Unemployment Blues The Value of Temporary Work

Although the job market has improved over the past year, many employers are still reluctant to make a long term commitment to growing their employee rolls until it is clear that a solid economic expansion is underway. They need new staff to handle the increase in orders and customer demands but are loath to hire permanent workers who may have to be cut in a few months if business stagnates. Any reduction in force carries major headaches for a company: employee morale falls, lawsuits arise, precious time is eaten up in non-productive meetings, and severance packages cut into narrowing profit margins.

Their solution is often to rely on temporary agencies to provide needed manpower without any precipitous long term commitment. It is estimated, by a well-regarded labor research group, that fully 25% of the jobs created during the past year have been temporary positions!

How can this work to your advantage?

Working for a temporary agency has some drawbacks but also a number of positive aspects.

The primary negative is the lack of investment in your future. While the hourly wage may be similar, or even better, than a permanent employee would receive, you remain on the periphery of the company’s organization. Temps are often assigned the more routine tasks which require less intensive training. This makes it more difficult for your competence to be recognized. You are not seriously considered for promotional opportunities nor invited to advanced training or management classes.

It also has personal repercussions. You are uncertain how long you will be needed and tend to develop a strong sense of insecurity. After all, your contract could be terminated without warning through a quick telephone call to the agency. Because you want to minimize the emotional devastation of a sudden departure, you tend to avoid becoming too close to coworkers and perform your duties in something of a vacuum, one step removed from the camaraderie of the permanent work team.

All that being said, there are some pretty inviting advantages to exploring temporary assignments.

Within the framework of your long-term career goals, a temporary position nicely fills in that void on your resume caused by a lengthy period of unemployment. It demonstrates to a potential employer that you are an individual who is vested in being productive even under circumstances where your true talents are barely tapped.

Temporary agencies seldom require extensive background investigation so if there is a blip or two on your work or personal record, it will probably be overlooked. When a future permanent position presents itself, the more distant the blip, the less weight it will carry in the hiring decision.

Entering a workplace as a temp puts you in a very different framework than any mere applicant for work. You become privy to the company’s ethics and philosophy so you can better determine if this is somewhere you would be interested in for permanent work. If you find the atmosphere comfortable, you will perform well. Assuming that the company is growing, and the local economic expansion continues, you are in an excellent position to be considered for permanent retention.

Many employers see temporary workers as individuals undergoing a lengthy interview. After weeks or months of good productivity, timeliness, consistent attendance, and reliability, you no longer present the risks attached to the hiring of new employees after only an hour or two of interviewing. Many agencies will let you know in advance that this is a “Temp to Perm” assignment, meaning that if you cut the mustard, you will be offered a permanent position.

On the other hand, if you find that company goals and procedures are at odds with your personal values, you can get out before any commitment is made. Since your employer is actually the agency, you can cut and run from any assignment without it impacting your work history. You take a different position through the same agency and your resume is unflawed by your decision to make a change.

Assuming that you are working in an industry of interest, temporary work provides an invaluable opportunity for networking. Make the effort to get to know your new coworkers and it is highly likely that they either know of opportunities in similar companies or know someone who has such inside information.

Finally, there is the old saw of “Everyone wants to hire you when you’re working but no one is interested when you’re unemployed.” There is certainly a grain of truth in that rather cynical observation. No matter how bad the local economy may be, or how the effects of offshore job flight have affected your industry, there is always a little kernel of doubt in an interviewer’s mind: what did you do wrong to lose your job? Could you possibly have been fingered because you were the weak link? Was the choice of you, over someone else, related to interpersonal or disciplinary problems that made you an easy target?

When you are actively working, even if only on a temporary basis, such doubts don’t even enter an interviewer’s mind. They are more concerned about whether you will be willing to make a change – a point of speculation that bodes well for you in a potential hiring situation.

If you are offered alternative permanent work, you are sitting in the proverbial catbird’s seat. You can accept the position if you find it tempting. You can decline if you don’t think it’s a good fit, knowing that you still have your temp job to keep food on the table and allay that desperation of “I’ll take anything” that sets in after a few months out of work.

And, finally, you have the option of going back to your temp work and letting your present boss know that you have been offered a position elsewhere that you are seriously considering. If the company likes you, let them negotiate a counter-offer and then go with the best opportunity for you.

