Should I Temp Or Should I Go? The Dilemma Of Contract-To-Perm Positions

iStock | monkeybusinessimages

During the course of a job search, you may be drawn to a temporary-to-permanent opening. These are usually full-time contract positions for a set period of time, and, if certain conditions are met by the end date, may lead to a permanent hire. Sometimes those conditions are specified, while often no information is given until you’re in the role and performing, but you should assume that a stellar performance review will be the minimum required.

Herein lies the dilemma. Do you roll the dice on a temp-to-perm position or stick with searching only for a permanent position? Right off, if you consider a temp-to-perm position the permanent part should be two things – 1) a job you really want, and 2) at a company for which you really want to work. Otherwise, what’s the point?

If you’re considering a temp-to-perm position, here are some pros and cons to consider:

Pros:

• While circumstances vary, if you’re not working in a full-time job chances are it won’t hurt if you have money coming in – even if it’s temporary.

• Taking a temporary position gives you the opportunity to see behind the curtain. At the onset, the only agreement that is binding is the short-term contract position. You may or may not get a permanent job offer that you may or may not accept. You can take the job for a spin before you commit. If you love it, turn up the heat and charm and elevate yourself into a full-time employee. If it’s a disaster, take the money and run.

• Let’s say you accept a temp-to-perm job and it turns out to be everything you want and more. Instead of trying to convince a room full of strangers you’re perfect for the job,  you have a chance to excel from the inside, turn those strangers into friends, and build a track record of success with the people who will ultimately decide whether or not to hire you. Think of it as a long, paid job interview.

• Even if the position ends, you’ve made important connections and now have a history with the company. Sometimes temp jobs lead to permanent positions well after the temp job ends. The job you just completed may open up again, or a different one, and you may be the first phone call when it does. In addition, the company may have a “first who, then what” hiring philosophy. If they believe someone is a great match, they will find a reason to hire them.

• Just like it may be easier to get a full-time job with a company for which you’ve already worked as a temp, it’s a fact that it’s easier to find any full-time job when you’re already working. It’s a perception thing. Somebody getting up and going to a job every day, no matter what job, is looked at more favorably than someone sitting home watching (please choose from the following list based on your age) TV, TV on your laptop, YouTube, or Tik Tok.

Cons:

• Remember, i’s a temp job. You’re not a full-time employee, which means there is less job security. If you’re paid by a staffing firm, you’re not on the company payroll, and, if you are, your position is budgeted for a limited time. Beyond that, there are no guarantees.

• Since you’re not a full-time employee you do not have any of the benefits or perks that go along with it. It’s often salary or hourly wage only, and benefits may or may not be provided through the staffing agency that placed you there. Even if you are provided benefits, they’re often lean as compared to those of a full employee – you’re on your own for everything else.

• A temp-to-perm job can be a grind. You’re “just a temp.” It’s easy to replace you, so you essentially have to over-perform and be mindful of your behavior. Temps can be held to higher standards to keep their jobs. That’s the downside of the “long paid interview” setup, and sometimes you don’t get the full-time job.  

• You sacrifice time that could be spent searching for a full-time job and may make the logistics of a job search more difficult versus not reporting to work. Even though you’re a temp, you’re not free to leave anytime you want. You’re expected to operate like any other employee and won’t necessarily have extra flexibility to search for a full-time job.

---

Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

The Pros and Cons of Public and Private Sector Careers: Making the Right Choice for You

iStock | Jarmo Piironen

When it comes to work, positions generally fall into either the private sector (i.e., companies) and the other side is the public sector (i.e., government). In 2021, 21.1 million people worked in the public sector, which includes active military, and federal, state, and local government, including teachers, healthcare, and law enforcement. Last we checked, there were currently 44,878 public sector job openings on Indeed.com and, according to averagesalarysurvey.com, the average salary for public sector professionals is $71,420, the most typical salary being $52,000.

