Anyone have experience with Teksystems?

momo5 · July 2013

Kinda nervous, have talked to a recruiter about a job(phone and email), and it seem like I was already hired from looking at my resume. I haven't met the recruiter or done a interview, but they want paperwork for drug and background check.

Job has been fully described , start date, pay. Is this normal to submit paperwork before meeting or interviewing anyone kinda nervous cause it has my SSN on the paperwork. This my first IT job and experience with contract work normally you go in for interview, then do the paperwork after your hired. But I haven't done any interview yet.

ptilsen · July 2013

Teksystems is just a recruiting company. Recruiters all like to talk really optimistically. It's how they operate. You're not hired yet. You don't even have a real interview yet. By all means, work with them, but don't let their sales nature mislead you.

Teksystems in particular is definitely legit. Obviously be sure you're working with a real recruiter there, but the company itself is real. I "interviewed" with a recruiter there seven or eight years ago. He would also talk about getting me into jobs like I was already hired, even though I wasn't even qualified enough to get an interview.

momo5 · July 2013

is there a way to verify he is a real recruiter without insulting him? Just seems odd that a company get your ssn before interview, want to set up drug test this week. I've never done background and drug test before doing interview.

Plus I really need the job it's help desk , and I've been searching for almost 3 months for entry level to get some experience.

ptilsen · July 2013

Check linkedin, google him, etc. If the email domain is correct that alone makes it seem likely.

Some of them do those things before they even get you in to interview anywhere. It has not been typical in my experience, but I've seen it.

MSP-IT · July 2013

Again, momo, it's a recruiting company. So it's an agency that gets paid to find you a job. They'll usually take all of your information and work with your skills in order to find you a job.

kurosaki00 · July 2013

Well Tek systems is just another recruiting company as others have said.
My experience with them though is that for the first time a recruiter knew what the *** he and I was talking about.

Usually they are like... what is this "VPN" thing you worked on
The experience I had with Tek Systems is that the recruiter knows some/a lot/a bit about systems or at least did his homework with the technologies you mention in your resume.
This is a personal experience though.

Though... they didnt found me a job :P

Dakinggamer87 · July 2013

I've worked with a ton of recruiting agencies and TEKSystems has been the best at matching me with the type of work I was looking for especially early on in my career. I got my first IT job with them as a PC Tech aside from my internship working in an Apple Mac repair shop.

Good luck!!

bigmantenor · July 2013

They're legit, but it will be hit or miss as far as getting you a job. I used them to try to break in to IT a few years ago, but they never actually contacted me for anything then. At this point I probably wouldn't use them, unless they happened to have a position on their site that I couldn't apply for in another way (unlikely).

rensational · July 2013

I just finished a job through TEKsystems. My experience wasn't like yours. They got a copy of my resume and then wanted me to come in for an interview. During the interview, he asked questions about what I was looking for and had me talk more about my work experience. The recruiter didn't make it seem like I had a job. He just told me that once they have something the process goes pretty quickly. Didn't hear for him for a while after that...at least a month, probably longer. I started thinking they wouldn't find me anything, but eventually he called with something and that's when I had to do background check and drug test...and that wasn't even until after I interviewed with the company where he'd found me something. After I got home from the interview, my recruiter called and told me I got the job. Then I had to come fill out W2, etc, paperwork.

The company that has me on assignment now, Appleone, actually had me do all the W2, etc, paperwork when I went in to interview with them, and they were more so like, "We have jobs, we have jobs, we have jobs" like other people are saying when that probably wasn't quite the case. Then when I finally got placed, I had to do a drug test/background check.

The common factor is having to go in for an interview, not just deal with a recruiter via phone/email, before doing anything else.

I think Aerotek is a sister company to TEKsystems, and Aerotek actually didn't do anything other than talk to me over the phone for 3 minutes after reviewing my resume...then they wanted me to come in THAT day and do background/W2 paperwork, schedule drug test as if I was hired, which I was...(because that particular job hired basically anybody). I didn't know that at the time, though...when I came in, I didn't know it was JUST to fill out paperwork and I was already hired. So it's not out of the question that you already have the job...

BTW, my job through TEKsystems was help desk, also.

J_86 · July 2013

I have not dealt with them myself, but many of my friends and classmates. I had a similar experience when dealing with a recruiter from Robert Half. After talking to him on the phone about my experience and such, he asked me to come in and talk to him. The email I received asked that I login, fill out information (which included my SSN) and make sure to bring proper ID with me.

This usually means two things. 1.) They are somewhat confident you are a good candidate; otherwise they would not be wasting time getting you setup and asking for paperwork about a drug test. Drug test cost them money. 2.) They probably have openings where they are hiring a few people (usually help desk type work) and they are trying to fill those positions as fast as they can, because whatever client they are working for wants them filled and they are usually competing against other recruiting firms.

Little odd you haven’t even had a face to face interview with at least the recruiter, but who knows. Recruiters can be a strange bunch of people

. They can be a great help in getting your first IT job, or even high level jobs, just all depends on individual recruiter.

mdomino · July 2013

Just don't forget the key detail: the recruiter doesn't work for you, he works for the client. Everyone will have mixed experiences with staffing agencies depending on a thousand different factors, but that one detail seems to be the one that everyone misses. He isn't getting paid to find you a job - he's getting paid to fill a position for the hiring client.

joebanny · July 2013

@Momo5, I worked with TekSystems some years back to land my first set of IT jobs. Don't remember all the details of how things worked back then anymore (it has been over 10 yrs.). However as someone has already said, they may not have a confirmed job for you yet but a potential one which is why they did background check and asking you to fill out more paper work.
Here is what I will suggest, tell the recruiters that you will rather come in to complete form (or ask if it can be done via a secured website) requested since you’re not comfortable giving out details including your ssn over the phone.

I think what they will do is keep you on file until something that matching your profile comes up- which may come quickly or not. I remember doing very short projects for them back then, some as short as 2 weeks (though not ideal but those proved valuable to building my skills).

Best wishes to you.
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Anyone have experience with Teksystems?

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