Working with Staffing Agencies

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cismajor97

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Mar 23, 2006
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It's been a while since I've been actively involved in searching for employement. I submitted my resume on the Big Three, Monster, HotJobs, and Career Builder, and so far I've had 5 staffing agencies contact me within a period of 3 days. What are your opinions working with staffing agencies? Do they recieve their commision off of your salary or does the company usually pay them for their "service"? Any pros or cons using staffing agencies would be appreciative as well.
 
Most staffing agencies (99.999999999%) get their cut from the company they place you in. Which generally means Foo Corp pays Bar Agency $30/hr, while your pay is $20/hr.

For the most part it's pretty straightforward, they generally pay weekly and they don't usually offer benefits. The only downside is that companies that you get placed in can end your assignment on a whim.
 
For a slightly better signal to noise ratio on searches try Dice.com, I've hard much better luck with them in finding companies. My current employer actually found me on Dice.
 
I know Dice is a pretty big IT employer magnet. When I put my resume up there, within two days I had about 4 calls come in offering jobs, got two interviews out of those jobs, but no DICE. But thats why you have to keep looking. Right now I just got myself a job by submitting an impressive resume to the manager directly.
 
I've worked for a few staffing companies usually I never/hardly see them. I'm usually on more long term assgnment's where unless it's payday i didn't even deal with them but it does suck that they are getting a cut when they hardly did anything.
 
thats why eventually if you're good, instead of paying $30 bucks to the agency and you getting $20/hour... they'll offer you a job for $22 or something...


also i think the agency pays for things like workmans comp and etc... that 10 bucks isn't all profit...
 
goodcooper said:
thats why eventually if you're good, instead of paying $30 bucks to the agency and you getting $20/hour... they'll offer you a job for $22 or something...
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Actually the profit margin is bigger, more like 40%. I've had a friend that used to work for a staffing agency and she's told me of some situations where a temp to hire took a cut in monetary compensation because of the hiring company's benefit package.
 
cismajor97 said:
So if I decide to avoid using a staffing agency am I hurting my chances?
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Most likely. Most companies like using staffing agencies aka recruiters aka headhunters, because it's a cheaper way to go through the "probationary" period of your employment. It's not necessarily a bad thing to go through them. You just got to keep in mind that this is all about their bottom dollar and not yours.
 
I got my Corp IT Job through a staffing agency. Put my resume out, got a call and started working with my rep. She was really nice, didnt know alot about computer but let me preview the job postings before she submitted my info to each place.

It did not cost a thing and I was hired on the spot with the company she set up for me. I did not get paid through the staffing company though, they just bill my employer.
 
Keiichi said:
For the most part it's pretty straightforward, they generally pay weekly and they don't usually offer benefits. The only downside is that companies that you get placed in can end your assignment on a whim.
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But look at it from the company viewpoint, it's obvious why they prefer them.

Instead of hiring some joker that did well in the interview, and can't work a darn, then having to get into unemployment crap... You run through staffing agency, if the worker doesn't do anything, can get rid of him with no big financial hit.

I know a couple companies that is a requirement to hire everyone through a staffing agency like this.

I think it'll hurt your chances, just look at the bottom line what you are getting paid though.
 
NotSoSimple said:
I got my Corp IT Job through a staffing agency. Put my resume out, got a call and started working with my rep. She was really nice, didnt know alot about computer but let me preview the job postings before she submitted my info to each place.

It did not cost a thing and I was hired on the spot with the company she set up for me. I did not get paid through the staffing company though, they just bill my employer.
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My wife is a "Head Hunter". She is paid from the company she has a contract with. The industry standard is 25%-30% of the first years salary. Most are this way. Though, to be honest, most are jobs that are hard to find candidates for. Companies do not usually hire "Head Hunters" for jobs that are easy to fill. So your best bet is to do both. Post your resume' online, and send it to anywhere/anyplace you think you might remotely be qualified for.

The exceptions are usually temp agencies.
 
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