Be Excellent To Each Other

Ok, I'm stuggling enough now to consider doing this, but I've never done it before and I'm a bit concerned about it messing with my tax credits as I don't know how you get paid or how often.

Does anybody have any experience or advice they can share? Not just about how you get paid, anything constructive is welcome.

There's always Towers.

ALWAYS Towers.

*gibbers from PTSD*

I asked myself if I was that desperate, sadly the answer that came back was yes.

As in temp agency? It has been a while for me, but I was always paid weekly - in arrears, it taking a week for them to process the time sheet from the week before, which seemed fair enough - and direct to the bank account, with them sorting out tax and the like. They *ought* to be fairly up on tax codes and the like (though I doubt that your ordinary temp controller can give you any useful advice, they're likely to be as much an expert on tax laws as estate agents are on finance, despite both really needing that knowledge to do a decent job), seeing as by its nature temp work can mean working a week here and several there. Nowadays you qualify for holiday pay after a while (6 months?) which might just further confuse the issue.

I used an agency for about two months inbetween finishing uni and getting a "real" job. It was all fairly professional and I was well looked after by them.

IIRC I was paid weekly, one week in arrears, and I accrued a 1/3 days worth of holiday pay per week. I never actually used any of this holiday leave so at the end of the 8 weeks or so I had about two and a half days leave built up which I received in cash (at the value of the hourly rate of the last job I was doing with them) when I left the agency.

I'm still temping, and I too get paid weekly in arrears. Be sure to check on how much holiday you're accruing.

It's useful to know who local friends/acquaintances have signed up with as that might give you some idea about where to go, but do visit as many as possible

Cheers guys, there are several in this area so I'll do some ringing around tomorrow.

Has anyone actually had an agency give them work?! I never did, in any of my summer holidays (during school and college, during A-levels, pre- and during university). Well, nothing apart from a couple of offers of casual construction work. Which would be a stupid thing for me to accept, being acutely asthmatic. Was very frustrating as the girls I knew at college/uni walked in and were given office work within a couple of days, I'm be told I was unsuitable... Despite having more experience than them, in some cases.

Well I'm not going to hold my breath, but I have to at least try something while I'm waiting to get something better.

Uggo boys don't make good receptionists

If you find that they don't seem to be giving you work; keep harrasing them, then they'll find you jobs. In my experience (mostly my friends; I managed to get a proper job before I had to resort to agency work, but I was getting advice from mates who do it...), they manage to get work through these things quite a lot. Just make sure you go to the right agency; different ones specialise in different areas. Anonymous X was probably going to ones who specialised in construction?

Nah, more generalised ones like Adecco that had different departments. The office
specific ones wouldn't even accept my details most of the time.

While I don't know anything about the tax credit side of things, I'd say employment agencies are a good way to keep the money coming in. It's definitely worth trying to find one that specialises in the kind of work you're good at/want to do, otherwise you might end up doing something horrible (for example, I've had two weeks working at twenty below zero in a coldstore, and two weeks inhaling all manner of horrible fumes at a chipboard plant, thanks to going to the wrong agency). It's thanks to visits to better agencies that I've got the two permanent jobs I've had since leaving school, mainly because I'm really seriously rubbish at job interviews (taken on in both positions as a temporary worker, then taken on full-time as a result of my performance. Meanwhile, it the last job interview I had, they didn't even give the job to someone else, they went to the bother of re-advertising it).

I was also offered a six-week stint at the place where they make Lego, only I had to turn it down because I was holding out for a full-time position at the medical supplies firm I was at. I'm still there, and I regularly wish I was at the Lego place. Seriously, how ace would it be to have lots of Lego to mess around with during idle moments? Gah.

Yes. I signed up with one ten years ago (having never had a proper job for a variety of reasons) and within a few weeks they got me some part-time work covering for a technician at a college. After six months of this, I got a year's contract to work directly for the college, and at the end of that, was put on a permanent contract and stayed another seven years, being promoted halfway through this to running the college's network and managing four staff.