What are the benefits and drawbacks of a career in the public sector? Let’s start with the “cons”: 

The most obvious con to working in the public sector is (for the most part) public-sector professionals earn less money than their private-sector counterparts. When your salary is paid by taxpayers, you’re not going to be making a million dollars with an expense account, company car, or stock options. The majority of the approximately 21.1 million public sector workers hover around that $52,000 mark.

And speaking of compensation, if you don’t want people to know how much money you make, stick to the private sector. When you work for the public, your salary is public. This is to promote transparency, ensure accountability, and prevent corruption. There are entire watchdog organizations that spend their time tracking taxpayer dollars, including salaries, to those ends (or partisan ones).

Also, Don’t expect a quick hiring process. Time isn’t money. Hiring for public sector jobs may take a long time, especially if it’s a job that involves sensitive areas and requires invasive background/security clearance checks. The military, education, health care, law enforcement, and government administration have their own onboarding processes (e.g., basic training, police academy, advanced degrees/teaching certifications, etc.,) and all of them take time. Patience and tenacity are required.

Additionally, unlike corporate America with its well-defined hierarchy and org charts, upward mobility may not be as clearly defined and it may take longer to move into higher positions of influence, power, and compensation. In the public sector, performance isn’t measured by the accounting department. It’s measured by less tangible criteria unique to its sector. For example, a private in the Marines, a public school teacher, and a police officer have very different missions and performance standards, but they are united by the fact they are taxpayer-funded and “rising in the ranks” isn’t based on profit. Patience and tenacity are required.

What if you’re a technologist? Unless you’re working for DARPA designing cutting edge systems, state-of-the-art technology doesn’t necessarily define the public sector. There is less money to spend on hardware, training, research, and development. 

On the other hand, a life of public service can be very rewarding. Here’s the “pros”:

The public sector is mission-driven, not profit-driven. You’re there to serve people. Personal happiness is often greatly enhanced by meaningful work and meaningful professional relationships. The public sector is designed to promote those two ambitions. Your work directly impacts your community – hopefully in a positive way!  

While the public sector’s base compensation and earnings potential is lower than the private sector, the compensation package may have its silver linings. Government benefits such as pensions, 401ks, health insurance, life insurance, etc., tend to be relatively robust. Schedules and vacation time may be more flexible. Since everybody knows the economic trade-off when working in the public sector vs. the private sector, the public sector will provide as many extras and perks as it can. 

Also, there tends to be greater job security in the public sector. There will always be a military, children who need to be educated, veterans who need health care, and cities and states that need dedicated and talented professionals to keep the lights on and roads paved. Public sector workers are less vulnerable during recessions. Nobody is going to buy out the local government and move it overseas. Everybody needs government services on an ongoing basis.

When it comes to overall performance, instead of slogging through a year-end financial report to know whether the company had a good or bad year like a private sector company, public sector professionals see the results of their work all around them every day. They interact with their customers – aka neighbors – all the time. The public sector is public service, so if you love to help people, the public sector may be your calling.

Then there’s the unique career opportunities which come available due to the nature of the services the public sector provides. you may get a chance to perform work that would otherwise be closed off to you. There are things that only the government can do and there are even more that only the federal government can do on a large scale. For example, emergency management. For all its public sector faults (e.g., slow), if you work for FEMA, you’re saintly. You go to where the disasters are and help people who need it the most. The National Guard does that too. And cops, firefighters, and every type of first responder. That’s pretty great and those kinds of opportunities are mostly found in the public sector.

And last, due to the nature of the federal government, many public sector jobs are overseas, so you may get to see the world. The U.S. military and federal agencies operate around the world. Bon voyage!

---

Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

Navigating Your Career: Pros and Cons of Different Paths to Success

iStock | Moor Studio

Career trajectories move in different ways, and won’t move in others, and it helps if you can see several moves ahead if you want to develop a realistic and achievable long-term career plan. Here are the pros and cons of the most common career tracks.

Management track – This is the track with which most people are familiar. It’s the traditional “climb the corporate ladder” model. You start at the bottom (or wherever) and top performers move up the org chart to the highest level they can and a talented few occupy the C-Suites.

Pros as you climb:

·      More money.

