When I graduated from college, I was
able to easily get a job in just about anything I wanted. As a
result, I worked a variety of positions, in several industries.
Certain common themes did exist within my career path, but overall,
my resume has a lot of diversity.
In the past few years, however, finding
a suitable full time position proved to be very difficult. I would
occasionally find advertisements for compelling positions, and would
seem to interview well, but somehow, never made it to the point of a
job offer.
So I started temping. I kept applying
to temp agencies, and once completing an induction interview process,
pressed them for work. I'm pretty prolific in my efforts at finding
work, so it stands to reason that I have interviewed at a lot of
different temp agencies. I discovered that some of the problems that
plagued me in my full time job search extended into the temp world.
The induction interviews are often 2-3
hours long, and always include tests, both on paper and computer. The
actual interview process is somewhat muted, as it's more of the
interviewer getting an idea of the kind and scope of work that you
want to do. Most temp agencies accept a business casual dress for
these interviews; the ones that don't tend to be a lot more brash
with their perspective temps, but don't necessarily have better work.
One such temporary service, which
seemed to have a lot of positions available, was one that I worked
pretty hard securing an interview. My testing went fine, and during
the talking phase of the interview, I explained some of the problems
associated with my arrest for domestic battery that had occurred over
ten years ago. The interview ended well.
My efforts at getting an assignment
were unsuccessful. I called several times per week for about two
weeks. I finally asked why I wasn't getting assignments, and was told
that it was 'difficult to get work for convicted felons.' I tried to
explain that I wasn't a convicted felon, and in fact didn't even have
a conviction, but I could tell by the tone of her voice that she
didn't believe me.
Once, while working at the reception
desk, I discovered that the company had a tradition of buying lunch
for all employees once per month. I asked my contact if that included
me, and she told me she didn't know, and that I should approach the
company's chief accountant and ask them.
Another office I worked in was a phone
bank. I was one of eight or so employees and temps in a bank of
cubicles that was closely watched by two supervisors at desks facing
our workstations. They constantly told us to keep calling, and would
occasionally walk over and examine our tally sheets. Breaks were
rigidly enforced at set times—and employees weren't allowed to
leave their desks while not on break.
I worked at one assignment for two days
doing some data manipulation on a spreadsheet. Several weeks later,
another assignment came up—and the temp agency asked me if I wanted
it. It was a longer term assignment, and close to my home.
Unfortunately, when the client heard that it was me, they requested
someone with less experience.
My current assignment isn't too bad.
It's a medium sized call center, with about 150 employees, of which
about 35 percent are temps. The office has no HR department, and they
take on about 6-10 new temps per month. The training is pretty
complex—they have multiple systems with different requirements, and
training takes about a month. Once temps 'get the picture' they leave
the training department and are assigned accounts. It's not uncommon
to talk to a temp that's been there for over a year—there are at
least ten of them. This company contracts with several temp agencies,
so not all temps work for the same agency. The fact that I was the
inaugural employee of my temp agency worked to my advantage.
The environment is rather dreary, so
the perm staff try to liven things up. They constantly have events
where they provide lunch or some kind of treat, as well as have
various trivia and puzzle contests. Staff takes care to not remind
temps that they are temps. But it's not all like that—when I open
my web browser, the corporate page displays link teasers that I can't
view because I need to log in as an employee. When I fill out my
corporate time card, my name is listed as 'Christopher Temp Buxton'.
