Deciding If Temporary Employment Is The Right Career Choice?

Answer 1

Temporary staffing positions can serve a variety of purposes. They can act as a stop-gap measure between permanent positions, or they can fill a seasonal need for work when another position is suspended for a few months. Most often, temporary staffing is used as a first step into an industry, or as a way to gain training and permanent employment with a specific company. There are temporary positions available in all fields from waste disposal to financial accounting.

Individuals who are applying for a temporary position are generally required to have only the baseline of qualifications for the job. This is largely because the focus of a temporary position is very narrow and does not encompass all of the responsibilities or commitments that a similar full time position might entail. For this reason, temporary positions serve as a good way to judge future employers, or to test whether a particular career path is compatible with the type of work someone is looking for.

The largest requirements for temporary employment are a basic education, a professional attitude towards others, and an extreme amount of flexibility. Certain fields like accounting, network administration, and medicine require an applicable degree and certifications. Other fields might only require basic office skills or a level of physical fitness for employment, leaving the more specific elements of the job to non-temporary support staff. Flexibility is one of the most important attributes to have with temporary work, however, since jobs, hours, and locations can change quickly as an employer's needs change.

One area of temporary jobs that can make employment complex is the length of an assignment. These can range from per-diem projects where an applicant is informed each day whether they will be working the next day, all the way up to long term temporary positions that can span the course of many years or more for large projects. A few employers actually use temporary workers to staff entire companies, making temporary positions almost permanent in the short term. Temporary-to-permanent positions are available as well where an employee is trained and then, if all goes well, hired permanently at the end of the temporary contract.

The starting salary for temporary workers is generally average to below average. Within the pay structure of a company, temporary workers usually make far less than other permanent employees because the temporary workers do not enjoy regular pay raises or salary adjustments. In work environments that have unions or employee advocacy groups, the salary might actually be as low as half of that of a permanent employee.