IT Staffing Companies - Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down

I am a newbie in the IT field. I would appreciate any input in regard to using a IT staffing company to find a job versus looking on job boards. Are there any reliable IT staffing companies, such as IT Tier 1? As far as job boards, I am familiar with Dice, but I would appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks.

Lag

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Comments

Devilry

I say yes they are beneficial if you don't have any, or very little, experience. If you are a more seasoned pro, I don't look too highly on them. I know there are good ones out there, but jumping through all of the 'now now now' hoops with them hasn't been to pleasant.

Earlier this year a couple were contacting me, every time any of them called they needed me to interview within hours. They also were not very knowledgeable about the position or needs of the position.

Somnipotent

if you're a noob, i say go for it, a 6-12mos contract will yield you valuable time-in-field experience. i'd shoot for the contract-to-hire positions. that's how i got in with my first IT position.

ptilsen

Thumbs down in the sense that I hate them.

Other than that, a job's a job. If it's the right job, whether a staffing company is involved is irrelevant.

Use Indeed for job boards. I would keep my Monster and Dice agents on, but they almost never find anything Indeed hasn't already found. I got two jobs through Monster as direct hires, on through Monster via a recruiter, and my latest through Indeed (of a Dice ad, mind you) as a direct hire. I've come very close with recruiters each time; it's just the direct hires were much better at completing the process faster.

jdancer

Somnipotent wrote: »

if you're a noob, i say go for it, a 6-12mos contract will yield you valuable time-in-field experience. i'd shoot for the contract-to-hire positions. that's how i got in with my first IT position.

Yeah, I actually tell my students I got started via a staffing firm. They are good if you are just starting out.

EV42TMAN

Yeah it can't hurt to use them, some large companies only go through staffing agencies to save time and money. So its not a bad idea.

shodown

it depends, the larger firms usually have a lot of connections that can get you in some good spots. For my last job I went with a smaller firm and they were able to cut into their rate to give me what I wanted. With the larger ones I'm not sure it would happen.

m3zilla

It depends. I've had success with some smaller ones and TEK, and have had a terrible experience with Robert Half. I don't think the people at Robert Half even read my resume. Half the time, they emailed me about 3-6 months contracts as a Help Desk Analyst...

techdudehere

They are good for getting experience and can get you on full time if the places they send you like you. I developed a relationship with a local branch that focused on professional services placement. They sent me on a number of positions which resulted in a full time offer with a large corporation. Keep in my mind you need to perform very high quality work and be a nice guy to develop this kind of relationship, it goes both ways if you're not friendly, well dressed, and putting in your best effort then they have very little reason to do their best for you either. Larger, out of area recruiters are OK to, had good luck with them. I've only dealt with 3 or 4 staffing firms but all took good care of me.

Brain_Power

Depends on the recruiter and your current job state. I do find the ability to achieve desired salary requirements easier with recruiters involved.

lag4316

Thanks for responding. I live in Georgia. I know about TEK, but can anyone provide names of other IT staffing companies?