As we found out from the previous piece, the temporary staffing industry has its ups and downs. From our recruiters’ experiences with consultants we have found that it can also be very unpredictable at times. From the interview to the last day of the assignment, there is a lot that can happen. In this post we have featured the good, the bad, and the unusual! Read along for some of these stories…
The Good
This story has a bit of an uplifting feel to it. One of our recruiters, Adam, has worked within the temporary staffing industry for 11 years. As expected, during this time he has experienced both highs and lows with consultants. One of the highlights for him was working with a consultant who was laid off and essentially had to leave an industry that she loved to be able to put food on the table for her family. She took a role as a bookkeeper in a retirement home and as time passed she found herself out of the tech industry for 2 years. Adam was working on a job order that was looking for a Nortel Engineer with some experience with some of the older Nortel equipment. While qualifying her for the role she let Adam know that while she had been out of the industry she had worked on her own to keep up on the technology. We advised our client of our candidate’s background as well as her situation and after a series of screening interviews and technical testing and finally client interviews – she did get the job and has been there for the past 5 years and is enjoying it! That is surely a situation that sticks out in his mind as a “highlight”.
The Bad
On the other side of the spectrum, some assignments aren’t as desirable or glamorous for our consultants. Another one of our recruiters, Joe, had a consultant in which the client had him work out of their factory warehouse in St. Louis, MO during the winter. He worked in the middle of the factory floor, essentially in a hut, with just a few personal space heaters, while forklifts were operated all around him for the entirety of the day. This goes to show that our consultants are dedicated employees who work hard to get the job done.
The Unusual
Let me start this off by saying, there are many ways to prepare for an interview. You can read the advice columns about what to wear, questions to ask, how to respond to the ever-so-common, “tell us about yourself” question and a lot of the time people consider these tips to be common knowledge. There was one scenario in which a consultant was very qualified for a position he was submitted to. The client also agreed and asked the consultant for a Skype interview. After the interview, the client reported back to let us know that this candidate was technically sound, but neglected to wear a shirt for the interview. In the end, I think that consultant learned the proper attire for that next important interview.
All in all, as I’ve mentioned before, the temporary staffing industry has its ups and downs. Many times we are unable to predict what will happen but what we do know is that without our consultants and clients, we wouldn’t be where we are today. So whether you forgot your shirt or had to deal with less-than-ideal work conditions, please know that we appreciate all of your hard work day in and day out.
