Agencies work in different ways. None of them good. Many of them unethical. The different types of agencies are temporary agencies, placement agencies, staffing agencies, headhunters. They have names that generally describe what they do but often you have to really read about what the advertisement is calling for to figure it out.

The agencies whose representatives contact a job seeker and try to sell their services are, in my opinion, con artists. They have no place in the professional world. They don't have any proven statistics regarding the industry you are seeking employment in nor do they have any actual job vacancies in their little clutches. They search the papers and job boards just like everybody else in order to find businesses who are hiring and then send your resume to them. The resume's are paid no more attention than if you had sent it yourself.

Temporary agencies offer temp jobs which can last one day to one year and temp to hire jobs which can last up to three months at which time the company has the option to hire you on as an employee. You do not work for the company but rather for the temporary agency. You are paid by the temp agency and you have to follow the rules of the agency as well as any rules set forth by the company you are working at.

Something very important to remember about temp agency is that the amount of money they pay you for working at the company is a very small fraction of the amount they are charging the company. Ie: if you are being paid $10 per hour, the company is being charged $35 or $40 per hour.

Another thing to remember is that if you turn down an assignment from a temp agency, they will put you on the bottom of their list and consider you a poor risk for employment. This regardless of the fact that the job they offered was not in the industry or within your actual job wants or needs.

Placement and Staffing agencies will generally not contact you but will contact the employer and then they will place the advertisement, review resumes, pre-screen candidates and then will set up interviews with the hiring manager. If there are any questions regarding follow up, you have to go through the agency. To go to the company itself will cause the agency to disregard any further contacts from you and they will do their damnde$t to ignore you. They will even go so far as to tell the company that you do not want the job.

Headhunters are the same as staffing and placement agencies but they are people who specialize in a specific field so are more knowledgable about what the needs are for qualifications, skills and abilities. They do, however have a certain amount of arrogance to them which makes them very hard to work with because they think everything you do is wrong and if you don't listen to them regarding what to say, do and wear, you have basically written yourself out of a job.

For the most part, agencies (all agencies) do not have the jobs available that they advertise. They only want to get people into their agencies so that they can build their list and tell the company that they are contacting that they have a number of people who would fit perfectly.

A temp agency is actually an okay place for a person just entering the workforce and wanting to get experience in a number of different entry level jobs to figure out what he/she wants to do for a career. They are not for people who already have experience doing what they want for their career or for people who have already proven themselves in their current industry and are looking for something a couple of rungs above entry level.

My personal opinion of an agency and of the people who are employed to work there is several (and I do mean SEVERAL) levels below professional, knowledgable or worthy of a job seeker's time and energy.