About the Author
A Licensed Psychologist and Rehabilitation Counselor, Dr. Bola developed Unemployment Blues The Value of Temporary Work

Finding Unposted Jobs

One thing you should keep in mind during your job search is that not every position will be posted publically. Not all companies list their available positions in the newspaper, job websites, or elsewhere.

Even if there are no public job offerings posted anywhere for a particular company, it never hurts to send in a resume. New positions become available all the time, especially in larger companies, so you never know when you might send in your resume at just the right moment.

I always make a list of some of the companies I most want to work for. Then I send a resume out to each of them immediately. I just send it straight to their human resources department, hoping they will have an appropriate position available. I can always apply for individual positions later if any open up.

The great thing about sending your resume in when there are no positions available is the fact that you have less competition. There will be many people applying for positions that are listed, but if you happen to send in a resume at a time when a position is available but not yet listed, you will have little to no competition.

Even better, if you happen to send your resume in when an integral employee has recently left the company, you could end up getting a job mroe easily simply because the company is desperate to replace the employee as quickly as possible.

I wouldn’t go too crazy sending in a resume every week, but once per month is probably fine. Some HR directors may not appreciate seeing resumes so often, but others will appreciate your tenacity. Think of Bud Fox in the movie Wall Street. While his tenacity didn’t pay off for a long time, once he eventually had the opportunity to meet Gordon Gekko, he was told just how much attention his tenacity had gotten him.

Don’t make yourself a pain in the butt for the company, but being persistent just might help you get your chosen position at the right time.

Using Employment Agencies

Employment agencies aren’t just for finding temporary positions. Many of them have a wide variety of permanent positions available, and even temp positions can turn into long-term employment. In fact, some companies hire almost all of their long-term employees through temp agencies, because they get a chance to try out employees without having to worry about the commitment of offering them a permanent position immediately.

If you’re having trouble finding employment through standard means, you should certainly put in applications with some of your local temp agencies. You may even be able to find employment agencies that specialize in headhunting in your chosen field. These companies would certainly be able to put you in touch with some important people!

Don’t treat interviews with employment agencies as any less important than you would if you were interviewing directly with the company you most want to work for. You never know when the interviewer at the agency might be able to put you into a position in that company, and even if they can’t now, that doesn’t mean they won’t be able to in the future.

You should put just as much effort and seriousness into an agency interview as you would any other interview. The impressions the agency interviewer gets from you may be passed on to companies who could hire you, so it’s vital to make a good impression.

Above all else, always remember that a temporary position is not always a bad thing that you should turn down. If you are offered a temp position in an excellent company, you might want to think about taking it. Not only will you get some valuable industry experience, but you could end up being hired on a permanent basis based on your performance. You would also have a better chance of being hired at that company later if they had a permanent position open up than if you had never worked there at all, so treat temp jobs just as seriously as you would a permanent position. If nothing else, you might be able to get a great industry reference from your time there!

Job Search Referrals

When you apply to a company for work and they don’t have any positions available for which you are qualified, you may be able to get them to refer you to other companies that may have positions available. When you apply for the job, if you are told there are no positions available or that the job you applied for was given to someone else, you can politely ask the individual if they know of any other companies that may have similar positions available.

Additionally, don’t overlook friends and family as potential sources of referrals. Someone you may know just might know someone who works in your chosen field. You may never know unless you ask, so if you’re having trouble finding a job, ask around. Your aunt, cousin, or old college roommate may not work in the field you do, but they may know someone who does. It never hurts to ask around.

Don’t forget about employment agencies. They don’t just hire for temporary positions! Some employment agencies may even specialize in recruiting for your chosen field, or they may specialize in finding long-term employment. So don’t overlook these companies as potential sources of jobs.

Finally, it never hurts to become friends with people in your industry. Attend trade shows and hang out where they congregate. The more people you meet and become friends with in your chosen field, the better your chances will be to find a position when you’re looking. If you have friends at most of the top companies in your field, you will always known when positions come available so you can be first in line to apply.

And you never know when one of these people will be promoted into a position where they could actually have some say in the hiring process. That guy you met who works in a mail room today might be promoted into human resources next month!