Dealing with staffing firms

[Wilson Gordon]

I posted my resume to Dice, Monster, and Hotjobs recently and have gotten quite a few calls from staffing firms.

I wonder if they were helpful to you in your job search. What can I expect from them?

[Jay Dilla]

I got my first job thru one. And I have a good interview tomorrow through another one. They can work, but ALOT of them contact for you trash jobs with companies you never heard of and for jobs you're not interested in

[Jason Cox]

Mixed bag here.

I'm on my 5th IT job right now.

First one was landed through a friend of the family. Second and Fourth were found through Monster, both times from a direct contact from the company. I've never applied for a job on Monster and got it. Third job was from my own efforts entirely and using my network. The fifth job was located by a staffing firm.

Staffing firms are like any other services company. There are a lot of bad ones and a few good ones. My advice is to treat them like they work for you, after all, they make money by placing you. Anytime I've been submitted for a position I didn't really want, anytime I've caught them being less than honest, anytime I've had a problem I have dropped that company without hesitation.

What made this last company work for me is that they continued to work with me even though I just wasn't hitting it off with the places they were sending me to. They kept pursuing so long as I was interested and I also started doing my homework after seeing how rusty I was (I've been kind of hands off recently and didn't stay current, my bad) They worked hard for me and they got what I wanted.

Definitely do not let them waste your time though. A lot of recruiters want you all to yourself, but I've also noticed a lot of the ones in my area had access to the same jobs and the same management teams. After awhile, I limited my contact to just two or three firms. They can be useful, but don't feel you have to rely on them.

[Wilson Gordon]

Well, after dealing with staffing firms for over a week. Here is what I think:

If you just graduated from college, don't use staffing firms because most jobs they have are for experienced developers. This is because when a staffing firm places someone, it gets a large payment from the company. So for entry level positions, companies usually don't want to pay that money.

But if you do have at least a few years of experience, then using staffing firm can be very helpful.

I have deal with a dozen staffing firms and some of them indeed are very nice. I think the rule of thumb is only submit your Word format resume to a staffing agency when it has found a potentially good match for you, has sent you the job description details, and told you which company the position is at.
[ June 28, 2007: Message edited by: Wilson Gordon ]

[Roseanne Zhang]

Don't, never, give your references to them.

If they say the client need them, then ask the client email, and send direct to the client!!!

[Roseanne Zhang]

BTW, most of my jobs are found through them, which saved me a lot of time for sure.

Thanks, staffing firms!

[Wilson Gordon]

Originally posted by Roseanne Zhang:
Don't, never, give your references to them.

If they say the client need them, then ask the client email, and send direct to the client!!!

Of course.

Do you know what bad things can they do with the references? Or with the resume?

[David O'Meara]

I have had it pointed to me that they use your resume to get the contact details of more senior people (your references) and they then start hounding these people.

[Wilson Gordon]

Originally posted by David O'Meara:
I have had it pointed to me that they use your resume to get the contact details of more senior people (your references) and they then start hounding these people.

Ah, I see. That's a mean thing to do!

[Roseanne Zhang]

Some of my experiences:

1) It is OK to use a staffing firm even you're new graduates. I found my first job through them, since they know who is hiring entry level people. However, don't solely depend on them if you're new graduates, your school, your friends, and google search etc. might have better leads.

2) Some staffing firms require you meet them in person before they place you. That is one of their business rules. I respect their rule. However, I would dismiss this kind of staffing firms immediately. It is because there would be too many recruiter interviews for me and I don't have that much time to dress-up, drive there just for filling out mountains of forms, including the endless skill inventory form. At bad job market and I was not employed, I did several such disgusting recruiter interviews, and had no success so far.

[Michael Finney]

Originally posted by Wilson Gordon:
...I think the rule of thumb is only submit your Word format resume to a staffing agency when it has found a potentially good match for you, has sent you the job description details, and told you which company the position is at.
[ June 28, 2007: Message edited by: Wilson Gordon ]

Why "has sent you the job description details"?

They've told me what company and where....

Thanks.

[Wilson Gordon]

Some of them would ask you to send your resume over without telling you anything about the job they have.

[Roseanne Zhang]

Originally posted by Wilson Gordon:
Some of them would ask you to send your resume over without telling you anything about the job they have.

In this case, my answer is simple: "Job description and location, please! Thanks!"

On this issue, I agree with Wilson Gordon completely.
[ June 28, 2007: Message edited by: Roseanne Zhang ]

[peter cooke]

After 15 years of work that was mostly found through head hunters.

1)DO NOT SIGN any exclusive contracts. We are professionals, behave like a professional. if your search firm gets you a lead on a job let them negotiate it for you.

2)work with no more than 2 head hunter agencies at one time. Keeping who and what is going on with multiple agencies is a real pain in the @#$ Use some contact mgt software so that you can keep what you said to whom straight. I have juggled 5 firms at one time. What a pain.

3) DO NOT PAY $ for job search services. Any search firm that charges for programmers is not reputable. Cash is tendered at job placement. If they do thier job they get paid. If they want cash up front, then they need to guarentee so many interviews.


4)Read any paperwork sent to you by the agency for your signature completely. I was so hot for one interview, I mistakenly signed one without reading it. It said that I guarentee that agency X will be my sole represenative, and that they would negotiate any jobs for me. Failure on my part to have them negotiate my representation, would result them taking me to court, my pre-agreeing to pay for all legal expenses (both sides) plus and minimum $100K punative charge should I loose the case. Boy that contract was hard to get out of. Fortunately my dad is an attorney, and were able to void the written contract as unlawful.

[Roseanne Zhang]

If you are a contractor, don't sign anything which will delay your pay check for any reason (such as clear client invoice etc.)

If they don't pay you in every 2 weeks, don't work for them!!!

I refused one such contract, then they paid me on time. All other contractors worked for them lose 1.5 - 2 months' pay. I only lost 2 weeks. The firm went bankruptcy.

One of my bosses told me,

The thumb of rule is never work for free for more than 2 weeks!

[Wilson Gordon]

What are the good things working as a contractor? Isn't it inconvenient having to find contract work so often?

[Roseanne Zhang]

Originally posted by Wilson Gordon:
What are the good things working as a contractor? Isn't it inconvenient having to find contract work so often?

You get a terrific resume!

From air dogfight cellphone games to real Navy airplane, from VB, C++ to Java, Ruby. Your learning speed is doubled, tripled, quadrupled...

If you like to learn new things all the time, if you are a good problem solver, satisfaction is guaranteed.
[ June 30, 2007: Message edited by: Roseanne Zhang ]