Temp Agencies Post Phony Job Ads and Bug Your References to Death

Temporary service agencies are a con game.

You can apply with dozens of these firms and never get a single phone call back. Why is that?

They like having you come in so they can get your personal data. To be more specific, they want names and phone numbers of your previous employers so they can contact them to pitch their services. They will ask you for your "references". They will then contact these people to do a sales pitch for their agency.

Ever notice how a temp service or employment agency will always ask you "what companies have you interviewed at recently?". And when you tell them what company you interviewed for, what position and who you interviewed with - BINGO! They will call up that person and try to pitch one of their own people for the job you just interviewed for.

They also won't give you any notice when an assignment is ending. They will simply call you one day at home, after 5 p.m. and tell you not to go back the next day. This is standard routine at all agencies now. They won't give the temp any information about when their assignment will end.

Probably the worst thing that temp agencies do is post phony job advertisements. They will post a job ad on monster.com that says something like "Marketing Coordinator, 70K per year plus benefits, health, 401K". Only its not a real position they have to offer. They simply made it up, to get people to come in and apply. Again, they like getting lots of applicants so they can mine them for information about their former employers, so they can contact these employers to do sales pitches.

The temp agency does not care about you and is not looking out for your best interests in any way, shape or form. And if you think so, you are hopelessly naive.