STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

could you team up with a different agency? Is it a temp agency? I know my friend temped at goldman sachs and was making around $24/hour plus $38 overtime- perhaps you can look into a "money" kind of job, even if you don't love it- as long as you don't hate it. I think temp agencies should be able to find something that pays pretty well, at least in a metro area. AJ was told that she wouldn't be able to find what she was asking for- and she did! and now she might be promoted. so i think these people lie to you to keep you discouraged and from looking elsewhere. my recruiting internship, which i detested, said they were the best place to work, how i was so good at my job, where else am i going to find the flexibility and $$$, blah blah, just to keep me *basically* working a recruiters job and taking home a fifth of the pay since it wasn't really commission based. They really just feed you lines to keep you where you are- otherwise, they couldn't pay dirt cheap for talented labor! I'm really tempted to say you should just quit and start looking again- i don't know how much you make, but it doesn't sound worth it. could you make more money simply by selling a few more pieces of jewelry a week?

-- Edited by lynnie at 12:42, 2005-10-07

I don't trust staffing agencies AT ALL!  You are SO much better off going directly to the employment section of websites of places you want to work.  When I was on the search, I had like 20 companies' websites (mostly publishing ones, but some other industries I thought I might be interested in) saved on my computer.  Every Sunday, I would go through these websites and look for newly listed positions and apply for them.  When I started out, I was also going to Monster and CareerBuilder, and met with some staffing agencies. 

The staffing agencies reeled me in by placing ads on Monster that advertised some exciting and great paying position where the skills and experience they were looking for matched mine.  Sometimes I didn't even realize I was applying to a staffing agency until they called because they made it look like you were applying directly to the employer.  Invariably, when I met with them, they would say that position was filled, but they had some receptionist or data entry position at another company that paid like $25,000 a year.  I was like, hello?  I am at least in an entry level position in my company!  Why am I going to want to take the sort of jobs I was working in in college and high school?  They would try to convince me that that was all I was qualified for and that they were really great opportunities for growth.

First of all, I don't even think these people understood what my current (at the time) position entailed.  I was doing a lot of high level editorial functions.  I didn't even answer my boss's phone.  When I had a huge amount of copies to make, somebody at the copy center made them.  So why would a position where I would be answering phones for the whole department, making copies, and typing up letters for people be a step in the right direction?  More like a step backwards!

I think the deal with staffing agencies is they cater more to the employers.  They want to find highly talented people to fill even the most mundane positions because although a receptionist position is easy, they don't want to have to bother training someone who just has no clue.  They trick you by saying that the receptionist, data entry, file clerk, or <insert other sucky position here> is a way to get your foot in the door at the company.  Well, I don't personally know anyone who started out as a receptionist and worked their way up to a high status position.  People tend to overlook the receptionist when a new position opens.  Reason being, there are plenty of people in those entry level assistant positions who are already collaborating on projects that will help them in a higher position.  In my company (a publishing company), if an editorial position opened up, it would just make much more sense to promote an Editorial Assistant who has some editorial experience than our company receptionist who has none.  It is unfair but true.

One of the agencies I worked with was calling me every day with the type of positions that I had told her right off the bat that I was not interested in.  One day, I went to the staffing agency's website and made a list of all the positions they were listing that I would be interested in and sent it to her.  They weren't even that special of positions.  They would have been lateral moves for me.  It wasn't like I was trying to apply for managerial positions in a field I had never worked in or anything.  She never called me again.

And then there was always this disaster:  http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=44784&subForumID=111563&action=viewTopic&commentID=1833698 Ugh!  It just made me angry to relive it by reading it!

Dump the agency!  Do your own job hunting.  That way you can pick what you are interested in.  There is no way you do not have the experience they need for an entry-level PR or marketing position. 

I think agencies only work when they are for special industries.  I know people who have had great success with agencies that are for accountants, engineers, or computer programmers, but they are the type of people that have more technical and quantifiable skills.

I hope that your looking for employment other places besides through the temp services since they take a piece of your earnings.  In my state we have a WorkSource website that lists jobs and you can apply through the website.