Job Placement Options


I used to be very skeptical of job placement agencies. As a matter of fact, I have never been much of a fan of them. Ever since my days temping for the Adecco employment agency, I have seen job placement companies as a miserable option of last resort – much like suicide. Isn't that job placement agency jobs don't pay well – sometimes they do. The problem is that there are no organizations that are more likely to jerk you around.

When you work for a job placement agency, you are putting yourself at the mercy of thousands and thousands of incompetent managers. Perhaps they will call you and hire you for a contract job only to forget about it at the last minute, canceling the contract and not bothering to tell you. Perhaps they will promise you two weeks of work and then terminate your contract when you can finish the work in three days. When you are working for job placement agencies, you are every bit as likely to be punished for competency as rewarded for it.

Nevertheless, my recent experience with job placement agencies has gone a long way to change my mind. I know that your average employment agency is still pretty incompetent, but they are not all bad. I think the key is what level you are working at. If you are looking for entry-level jobs, your average job placement agency knows that there are thousands and thousands of other people who can do exactly what you can do. They won't see you as valuable, and even if they decide to give you a job, they won't make sure that the person who buys your contract is responsible or reliable in honoring it.

With high ends job placement agencies, however, things are different. When I first was having trouble getting an IT job as a web developer and gave a job placement agency my contact information, I did not have high hopes. Within a week, however, I was hired! Within a couple more weeks, I was officially employed by the company that first bought my contract.  Nowadays, I make six figures doing work that I love to do. Success stories like this are what make job placement agencies worth a second look. You never know what you might find. The key is to maintain an upbeat attitude and hope for the best. That is all you can do, after all.