Friday, October 31, 2008

The wonderful world of temping

So, I'm not really unemployed. I use the term "unemployed" because I have no job that lasts more than a few weeks.

I'm currently temping through an Atlanta staffing company. I've learned that as long as you have an undergraduate degree, a few skills, and are not above doing menial labor at the drop of a hat, you get the job.
The only gripe I have with my staffing agency is that they never offer a description of the work.
My first job with them, they asked me if I was a super-star in Excel (which, sadly, I am) and then if I wanted to do data entry for "a few" weeks down-town. The idea of data entry sounds terribly boring, but the pay was good, so I figured if it sucked, I only signed on for "a few" weeks, which I could maneuver, if need be, to being there only 2-3 weeks. The job ended up being awesome, with virtually no Excel work. I let them reassign me for over eight months. The funny thing was that no one seemed to notice that I was not salary, but hourly. They were amazed that I volunteered to stay late (hello, time-and-a-half overtime- cha-ching!) and didn't leave immediately when they came to my desk and said "it's a beautiful afternoon, take off early today" because as much as a appreciated the green light to head out, that would cost me 3 hours of pay... and I actually liked this job, so I'd usually stay.

The temp job I'm doing now was described as "Project Coordinating" for "5-8 weeks" which I learned my first day that it was really..... DATA ENTRY! noooooooooooooooo!
I have virtually no human contact. I read reports and update the numbers into Excel. The pay is decent, but I'm not exactly happy to get up in the morning to come into the office.
Of course, here I am in week 7, and they want me to work the full 8 weeks. (Damn it, I shouldn't be such a good worker!)
I'll keep you posted when I find out where they place me next.

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