Dear Paul,
Can you offer some basic suggestions on the use of multiple temp agencies? Does it make sense?
- Lynnel, Houston, TX
I recently came across this question with a younger acquaintance of mine who, after weeks of waiting, informed me that she had only applied to one temp agency within her area. The reality of it is that there are numerous temp agencies within any given locale, and contracts are not always guaranteed to all of them. Your best bet for increasing your job assignments is to get on with as many agencies as possible. No service or agency will fault you for doing this, and most of them won’t even know that you have gone to another group for employment. This isn’t dating, and you are not cheating on an agency to have several on the backburner.
Truthfully, different agencies specialize in different areas. Some are IT specific, others HR and secretarial. To find your niche, inquire as to what industries are typical for these agencies’ placements. And by no means rule out temp agencies that don’t quite match your skill set. You may find, and they may find, that there are some positions in your field that are offering on-the-job training, which can be invaluable to boosting your future skill set (and may even land you a perm hire!).
I have known individuals who have files going with ten or more temp agencies at any given time. Many of these individuals welcome the variety of multiple jobs for short periods of time, and many of them make their 40-hour-per-week personal quotas. This kind of lifestyle definitely does not suit everyone, but all it takes is one good agency, or for that matter, one good contract with any agency to land you a position that you will find ultimately satisfying for a longer period of time. Once you’ve been hired away or run through your 90-day cycle of temp employment, you can be on your way to a brighter future.