You will be asked when you can start work. Some services will send you to a temp job the very day you sign up with them. You will be asked what hours you can work. For example, do you want to work days, evenings, weekends, every day, half days, or a few days a week? You can expect to be given a choice of the length of time you want to work. Do you want to go to the same job for five days in a row, six weeks in a row, or for several months or even years? Or, do you like variety and want to change jobs every few days?
The world of professional technical temping is both similar to and different from traditional office temping. You will make more because of your skills, and your job assignments may be longer. There could be some days when you are called in the morning and asked to go to work that day. Or, you may be given a week's notice of when you will start work. The point is, you need to share with the staffing service what your preferences are. If you want to work every day, tell the service that.
Many people work temp because of the flexibility of work. That means you are choosing a lifestyle outside of the traditional nine-to-five world. Many professional technical temps would rather work a 60-hour week one week, then have the next two weeks off. You are the only person who knows what works best for you. You must make sure you are communicating effectively with the service you work with to make sure you are offered jobs that fit with your lifestyle and budget.
Find Out What Temp Jobs Are Available
As your application is reviewed, the interviewer may share information about the businesses where the staffing service places temps. They may ask you if you want to work in a healthcare company, a hospital, a bank, the entertainment industry, a big corporation, or a small business.
Do you know the type of environment you want to work in? The wonderful thing about temping is it allows you flexibility. Even if you left a conservative, regimented environment, you may be looking at temping as a way to get back into that type of work structure. You could also be looking for temp work to get into a different type of environment.
Marion was a paralegal who worked for a big law firm where there were more than 200 lawyers. She spent 10 years working for two contract lawyers in the firm. That firm lost four of their biggest clients one year, and the firm decided to restructure; Marion lost her job. She used her severance package to pay off her credit card bills, and decided she would go through a staffing service to find her next job. When the service asked her what type of job she wanted, she said she wanted to work in a law firm that was less structured than her previous employer.
The service sent Marion to a job that started the next week. It was an indefinite job assignment, which meant the service did not know how long the job would last. The law firm had two defense attorneys who had accepted a heavily publicized criminal law case, and they needed a great deal of criminal investigative research done and done quickly. Marion was able to use her research skills, and she found she enjoyed the pace of criminal work more than corporate contracts. She went on to a permanent job at another law firm as a result of the excellent references she received from the two defense attorneys for whom she temped.
The More You Call the Staffing Service, the More You Will Work!
Find out which individual in the staffing service you need to call to be placed in the jobs you want. Take that person's business card with you. Some services will tell you to call every day that you are available to work unless the service already has you on the job.
The more often you call and communicate with the service, the more you will work and the more money you will make. You cannot call a service too often. Remember, the service probably has hundreds of other people who temp for them. The person who calls the service the most will be on the service's mind the most and will be called back the most for jobs. If you do not call the service, the service will forget about you and may call someone else first for work.
If you do not stay in contact with a service, your file will be deleted or your resume shredded after a period of time. If you have a skill that is in demand and you tell a service you will be available in three days, weeks, or months, the service will note that in your file, usually in a computer, and call you back around the time you said you would be available for work. That is because the service knows it can make money from your skills and wants you to go to work for it instead of another service.
Bob applied for work with Service ABC on a Monday morning. He told the staffing service he needed to start work that week. Karen, the person who interviewed Bob, told him she would be the person from the service who would place him on temp jobs.
Karen and Bob reviewed his background and qualifications as an accountant, and Karen administered some computer tests for Bob to see what jobs would be best for him. He did very well, so Karen said she would look for a position that would use his skills and that was in his pay range.
Karen told Bob she placed a lot of accountants on temp jobs every week in the city. Bob had chosen this particular staffing service because the service had a good reputation and a lot of good clients. Karen also told Bob that she called the people first for temp jobs who called her and told her they wanted to work. Karen said the more often Bob called her, the more he would work. Karen closed the interview by saying that at the moment she had her positions filled for that week, but Bob could call her that afternoon or the next morning if he was still available to work temp.
Bob called Karen late Monday afternoon, and she offered him a job that used his accounting background, started the next day, and would last for two weeks. Bob got the job because he was persistent. As long as he worked for that service, Karen gave him good jobs because he continued to call her frequently.
Your Pay check, Know How to Get It!
Find out what you have to do to get paid. Most services will give you a time slip or time card to use as a form of documentation of your hours or project work.
The service should explain to you how to complete the record of work. Many time cards have a place for your name and your Social Security number and list the days of the week. You will be responsible for filling in the blank spaces. You might need to fill in the dates as well as the hours you work each day of the week. Most businesses where you temp will keep a copy of the time card you complete while working at that business. The service should tell you who from the business where you are working will sign your time card, but if not, you need to find out from the place where you are working who is to verify your hours. This is important; if you do not get this handled right at the start of your assignment, it could delay your getting paid in a timely manner.
The service should tell you how to process your time slip, and how often you will be paid. Staffing services vary; you may be paid weekly, twice a month, or monthly. The service will tell you when the deadline is for turning in your time card. You can probably fax in the time card. On rare occasions, it may have to be mailed or dropped off in person. Some services have representatives who will pick up the time card and take it to the service for you. You need to know what you are responsible for when it comes to your time card.
Make sure you get your time card in on time. If you do not, you may not get paid on payday. The service has the right to wait and pay you in the next pay period if you do not follow procedures. For example, if a staffing service pays on Friday, it may tell temps to have their time cards turned in by the end of the day on Tuesday. Every service is different.
Most services will make the temps accountable for completing the time card. If a temp turns in an incomplete time card, the service may refuse to pay or delay paying the temp for not following instructions and completing the time card. Look what happened to Elizabeth in New Orleans.
Elizabeth went to her first temp job at an insurance company as a technical writer. The staffing service had given her instructions on how to complete her time card and the deadline for turning it in. The service paid its temps on Fridays and needed to receive time cards by Wednesday at 8:00 A.M.
Elizabeth mailed her time card to the service Tuesday night at 10:00 P.M. The time card arrived at the service on Thursday. When Elizabeth went to the service on Friday to pick up her paycheck, it was not there. That was because she had not followed the directions of the staffing service regarding when to turn in her record of work in order to be paid on a regular basis.
Most people are working as professional technical temps as a way to make money. Make sure you get all the money you have earned; keep good records. The best records are copies of the time cards that you complete for the service. They provide a written record of the hours you have worked should you or the service ever have a disagreement about the hours you should be paid.
