by Lisa Fagan

Created on: September 17, 2007

During the times that I've been out of work, I have dealt with staffing agencies. Only a few of them found me some suitable assignments that I was able to do, but a lot of them wouldn't help me because my work background was not suited to what they were looking for. In fact, some of them told me to just simply check in the newspapers, and I know the reason why.

A lot of them wanted highly skilled and experienced professionals, for example, executive-level secretaries and administrative assistants, because they companies paid them their fees. Some of them were specialized such as in legal and accounting placement, and they wanted people who were actually experienced in these fields. I remember one staffing agency required one year of actual office experience because their clients simply didn't have the time to train them. When one particular agency advertised for word processors, they wanted actual work experience; they didn't want trainees or business school graduates. In other words, they wanted people that were the "perfect fit". What a slap in the face right there!

I also believe that these agencies use false advertising and fake job openings when they recruit applicants. Whenever I would call for a job, they would give me a song and dance, said that they would take my name and number, and so forth. I even asked if these were actual job openings or is this how you get business; and I was told that it was both? When I was out of work in '98, I went to this one staffing agency who had advertised for a customer service representative. After being there for three hours going through the application and testing process, I found out that it was a telemarketing job; a job that I did not want.

Which brings me to my next topic. It was back in '98 that a lot of the staffing agencies that I signed up with were calling me for jobs that were too far for me to get to, in questionable neighborhoods, or was not even qualified for, and I naturally had to turn them down. When I was out of work in 2001, this one staffing agency told me that they couldn't use me anymore because I was turning down too many jobs. Well naturally, I had every right to do that, especially if it wasn't suitable to me.

Up until about ten, fifteen, twenty, even twenty-five years ago, you could just simply call up the staffing agency, make an appointment, go in, and go through the entire application process. Nowadays, they want you to send in a resume and you can only go in there if they have an actual

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