the worker works over 40 hours...we have to pay time and a half, but the worker still only gets their base hourly pay, the temp agency gets the time and a half amount.

I just found it hard working with headhunters because the people that were trying to place me just didnt fully understand what I did. I'm a flash developer and they kept giving me leads to .NET developers and even design positions that i wasnt interested in.

Anyway, if you're struggling to find a job, temp/placement agencies are usually a good option as they scour tons of places for jobs that you might not be aware of.