After a ridiculously long spat of being unemployed, whether or not due to general laziness or poor scheduling of vacations. I have, seemingly, gotten off my butt and by the grace of God got a temp job that would busy me all the way to the end of July! This being my first real temp (temporary) job, I indeed was complete greenhorn when it came to job hunting and the whole process of getting employed via recruitment agencies. I blog this to share the experience, and to let those younger people, who have maybe yet to reach this phase in life, have an idea of what happens.
1. Ensure you have written your resume. now since its for temp position you shouldn’t need to be so customized for each company. but that’s me being lazy. the art of seriously making myself sound like the best guy ever for the job kind of eludes me, and irks me. But yea, make sure its in .doc format or at least in .txt format.
2. get a jobcentral AND jobstreet and whatever other online job websites there are… account.
3. everyday, yes i mean everyday, check those websites for new jobs! use the filters to sieve out the temp entry level jobs (for A or O lvls, note: IB dip is not considered a diploma to them)
4a. SPAM your job applications. click on every job that looks good to you, remember to read the requirements of the job. things to look out for are: working days/hrs, pay, location, job scope. however the last 2 are usually vague.
4b. DO NOT be fooled by the 25Xcustomer service officers needed! obviously marketing hoax to make more people think they have a chance of getting the job. but yea, the thing is that you shouldn’t see the number there and think “aiya, tomorrow then apply la.” because temp jobs come and go within the week.
4c. along with your application, send your resume. you can either apply through the job search websites, or via email. (the job search websites provide contacts) send a nice picture of yourself too if you’re feeling luckyXD. STATE YOUR AVAILABILITY (if its a plus point that is, i.e. longer availability better i would think)
5. now if the ‘career consultant’, as they call them, on the receiving end thinks you sounds suitable for the job, they WILL call you. DO NOT BE fooled (i say this obviously because i was) they are not going to hire you. they call you and say ‘hey are you still looking for a job, come down to my office for interview’, which is just to check you out. make sure you’re not a phony drug addict. GO for the interview, smart casual is good (i didnt know, i went in shirt and tie, save your good looks for the real companies). smart casual as in long sleeve shirt (tucked in or not), jeans of any colour except boring blue denim:D and shoes please. comb your hair.
6. once done with you (10 minutes max) they will say ‘i have a job opening at so and so, are you interested? (duh) the pay is ..etc…. i’ll HELP you send in your resume.’ yes, NOW they will help you send your resume to that company. you go home and wait.
7. IF company likes what they see, thinks you’re suitable, your career consultant will call you. arrange an interview with company. and you GO, dress well. no need shirt and tie, its just a temp job (unless you’re working corporate, then shirt and tie is a mustmust eh) go there and pretend to be enthu, of course if you REALLYare enthu then thats a plus point(:
8. remember that its possible that many recruitment agencies call you, dont worry, each agency will only interview you once, but can recommend you for many jobs. (even if its a different consultant who calls you, just say i’m already in touch with so&so from your agency) SO the thing is that steps 5-7 may be going on for multiple job positions concurrently. [this is the sian phase where i went for interview at least 3 times a week, sometimes twice a day]
9. then comes the HARD part. if you are blessed with 2 or more jobs. the decision to choose one over another maybe easy of tough depending on the specifications. sometimes when one job offer comes and some others are pending, you might have to say yes to a job, while at the back of your mind you’re hoping to hear from another. The Toughest part is when you do decide which job you want, you’ll have to tell the rest of them ‘sorry dude, i’ve signed a contract’ and basically ALL they’ve done for you goes to waste and the recruitment agency has to look for someone else.
lesson from 9. : i guess you cant please everyone, and furthermore you’re getting a job for yourself, not to make people at the recruitment agency happy. like for example when i called one agency to ‘cancel’ my verbal agreement, they were UBER pissed like ‘how can you be like that, the company already arrange for you to start work on so&so day.’ and you just gotta suck it up, say your apologies and that’s it. they might call and call you back. But after awhile, i just saw their number and didnt pick up. It sounds really bad but, i really don’t know what else to do. oh well! there’s a first time for everything! more veteran job hunters will know what to do!
realize that this is only for temp jobs! i’m hoping that once you get a degree in something, it’ll be much easier to find a job directly, without having to go through all that! an alternative for temping, you might wanna just email directly to specific companies you wanna temp at, they might interview you straight.
hope this was informative. (:
