What You Should Know About Employment Agencies*

It must first be said that no other agency or individual (with the exception, perhaps, of parents or spouse) is as interested in your finding the right position for you than you. Don't believe that you can get a third party to "place" you in a job or to do your job search for you - it's not going to happen! Looking for a job is an active, participatory process!

There are several types of employment agencies. Some agencies specialize in temporary work, while others focus on finding employees for full time postions. The former may specialize in specific industries or businesses. The latter may charge a fee to the job seeker, while other agencies charge a fee to the employer.

The value in your using an employment agency will depend on several factors, especially the ethics of the agency. If you have difficult to find, highly marketable skills and wish to make a job switch, an agency that specializes in your profession can be of tremendous help. If you have strong technical skills in engineering or computer science, you would probably be highly valued by an agency that has a contractual agreement with a company to find suitable employees. If you have a "non technical" background , you will find employment agencies to be of limited use unless you work with an agency that specializes in your field (i.e. marketing, public relations, etc.). Nonetheless, an agency's loyalty will be to its primary source of revenue, and that will not be "you" the individual.

Here are a few important tips to remember when considering employment agencies: Beware if an ad is placed in the newspaper that describes a position that is too good to be true because it probably is. These attractive, wonderful ads describing the perfect positions are called "blind ads". They NEVER give a company name and usually lure you to an employment agency where you find that the position does not exist.