·      Better title

·      More responsibility.

·      More prestige.

·      More influence.

Cons as you climb:

·      Sometimes being the best isn’t good enough. “Office politics” can be ruthless.

·      More responsibility means more time and effort.

·      Less work/life balance.

·      Less time doing what got you there, which for many professionals is what they were passionate about in the first place.

·      Job shifts from doing what you love to supervising other people’s work.

Technical Leadership – This is a track for professionals with a rare combination of qualities: advanced technical proficiency, leadership skills, and strategic thinking. Companies have varying names like “Distinguished Fellow,” and, “Senior Technologist,” for technical leadership positions but they are united by their application of special technical skills to lead teams that are experts in that field.

Pros of the technical leadership track:

·      Special skills mean special compensation (more money)

·      Better title

·      More responsibility.

·      More prestige.

·      More influence.

Cons of the technical leadership track:

·      You don’t get to flex your managerial muscles.

·      You may have management duties but your main focus will be on the tech.

·      Upward mobility hits a plateau.

Go sideways – It is common to be in one role and wish to be in another, however, it is uncommon to do anything about it. If you possess a certain skill that you believe will help you cross over to another you may be able to make a lateral move into a job more to your liking.  For example, marketing to communications, engineering to product management, or line manager to project manager.

Pros of sideways track:

·      A fresh start.

·      A track to use multiple skill sets.

·      A track to master different disciplines.

·      You can show off your skills to a new group and elevate your profile.

Cons of a sideways track:

·      The opposite is true. If the spotlight is on you, everybody is looking at you.

·      You may stay flat compensation-wise. Not necessarily, but possibly.

·      This is not moving upward. This takes advantage of new opportunities where you may learn new skill sets that are transferrable or help you “move up” in the future.

Go diagonal. Really step outside of your box and try something completely different for the same company. This is really a “first who, then what” scenario where you’re either tapped to take the helm of something radically different than anything you’ve done before because of your past and current professional performance and reputation (it’s earned!) or you’ve created a diagonal track for yourself and your company has agreed to go along for the same reasons. Either way, it’s because of a great track record.

Pros of going diagonal:

·      The challenge of a lifetime.

·      Potential for more money.

·      Self-growth and development.

·      Success may create more mobility up, down, and sideways.

Cons of going diagonal:

·      A diagonal move is highly visible. If you stumble, you may stumble hard.

·      A diagonal move doesn’t necessarily mean moving up. It may be a special project that leaves you dangling when it’s complete, or a role that has limited time to show results before being folded. It may be your dream job, but it still may be professionally stagnant.

·      Uncertainty and stress.

Course Correction: Try a new company. Go back to school. Try a new field. A completely new opportunity. Move to another state. Another country. An upheaval. A major pivot. From someone who knows, a course correction is a gamble. It can be a high-risk, high-reward track but it can also be a high-risk, no-reward track. Proceed with cautious wild abandon.

Pros of a course correction:

·      You will be a new person living a new life.

·      As with every new course, at its inception, the sky is the limit.

·      A transition can be exciting and challenge you in ways you have not been before.

·      You will develop a completely new professional network.

·      You are likely to be exposed to new opportunities.

Cons of a course correction:

·      Depending on your financial situation, course corrections take time and money (i.e., going back to school).

·      You will most likely experience a pay cut. Think of it this way. When accomplished lawyers raking in truckloads of cash get elected to be judges they take a major pay cut in exchange for truckloads of prestige and influence. Was it an upward or downward move? It was neither. It was a course correction.

·      You will most likely have to start at the bottom of your new endeavor, regardless of age or experience.

·      You will compete with more experienced people.

·      It may take a while to achieve success.

Find Your Sweet Spot: Your career track may not be to “move up,” but to achieve a harmonious work/life balance doing work that is more meaningful to you even if it’s less lucrative (don’t despair – a lot of the time it’s more lucrative!). Maybe it’s a flexible or remote schedule. Or a job you can walk to. Decide what that sweet spot is and move across the board accordingly.

---

Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.