Maybe you’re about to graduate into the real world with little or no work experience. Or maybe you’re feeling clueless about what career you should pursue or what type of organization you should work for. Or perhaps you just plain need to earn some money to pay for school, rent and food.
Whatever your particular circumstances, temping can probably help you as a college student or recent graduate. Why? Because temping, while not the perfect solution to all of your problems, does offer a considerable number of potential benefits where your career is concerned.
If you like variety and challenge, and you’re interested in gaining new skills, new networking contacts, new experiences and new career insights, temping will likely be a good fit for you.
If you work as a temp, whether for a few days, a few weeks or even a few months or years, you will:
Gain practical work experience, either in your chosen industry or a different field.
See your chosen field, or a different one, from the inside instead of simply reading or talking about it.
Get a glimpse of different companies and organizations, and see firsthand how they function.
Meet people who will actually get to know you and evaluate your work performance, just in case a full-time, permanent position opens up in the company you’re interested in working for. You get to explore different employers and learn new skills and broaden your experience.
You may also have a flexible schedule — since you can choose when and how much you want to work — and be able to demonstrate your adaptability, As long as you are a quick leaner and able to hit the ground running on the job, you will be a great fit for some organizations.