How to Find a Job After Being a Stay-At-Home Mom Using a Temp Agency

For women who have been stay-at-home mothers and are now trying to get back to work full-time, here is some advise from someone who has been through it.

I had been an office worker before I quit work to stay home during my second pregnancy. Even though I had been out of the work force for many years, I had kept up on my word processing and bookkeeping skills through some freelance gigs. I decided to apply at a temporary agency, hoping for a temp-to-hire placement position.

The temporary agency specialized mostly in office jobs such as administrative assistant, data entry, receptionist and customer service. I was looking for something part-time, so that I could see the children off and on the school bus. That was a bit of a stretch, because most positions wanted a full time assistant. My appointment at the temp agency involved taking an interactive computer based test, which evaluated skills in typing, Excel, Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. There was also a lengthy application as well as an interview. It was a very thorough appointment and much more elaborate than I had been anticipating.

I passed everything acceptably and that evening I received a call that there was an opening the very next day at a large corporation nearby. They had wanted full-time, but wanted me anyway, even though I said I could only work part-time. The temp job lasted a few months and the company started interviewing a full time permanent replacement. Since they thought I was only interested in working part-time, I was not considered for the opening, even though I did inquire.

I ended up training the new hire and my job was over after one week of training. I had been in touch with the temp agency and found a placement immediately in a large corporation. I stayed with my part-time hours while I got my personal life together. I found a daycare center and arranged to work full-time. The temp job I had wanted me to work more hours, so that worked out well. After a few months, some permanent employees began switching jobs or leaving in my department. I saw a couple come and go and I began to think I would like working at the company as an employee rather than as an independent contractor.

Eventually, one more person announced her departure and I expressed my interest in the opening. I was told it was only open to current employees. I searched online for openings that were open to anyone, but the positions were mostly higher level managerial jobs. After several more months went by I found out that if a temp were working at the company for one year, they would be considered an employee! I thought that would be great, I would sneak in the back way. As it turned out, I never had to try that ploy because I did end up interviewing and accepting a position in the department that I worked as a temp. I got lucky and was at the right place at the right time.

10 Tips for Turning a Temp Job into a Full-Time Permanent Job

1. Always stay positive and friendly and NEVER gossip.

2. Always keep your eyes and ears open to positions that may be opening up.

3. Try and volunteer for extra assignments and get them done extraordinarily well.

4. Keep your desk neat, don't surf the internet, don't make a lot of personal calls.

5. Search the company's bulletin board or online job opening regularly.

6. Keep in touch with your temp agency, especially if your assignment is about to expire.

7. Try and network with employees to see if you would be a good fit at the company.

8. Update your resume to reflect your current temp responsibilities.

9. Get out of your comfort zone and talk with other people about your interest as a permanent employee with their company.

10. Check into the time limit policy at your company to see if you can "sneak" your way into becoming permanent - check discreetly, the time limit is usually one year, and you don't want to ask right before that one year is up in case you might alert them to the fact that you have been there almost a year.