Finally, the reason you are here is to get a job so you can make money. You have gone through all of the paperwork, given your references, taken the tests, and had your interview, and you may have surfed the Net and perused every Web site of your profession. Now the service is prepared to offer you a job. Should you take it?
You may be offered your first temp job on the day you fax your resume, or you may go in and fill out your application and then be called at home by the service several days, weeks, or months from the day you came in and asked for work. Every service is different. How soon you receive an assignment will depend on how flexible you are with salary, travel, and the hours you work and how marketable your skills are.
How flexible are you on your salary? Do you want $30 an hour but will accept $20 to get some immediate income? The amount of money you will accept per hour is something only you can decide.
Urgency is another factor that may have some bearing on when you go to work. If you really need immediate income, tell the service you are ready to work that day, and ask the placement person to find you something. A sense of urgency can often help you get work faster.
Why You Are on the Temp Job: The Business Calls the Staffing Service
There are two ways staffing services get temp jobs to offer you.
One way is by having businesses call them when they need a temp and tell them what job they need the temp to perform. For example, a drugstore may call a service and say a temp is needed to come in and assist as a pharmacist that day, as one of the regular pharmacists is out sick. The service should find out what the licensing requirements are as well as the professional tasks a temp may need to perform, like filling prescriptions or communicating with doctors or insurance companies. The service will then send a qualified temp in who can work that day. Ideally, the service will already have several pharmacists registered with it and know who is available to work immediately.
Is someone out sick? Is there a job vacancy? Is this a special project? In other words, why did the business call the service for a temp? Find out why the business called in a temp order. This is really important if you are temping to find a permanent job. In that case, you will want to focus on the temp jobs that are available as a result of a job vacancy.
If someone is out sick, you could be on that job for any number of days. You could fill in for someone who is sick one day if it is a minor illness, a week if it is the flu, or six to eight weeks if the worker has had surgery.
Nora was sent to a business by Selective Staffing Service in Pittsburgh to be a semiconductor process and equipment engineer. The business where she was placed had asked the service to send someone who could start work that day and fill in for the business's full-time engineer, who was sick. The business did not know how long the engineer would be out sick.
Nora reported to work on a Tuesday morning, and on Tuesday afternoon the full-time engineer called the employer to say that he was being admitted to the hospital that day for surgery. The full-time engineer would not be back to work for at least a month.
The business called the staffing service and asked if Nora could continue the temp assignment for the month the full-time engineer would be out sick. The service asked Nora about her availability to commit to a month-long assignment. Nora said she could work for two more weeks, but then she would need a few days off.
The business that needed Nora agreed to keep her for two more weeks and then let the service try to replace her for the days she needed off. The business liked Nora's work so much that it asked to have Nora back when she was once more available. Nora went into that particular temp job thinking she was filling in for an engineer who would be out a few days. She ended up extending her temp job there. That is the nature of temp work.