So agencies can give you work, and that can be a foot in the door at some places.

Beyond the usual one week office stuff/call centres that they're always hiring for? Yes.

Using the Reed website, an agency in Leeds found my CV and gave me a month-long IT contract literally starting the next day.

St David's Recruitment in Cardiff found me a decent(ish) job in Penarth and then a permanent job with Arriva Trains Wales where I worked for over two years before (on my own volition) I moved into my current job.

The most important thing, I find, is to keep working - jobs that sound a bit crap on paper might turn out to be rather nice, and vice versa.

Heck, when I was looking for work the agency route I didn't even get any of those. Guess agencies must only be of use for people with vocational qualifications.

Adecco are mainly construction and cleaning from what I remember.

Don't be silly X, sexual discrimination only works one way, men are never discriminated against ever, you must have dreamt it.

I love you, Dud.

That's certainly one way to get a job.

I've just been turned down by them.

I am obviously a stupid incapable arse who can't even tie her own shoe laces properly.

When I finished university, I had no idea what I wanted to do and agencies didn't want to touch me with a barge pole (obviously they kept telling me they'd have no problem finding me work, but I did about 2 days in 6 months).
I gave up, moved home and was working by the next week, so you just have to keep trying.

If you haven't tried them yet, Extra Personnel were pretty good at finding me work and they happen to have a Stoke branch.

Otherwise, just keep trying to tie your own shoe laces.

*hugs*

It's ok, I'm sure you'll find someone to tie your laces for you.

What did you go for?

You're vaguely near here, right? One of my housemates did some temping a while back, hang on.

Right. Manpower were good, and a few other places. I'll check tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure it was manpower - there was one agency that were very helpful and flexible and got her a fair bit of work, and she's basically had almost no work experience at all. They do mostly light office work, I believe, and customer service-type things like receptionisting at a car showroom and such.

Some shop work or other, can't remember the job title they give these positions.



I don't think I care anymore anyway, hit rock bottom today so might as well just be single mother council house jobless scum for a bit. Fuck.

Hoy! Never let a temp agency get you down - many many shysters around there, I'd say, and they can probably afford to be a bit precious, biased and, frankly, stupid right at the moment.

Lick your wounds for a day then see if somewhere better suggests itself (well, from one of the other helpful people here, I'm thinking).

Temp agencies can be cunts sometimes, so don't worry too much. There are plenty out there so dust yourself off and get back out there. I believe in you!

Hello all.

Just to say I actually used to work for a recruitment agency. They are all cunts. As was I (actually maybe I still am, you'd have to ask some people who know me).

Don't take any of their shit seriously. Don't be put off if they don't offer you work.

They will have an assignment to fill at short notice and are looking for the easiest hit to fill it. If you don't have the obvious at the top of your CV you will miss out. So make the top thing on your CV generic enough to tick a lot of office type boxes.

They aren't racist/sexist/[youchoose]ist. What they will do is what the client asks for. So if their *ist client asks for "a young girl to do some filing in the office" that's what the agency goes and finds (despite this being illegal on two fronts).

Inherently people who run offices (and I have to say this is mostly women, not older men like you might imagine) take this approach. So agencies seem this way.

It's a numbers game. Register with as many as possible. Ring them all every morning you aren't working and ask them why. You will be working soon as you will become that easy slot in person when they need one. Then when you've worked once well, they will put you to work again and again as they know they can rely on you. Then you'll get a real job out of it and you'll be happy and they'll have to find someone else!

Good luck!

Thanks Myfinger, and welcome!

Real life is invading virtual life...

But your link to Myfinger is through me, and our link is from virtual life. So where does that leave us? Is this virtual life invading real life or the other way around? WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?!?

I am pleased that I identified that clip as coming from Scanners before checking the filename.