Staffing Agencies Are the New Pimps for Corporate America?
In my many years of temping I've met a need breed of staffing agencies. It is so important to go to the agencies that LISTENS (very important) to what you are looking for? I've had the opportunity of meeting quite a few temp agencies who sized me up, viewed my resume and offer me clients and jobs that I wasn't interested in. One agency went so far to pimp me to a client that they lied to me about the job specs. This agency (on wall street) knew I had experience on the trading floor and knew they could make money off me. I repeatly told them NO trading floor and this woman turned off her ability to hear me. She claimed that this was a totatly different job and I had to meet the client if I wanted to get a job at this company. The Client then informed me that the agency spoke highly of me. Funny, they never checked my references, tested me or commuincated with me about past work experiences. All the agency saw was dollar sign and I was pimped. Scary!!!
What's the best all-in-one software for staffing agencies?
The software industry rarely has a best All-in-One solution because it is very hard to be great at everything. It also saves you from a single point of failure or being held hostage by a single vendor.Here’s what I’d recommend based on my knowledge of the staffing industry.Talent Sourcing & Job Posting- Monster, Dice, LinkedIn, Indeed should cover you for technicalApplicant Tracking System- I’m a skeptic on the value of an ATS in temp staffing. They might work for full-time sourcing where you care about passive candidates. They are a pain to implement and recruiters dislike having to update candidate records, and rarely refer to them as they are always outdated.ATS AlternativesLinkedIn Recruiter makes ATSs redundant. If you are still really keen on having one- JobDiva (expensive), Bullhorn (reasonable), Zoho Recruit (cheap) and ICIMS seem to the most popular.Payroll/Benefits/Compliance- ADP is the biggest and safest, Paychex is the cheapest and friendliest, any bank will do it- WellsFargo/USBank/BankofAmerica but are clunky, Gusto is by far the easiest and best do-it yourself, but it is a startup, so no saying when they’ll change their buisness model or rates.Finance/Invoicing- Microsoft Word/Excel/PDF/Email if you are small (<$2M in Sales). Intuit Quickbooks if you are bigger, although its clunky and they push you to take their payroll product. Xero a startup from New Zealand is supposed to be good. Bill.comCRM- Excel, Microsoft Outlook CRM, ZohoCRM, Pipedrive are the lightweight cheap options.Good Luck!
How do people feel living in Houston, Texas?
Aside from the flooding rains in the last couple of years, Houston can be somewhat tough to live in. Many people like it because of the lower cost of living, employment opportunities (during up markets), and the ability to sometimes live close to work without living downtown.There are many central locations for work in Houston, but you can still find employment at various locations throughout the Houston area. There is a large Medical Center, but there are also large hospital complexes located all around the city, for example. Likewise, many corporate headquarters and offices are located at various points inside and outside the city. Some are located in suburbs. This sometimes makes it difficult for people commuting, but can be helpful if you get an apartment near your workplace.Mass transit is pretty terrible. Metro does a great job considering, and it is always moving towards more and more service despite the work against them by local representatives (thanks Culberson). In a metropolitan area this large, there is a lot of ground to cover, which is the reason why mass transit is so important. So, unless you live close to work, you will need a reliable vehicle for that. As others have said, Houston is loud. It’s not just downtown or neartown, it’s pretty much everywhere inside Beltway 8: large trucks everywhere making deliveries, people with overly loud exhausts or their bass turned up really loud. Annoying. Areas inside the beltway and Loop 610 are mixed retail, residential and office, so you get the loudness, and sometimes the trashiness, of an urban setting with everything else looking like a suburb (houses with lawns, etc.). So you end up with a lot of trash and noise in your otherwise “normal” looking suburban neighborhood.If you don’t mind the noise and want the benefits of living in an urban or more urban area, you can check out living in or near downtown, but the rents and home prices can be pretty high. A lot of it has been renewed or gentrified, and the real estate prices have gone up significantly. A lot of areas with older homes now have new townhomes or houses above a million dollars, yet the streets are still old and in bad condition.If you aren’t the outdoorsy type, Houston might be a better city for you. There isn’t any landscape to look at, the weather is harsh in the summer. Winters are “mild” and it only snows here once probably every eight years.Just a few things that come to mind.
What's the best way to get a job in Austin, Texas if you don't live there?
Austin is one of the hottest cities growing with huge number of startup everyday. There numerous opportunities around the town and given that all startups need PR and Marketing always, I believe you are going to be in the right place.Here is something I have seem people do:1. Introduce yourself and keep watching for jobs on Austin Startups groups on FB (Facebook) 2. Meetups & HappHours: Try to hit up as many meetups and Happy Hours as you can. Majority of them are going to be around tech space but you surely will find the right connections there as everybody is hiring in austin. The most popular happy hours (Upcoming Events | door64 - here you will find many recruiters, Austin Tech Happy Hour - here you will find mix of startups, geeks and recruiters) 3. Incubators: There are some amazing incubators you can hit up where most of the startups rendezvous (capitalfactory, techstarsaustin, dreamit ventures, techranch, incubationstation, Austin Technology Incubator (ATI) ) 4. Influencers: The best way to get the word out is to hit up the influencers in the market. I certainly cannot name them here but, if you hit the startup scene in Austin you will get familiar with them in no time) 5. Independent Recruiters: There are several independent recruiters and small staffing agencies in Austin who maintain a close tap on who is hiring. You can watch out for them. Disclaimer - Shameless promotion: You can keep looking for open jobs at https://jobhuk.com/jobs, which is a Recruitment Marketplace, we have vast Job openings specially in Austin,Texas Area.
Does staff force take a percentage off your paycheck?
Most do some don't. My advice, stay FAR away from them. However, if you are desperate, most only garnish your wage for 6 months on a temporary hiring contract. After that, the company you are working for will offer you a permanent position in the company if they like you. Good luck getting them to pay you what you are worth after that though. Usually they'll try to keep paying you the same unless you make an isue out of it.....gotta love capitalism.
It's no secret engineering salaries are stagnant, but is this unreasonable?
@Batman, the hiring was done through a temp agency. I was interviewed by an engineer at the company, though. I do wonder if there was some miscommunication between the engineering dept. and the temp agency, but I have no idea how to bring that up. As for my responsibilities, I'm sure I didn't misinterpret. They're having a problem with one of their products that requires someone in fluids. My biggest fear is that they've only hired me to fix that, given the project 3 months, have no intention of extending a permanent offer, and are getting away with that rate of pay since I originally applied for the lower position.