A temp agency question...(Or are these guys as shady as i think they are)

[Immortal1982]

Granted, i have not dealt with a temp agency for the better part of the last 10 years, and have only been doing it because of PA careerlink.

Yesterday i went to a temp agency about a job nearby. they refused to divulge any details, like where the job was, outside of city(they wouldn't even say what part of the city), they wouldn't name the company, and wouldn't even mention the rate.

The office was smaller than my computer room (we are talking less than 12x15 room) and i feel i've had better experiences on a dentists table after this.

On the upside i did get a call for a different job after that, but i still cant help but feel a little concerned about that place. Am i right to be worried or concerned?

[telecom_goddess]

I guess that depends...is it one of the bigger ones that are well known? or is an independent hole in the wall? There has to be a way you can check up on them.

[Food Lady]

My red flags are up. Sometimes in an ad they don't give a lot of details, but if you went to the agency, there should have been full disclosure. Either they're generally shady or they were discriminating against you.

[MoonCat]

Go with your instincts. Gut feelings are usually pretty reliable. No details? Sounds fishy to me.

[Sapphire Silk]

Agreed. Sounds very fishy. Your instincts are telling you to be careful; listen to them.

I would not take any job without knowing that information, especially the rate. The "employer" may be a scammer, or working "off the books," meaning the income won't be reported. Or the job may involve something illegal.

Pass.

[Immortal1982]

I already decided that if these people do call me back i was going to say no.

But its at least good to hear from someone else that something stinks.

[Pixilated]

Definitely smelly! No pay info, won't give you the company name or where it's located?? Something's definitely not right there!

[dbuzman]

Agreed. Sounds very fishy. Your instincts are telling you to be careful; listen to them.

I would not take any job without knowing that information, especially the rate. The "employer" may be a scammer, or working "off the books," meaning the income won't be reported. Or the job may involve something illegal.

Pass.

Or you show up at the so called job and they want you to sell vacuums or knives or some other junk door to door.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Yeah, I'm going to agree with dbuzman. You can't say yea or nay to anything if you don't know what it is. I can't imagine anyone would take a job without any of the details you just listed. It's probably one of those companies that won't divulge who or what they are because they know you'd say no right off the bat if you knew.

What they are offering you should be a selling point. I think some people forget that getting hired somewhere is a two way street. You're telling them what you can do for them...but they should be telling you what they can do for you. It's not a one way thing. They should be telling you why you should want to work for their company.

If they can't or won't do that, it's because they know they have nothing to offer, and in fact you'd not take the job if they were upfront about what they have to offer. Or in the is case, DON'T have to offer.

[csquared]

Did you sign the paperwork with the Temp agency saying that you would not go direct to their customer? If not, I would not have given you the information either.

If you had signed on and they would not give you the information, then I would be VERY worried.

[RealUnimportant]

What CSquared said - they're under no obligation to give you detail until you're much closer to being employed. It's not in their interest to give you enough info for you to approach the employer dirctly & cut them out of their paycheque.

[Immortal1982]

What CSquared said - they're under no obligation to give you detail until you're much closer to being employed. It's not in their interest to give you enough info for you to approach the employer dirctly & cut them out of their paycheque.

Yeah, i respectfully see your point on that.

I'll expand some additional details that may help on this though. I've been applying through Pennsylvania Careerlink site, due to recent changes in unemployment benefit law. The site doesnt give you any details on where the jobs are really for any of them, unless a company or corporate entity is direct about it.

Some of these jobs just say how far they are away, like 5-7 miles from you zip code. This temp agency wouldn't even tell me where in PA the job actually was, like dunmore, pittston, pittsburgh, Calgary (mind you calgary is not in pa, but i'm just making the point.) And i'd like to know what kind of job im applying for, and they wont tell you that? thats just fucked up.

I blame some of it on Careerlink to say the least, but the fact that a temp agency wont divulge any details of what kind of jobs or even a reasonable detail like where in the area it is, really bugs me.

[Gizmo]

What kind of job, an approximate pay rate and the part of the city its in I would expect to be able to be told. I don't expect to know the company name, the exact address etc until i had passed the first round of screening at least.

They sound dodgy.

[csquared]

Even giving you the area of town and type of work could allow you to pinpoint the company.

However, from your descriptions, it is sounding like they are too tight lipped.

Something to keep in mind as you are browsing the job sites. For a lot of contract work, you will notice that the zip/area listed in the ad is for the CONTRACT HOUSE, not the actual job.

[Redbeard]

Definitely sounds like a scam to me, possibly a phishing scam to boot.