{"id":43,"date":"2012-02-02T22:08:27","date_gmt":"2012-02-02T22:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=43"},"modified":"2012-04-29T21:20:52","modified_gmt":"2012-04-29T21:20:52","slug":"why-temporary-work-is-worth-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=43","title":{"rendered":"Why Temporary Work Is Worth It"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Today was the day. I put away the last vestige of the ho, ho, ho season\u2014the festive bowl of holiday cards with pictures of smiling kids and pets, along with the occasional annual letters detailing whirlwind lives.<\/div>\n
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As I was taking a final gander, one caught my eye. It was sent by Gwenn Rosener. Gwenn is a woman I interviewed last year about her firm Flexforce Professionals, a recruiting and staffing company in the Washington, D.C., area that focuses on helping professionals, including retirees who want to continue working, find part-time work with competitive pay.<\/div>\n
Gwenn, once an Ernst & Young senior manager, who holds a Harvard MBA in her back pocket, and her partners Sheila Murphy and Ellen Grealish all have executive-level management and consulting backgrounds. Grealish worked at Hewlett-Packard and Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), and Murphy held consulting posts, mostly with government clients, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.<\/div>\n
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They started their business in 2010, and reeled in revenues of $140,000 with a profit of $47,000 that first year, placing CFOs, HR managers, business development and proposal writers, web designers, analysts, bookkeepers and office managers\u2013all in part-time or temporary jobs.<\/div>\n
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\u201cDear Kerry,<\/div>\n
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Hope you have a wonderful holiday. Enjoyed connecting with you this year,\u201d Gwenn wrote. \u201cThank-you for letting us share our story. A quick update since our last talk\u2013we actually ended up quadrupling our sales this year and surpassed the $500k mark. It surprises even us.\u201d<\/div>\n
It didn\u2019t surprise me. Temporary staffing is the bee\u2019s knees these days.<\/div>\n
Recently, the big online job site, CareerBuilder, released a Harris Interactive survey that showed that more than a third of American companies are operating with smaller staffs than before the recession.<\/div>\n
To keep business trucking along, 36 percent of companies will hire contract or temporary workers in 2012, up from 28 percent in 2009, according to the survey of more than 3,000 hiring managers and human resource professsionals.<\/div>\n
And nearly a third of those employers want to hire before April. \u201cTemporary jobs from staffing and recruiting firms are playing an increasingly important role in the economic recovery,\u201d according Eric Gilpin, president of CareerBuilder\u2019s Staffing & Recruiting Group.<\/div>\n
Based on CareerBuilder\u2019s data, the following are examples of staffing and recruiting positions currently in demand: Occupational or Physical Therapist and Speech Language Pathologist, Java or .Net Developer, Network Engineer, Administrative Assistant,\u00a0 Customer Service Representative and Business Analyst.<\/div>\n
I get it. From the employer\u2019s perspective, hiring temporary workers simply makes sense in many circumstances. They can staff up for short-range project without the price tag of healthcare and other benefits.<\/div>\n
And in this employment market, they can attract the cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me. These are often workers who have been downsized, or taken early retirement packages. Once the dust clears, they discover they either need or want to keep working.<\/div>\n
Is this a good thing? It certainly can be. As a career transition expert, I view temporary work as a perfect chance for a career switcher to try on different hats, work in various types of businesses, even add new skills and experience.<\/div>\n
A temporary, \u201cdip in the pool\u201d assignment lets you get a feel firsthand if this is something you really want to do. I always tell people who ask my advice on changing careers\u2013do the job first-moonlight, apprentice, volunteer. If you can get paid for a temporary gig, go for it. That\u2019s the only way you\u2019ll know if the new career is all you dreamed it would be.<\/div>\n
But even if you aren\u2019t thinking of career changing, here are other reasons why a\u00a0 temporary assignment may be worth it.<\/div>\n
\u2022Gets you out of bed in the morning. You\u2019ve got something to do. \u2022Gets you in the door. It may lead to full-time work with an employer eventually. Don\u2019t miss the opportunity. \u2022Gets you decent pay. You can make your experience a plus. Employers are typically willing to pay you generously, providing you have the chops, if you solve their problem or need quickly. It lets them bypass the hand-holding and learning curve stage that a younger, less experienced, but lower-paid worker, might require. \u2022Builds your professional network. Nurture relationships with co-workers during your assignment. You never know where a contact may lead you, and who they might be able to refer you to for future jobs. \u2022Lands you new and au courant references for future employers to contact about what you\u2019ve been up to lately. \u2022Keeps your resume alive. It\u2019s a bone to stave off the disgrace of those gaping holes of idleness in your resume. \u2022Keeps your skills sharp. You know the mantra: Use it or lose it. \u2022Lets\u00a0 you get psyched about a work project\u2013without the pressure of long-term expectations. No job is forever, anyway. This one just might be shorter than most, and that can be tremendously freeing.<\/div>\n
You can\u2019t expect that temporary or contract positions will lead to a full-time or on-going position. I know that. If it is a job or a company that turns you on, though, you can subtly let it be known that you\u2019d love an opportunity to be considered for a full-time position should things change. And, please, don\u2019t take it personally, if it doesn\u2019t. It\u2019s not about you\u2026it\u2019s about them.<\/div>\n
Even if it\u2019s just what it claims to be, a temp job, you still win in my experience. First, it might be just the flexible work schedule you\u2019re looking for. Secondly, if it\u2019s a full-time job you really want, it still has your back.<\/div>\n
When you\u2019re making money, the truth is you feel better about yourself. You feel valued. It builds confidence. That\u2019s far healthier than shooting out resumes and not getting a single response. And seriously, you never know what might come your way when you back away from the computer screen.<\/div>\n
A final tip: Hone your yarn-spinning. Even if the assignment was the pits, and that\u2019s always possible, find a clever to use it in a future job interview. It can be a great example of your work ethic, ability to helicopter in and solve a problem, or fill a professional need for a company. Make the time spent part of your personal career story. Poetic license.<\/div>\n
So Gwenn, well done and congrats on a terrific 2011!<\/div>\n
Wishing you a successful new year,<\/div>\n
Kerry<\/div>\n
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