ALT-3 The Pros and Cons of Temporary Employment
The temporary employment services industry is a wonderful way to find gainful full or part-time employment, acquire new skills and exercise your old ones. Unemployment has risen tremendously over the past few years, but temporary agencies are still an excellent way to increase your chances of finding a job whatever the current financial atmosphere.
Pros and cons are the same with any job, even temporary employment.
The Pros
For the avid job hunter, temping is just one way to increase your skill set and your earning potential. Many temp agencies have in-house training or on-line training to help you improve your typing, Excel, data entry and word processing skills. Talking in-depth with your employment services co-ordinator in regards to what skill set you already have and what you are looking to improve upon will help them better gear jobs towards your needs, and their clients needs. In some cases, if a potential contract allows for your basic skill set you will find opportunities to turn that basic into intermediate while on the job.
You will also have opportunities to learn brand new computer programs, such as a particular database system that you were not required to know beforehand. This is an excellent way to add to that list of computer skills on your resume. You never know if another potential contract might actually call for someone to be able to use that same database program that you just learned thereby putting you at the top of the list to be considered. This also puts you at the top of the list for returning to that same client.
Temporary employment is not just temporary anymore. Many employers use the temporary agencies as a way of finding permanent employees because they will pre-screen the candidates and only send over the ones who are most suitable. This also lessens the headache of posting the position on Craigslist and having to search through 1000's of resumes. In a way, this is better for the employee as we do not have to wonder if a potential employer ever received our resume through Craigslist. This also cuts down on the amount of spam we receive as a result of unwittingly applying for jobs that turn out to be scams.
Temporary assignments can vary in length. This gives you the opportunity to successfully plan other events in your life. You have the right to turn down assignments if the job conflicts with your school or family schedule. You can choose to be called for temp only positions and you can take a hiatus and reactivate your status without any issue. Bear in mind, you may have to retake those initial assessment tests if it has been more than 6 months.
Other pros for working as a temp is that some of your employers, depending on the length of your assignment, may offer to give you a work reference. If they do not offer, ask. Good references are vital for resumes and potential employment, even if you are applying for jobs outside of the temporary agency. You also get paid weekly which for many of us, means that we can pay our bills on time and have a little extra in our pocket at the end of each week. Sometimes the people you end up working with can be a valuable resource for other job opportunities; they might know someone who knows someone who needs a receptionist. Temping is a great way to network your skills.
The Cons
One can not always rely on temporary agencies for paying all of our bills. There are weeks that can go by without any assignments. If you are relying on temp agencies to solve the bulk of your financial woes, you will have to sign up with more than one agency. Each agency has their own skill set standards so you will need to prepare yourself for taking the same tests over and over.
The current financial market has seen hundreds, if not thousands, of people signing up with temporary agencies desperate for any kind of job. As much as you need the work, so does someone else. Which is why signing up with at least 3 or 4 agencies is recommended. It can be stressful if none of the agencies have work for you, but you must be persistent. It can be a nuisance, but call in every other day to keep your name and availability to work on their candidate radar. Assignments can come into these agencies literally at the exact time you are phoning in and if your skills match the position, you are in the right place at the right time!
The downside about temping is that often assignments can get dropped. You may have been banking on that month long assignment and then went ahead and bought that ticket to visit your family based on what you thought you were going to make. Again, having another agency to turn to for employment is a necessity.
The most important con to consider is that the financial situation of the world right now is unreliable. Temporary employment agencies suffer just the same as individuals. When contracts do not come in, the staff is not able to pay their bills either. Before you embark on temporary employment, make sure you have enough finances to cover your household expenditures in case you have to wait weeks before another assignment.
In every temp position you have the good and the bad and sometimes the nasty. That is another con of this type of employment. Some job-sites are hiring you because no one else wants to do that particular type of work or the company does not have anyone in-house to dedicate to organizing the bundles of papers lying around or steaming clothes. However, if the assignment is not a good fit for you, you do have the freedom to ask to be reassigned somewhere else.
Temporary employment has the same kinds of pros and cons of ordinary employment but this should not dissuade you from exploring the positive benefits that temporary agencies can bring. You do need to be prepared financially before you start to rely on them for changing careers or using them to fill the gap between employment opportunities.
