Are employment agencies any use what so ever?

I've gone to job boards and it seems like all the jobs are offered by employment agencies. It seems like they just hoard all the jobs and make it MORE difficult to find a good one. I've wasted my time with 4 of them so far and I feel like I've been blackballed because I'll call to see if there's anything for me but the answer is always no.


Am I paranoid?

Are employment agencies any use what so ever?
Some say it all depends on where you apply, but then again, what the hell do they know. I've been to some agencies in the past five months and i don't really like what i see or experience. You're expected to call at the beginning of the week to announce your availability, but where is the outcome in that? You tell 'em you're available, now they are obligated to go out and find YOU a job!





I have been through about five or six agencies since i've been here and i'm really not impressed with them. All they want you to do is waste your precious time coming to them and doing what you do and they are just going to sit back on their hands and do nothing while you call in week after week after week for a job, watching your bills pile up while you do this! I got one job through an agency one month after landing in Washington at a call center, then two months later, i was laid off by my employer for a lame-azz reason!





Don't be paranoid about being blacklisted or blackballed. I'm that way with a job where i live. I set up the interview before i left town and five days later, i interviewed with this company. It's called TeleTech (those sons of bytches!). Went through a battery of tests and had an interview. Can you believe that after i went through that, i still didn't get the job? There were a few questions in the interview that i answered that i don't think rubbed the interviewer the right way. I just responded according to how I FELT! 90 days later, i re-apply and there was a communication breakdown over the phone between me and a co-worker at the same company i just mentioned because i chose to say AND to spell my name to make sure she got it right! She yelled at me and i yelled at her and because of that, i'm blacklisted and blackballed there! Fun, right?





I don't know who you wasted your time with as far as agencies go, but the ones i've wasted my time with, well, i think you and i are in the same boat. Express Personnel is garbage, ManPower doesn't deliver on their promises, Labor Ready looks at a person with a degree as a threat (i have one but i needed a job for $$$) and i recently went through one called Smart Talent and they're full of some shysty shyt! They referred me to Robert Half because "they" said they couldn't "help" me! I even tried an online job placement one (Monster) and nothing panned out!





Keep your head up! That's all we can do right now! When you give up, you're already beat. So don't give up!





GOOD LUCK!
Reply:There are other places to apply for jobs other than the agencies. Drive around and write down company names, go back and search for websites, see if they have jobs posted on their own sites.





Here are a few things to keep in mind about the economy and about agencies.





The economy is tanking and we are in major trouble. Fewer jobs, lower pay, higher expenses.





Agencies are paid to find people that have proven track records and that have already done the jobs. So if unemployment is higher then fewer companies are willing to pay a fee to find employees. They don't have to.





Many of the ads you read from agencies are the same jobs just listed by 4 different temp services. Lazy HR managers love to throw the job out to multiple services which is worthless with the advent of internet job hunting.





Go and buy your local paper and apply to jobs through there, many companies still use the good old newspapers.





Good luck.
Reply:Try signing up with all the temp agencies you can find. I had the same experience as you: every time I called, they had nothing for me, but a friend of mine was getting steady work with the same agency. Keep at it, and once you get a job, it will probably be easier to keep getting more from the same agency.