Consider the following equation from my job in the transportation industry in April of 2008: Skyrocketing price of diesel fuel + economy beginning to tank + employer and union strike deal to pay people three dollars and hour less to do my job = laid-off.
Doing the online job search a few weeks later, I sent out my résumé for work on Jobdango, which Randstad got a hold of. I went for an interview with Sara, one of their recruiters.
It sometimes boggles my mind about what the criteria is for a recruiter to offer a prospective job to a potential "talent." It doesn't matter what temp agency it is, they all seem to really make any connection stretch very, very long to try and get anyone to take a job.
For whatever reason, my previous two-and-a-half years of sit-down forklift driving experience matched me up with a job at a fleet management chain, working on the fuel island doing preventative maintenance on their fleet. The hourly wage wasn't bad, so I took the job, as it was the first new gig offered to me. After a about seven months of working this job, I had my "assignment ended," which is a nice way of saying I got fired.
I was told the news by Sara, the same person who recruited me for the job. If I remember correctly, there were words of encouragement for how I stuck around longer than most people have before at the job. She also said they'd be actively looking to find me another job.
Fast forward to now. Thirteen months later, Randstad and I have not collaberated on anything since the first week of 2009, when my assignment was ended. However, I did receive a mass e-mail this week regarding applying for a job I'm not qualified for. I noticed it was sent out by from an address that belonged to somebody within the company - Clare. It wasn't a "MAILER-DAEMON" or some sort of automated address. On Wednesday, I e-mailed Clare an updated résumé, and my desire to find a second PT job.
Later that day, she responded to my e-mail by calling me (which drives me up a fucking wall when people do that. I digress...). The only available work they can find right now is not temp-to-hire, therefore I'm not interested. To make matters more interesting, Clare called yesterday about a one-off temp job that needed to be filled immediately. My voicemail did the "thanks, but no thanks" for me.
What I can say about this temp agency is, compared to the competition, they've actually done the most for me. They aren't the agency who had the Rob Corddry-look-alike send me to a job without specifying that I needed mandatory safety equipment in order to work there. They aren't the agency who sent me to an interview for a delivery driver position, without telling me there'd be some VERY heavy lifting involved that was too much for me (if you've never seen me, I look like Kevin Durant when he played at Texas). And they aren't the agency who sold me on a Mon.-Fri. job, without mentioning there'd be mandatory weekend work for eight or nine weeks. Randstad has, in my experience, used something that I believe is vital for communication: Honesty. Unfortunately, I am a bit disappointed that, after a year long hiatus, they've decided to blow up my phone with more undesired work.
I think three stars fits the bill very well. I'm not quite "a fan," but, at the same time, I haven't "experienced better" from ANY temp agency before. Hopefully this branch and I can collaberate on something in the near future. If not, nothing out of the norm these days. read more