If your staffing service asks you to interview with one of its clients for a temporary position, you may think “Oh, it’s just a temp job; not important.”
And you’d be very wrong.
Temporary positions often result in more permanent work. Even if you’re not interviewing for a direct-hire or a temp-to-hire opportunity, many hiring managers are looking for talented and reliable employees – at least in the back of their minds.
So you should always look at an interview for a temporary assignment as a “real” job interview. After all, if very could turn into a non-temp job!
Read below for some tips on how to ace your interview for a temporary position:
- Look at the interview as a “real” job interview. Even if it never becomes anything but a temporary position, you’re still working; it’s still a real job.
- So dress appropriately. If it’s a managerial or administrative position, wear a suit (skirt suit for women or dress and blazer; suit or jacket and dress slacks for men). If you’ll be working in a warehouse position, wear nice slacks and shirt (nothing less than a collared polo shirt; absolutely no t-shirts!).
- Your staffing supervisor will give you a name and address of the company so that you can get to the interview. So do your research. Check out the firm’s website and learn as much as you can about the firm. Go to LinkedIn and look up the person with whom you’ll be interviewing. Google the company’s name and see what you can find. The more you know about the company, the more you can talk about it and how your particular skills can help it.
- Ask your staffing manager for the description of the position for which you’re interviewing. Study it and then get a piece of paper and write down the position’s stated requirements on one side and then write down on the other how you meet or exceed the requirements. Add additional skills or attributes not listed in the job description that you possess that you think will benefit the company. As the interview progresses and you see appropriate openings, mention how your skills match/exceed requirements and how you have additional skills, etc.
- Your staffing manager undoubtedly will send a copy of your resume to its client, but be sure to bring a few copies yourself to your interview.
- Check with your staffing manager and ask if it’s OK if you ask the client company’s interviewer about the chances of the position becoming more permanent. (If your staffing manager says not to bring it up, don’t bring it up at the interview. Just remember that if you do a great job, the company may still want to hire you). If your staffing manager says it’s OK to talk about it, you can bring it up at the interview and, if you get a positive response from your interviewer (“You never know because we’ve often hired on people that the Opti Staffing Group sends us”), then feel to say you’d be interested in talking to the interviewer as well as your staffing manager when the time comes about a more permanent job.
Whether you’re looking for permanent work or temporary work to tide you over as you look for work in Anchorage, Seattle, Lake Oswego, Tacoma, Chicago, or Portland, contact the recruiters at the Opti Staffing Group. We have great opportunities with some of these cities’ top companies.