I temped a couple of times during the late '90s and had perfectly good experiences with it. A few details:
- I worked with a local temp agency owned by one person, not a franchise or whatnot. I'm pretty sure this helps, as the folks I dealt with were very friendly, eager to find me work, and were reasonably laid back. Likewise, the employers I temped for were friendly. I obviously wasn't part of the regular gang, but everyone was generally perfectly friendly. Of course, it's understood that the job you're in could vanish at a moment's notice, but that's why they call it temping.
- This won't apply to you if you're doing speciality temping, such as computer work or whatnot. That said, I walked in with no real job skills, thus I was sent off to do crap office work, especially at first. Answering phones, stuffing envelopes, that sort of thing. However, after showing a bit fo competance I was quickly given much better jobs. In my case, they were quite impressed with my typing skills (i.e. I'm damn fast and reasonably accurate), so I wound up getting transcription jobs occasionally. In my area, the crap temp jobs paid $7/hr, while medical transcription was $11/hr, so not too shabby. Not great, mind you, but not too shabby, especially five years ago.
- I live in a college town and UNC has it's own internal temp agency. However, I was able to get assignments at UNC via the outside temp agency I worked for, which was nice for a couple of reasons. First, working at a university is scenic and tends to be a lot more relaxed than your average corporate assignment. Second, I later learned that I was getting paid roughly $2/hr more than folks doing the same work through Tarheel Temps. Thus, if you've got a university nearby, see if a local temp agency can get you work there rather than going through the university itself.
- It helps to be as flexible as possible. I refused no job and was pleased to find myself with steady work; on the few occasions they didn't have an assignment for me I called to check in. At the time I had a roommate who was theoretically temping through UNC; however, he never called in to ask for work and they rarely called him to offer any, so be sure to keep on top of things. A brief anecdote: At my interview they asked when I could start, I said "Immediately", they asked me if I meant that, and I wound up at my first gig that afternoon.
- Temping is also somewhat depressing; it helps to think of yourself as a wandering ronin, free of feudal masters and living by your sword. Or, in my case, typing skills. And if you find something you like reasonably well, chances are they'll offer you a chance to go temp-to-perm. If you're not down with it, just say no - I could have picked up a few medical transcription jobs, but opted not to if only to dodge the carpal tunnel syndrome bullet - but eventually something will come up that you'll be happy to do full time, at least for a while.
FnordChan
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