On Working with Employment Agencies

There are advantages and disadvantages to working through temp/employment agencies.

On the plus side, they tend to have exclusive relationships with companies, thereby granting you access to positions that would otherwise be closed to you. Similarly, because the agency is your representative, you have someone negotiating for you throughout the interview process. More to the point, if you should ever encounter difficulties once placed, you can simply have the agency contact the company to resolve the issue. Finally, the agency can fight for a pay increase and other benefits for you when your contract comes up for renewal. All in all then, an agency offers a very valuable service. Sure, they take a nice cut from your pay cheque for that service, but that service is worth a fair chunk of change.

Why then might someone not want to deal with an agency? Obviously, that cut I just mentioned is a major negative for most people. Yet another is the paperwork.

When you apply for a job with an agency, often a number of steps are added to the hiring process. Specifically, they:

• Want to meet you in person prior to submitting your resume. (Beyond the ostensive relationship building, I have never quite figured out what the real purpose of that pre-submission meeting is. So if anyone can elucidate...).
• Have you fill out complete employment paperwork at their office. This step can occur either during the pre-submission meeting and/or once a job offer is extended. Yes, that is an and/or, since depending on the given agency, you may need to complete paperwork twice, once prior to interviewing and once when hired. FYI, while most agencies will tell you that it only takes 15-20 minutes to complete the paperwork, I can say that in my experience, it has taken well over half an hour.
• Facilitate various pre-employment testing, such as skills tests, health screenings, fingerprinting, drug testing, and so forth.

In short, the road to employment can seem longer when using an agency. Yet throughout my career, I have found them to be a valuable resource, both prior to employment and afterwards. How many times, for example, have I had a question that I would be uncomfortable posing directly at the job site? Instead, I simply contacted my recruiter, who obtained the necessary information. I was consequently able to bypass a lot of politics and other nasties.

Ultimately, your unique circumstances will determine whether an agency is the right route for you. Maybe your tax situation is such that applying as an independent contractor or a direct hire better suits your needs. Since my experience with agencies has been overall quite positive, I would suggest you at least consider using them in your job search/career.