- A software writer for IBM.
- An emergency-room physician in Kansas.
- A tax accountant at a Fortune 100 giant.
- An attorney handling a lawsuit in Denver.
- A missile engineer for Lockheed.
- An architect in St. Louis.
Each professional temp has his or her own story-the chemist whose first love is tournament bridge, the physician who is a concert cellist, and the attorney who won't give up her family for a corner office with a view at a top-tier law firm. They are making a statement: It is okay to make your career fit around your life, rather than your life around your career. And corporate America is paying attention.
Labor experts tell us that the rise of the professional temp is due largely to the change from an industry-based economy to a service-based economy individuals are able to market themselves and their talents with considerable ease. Companies say it is cheaper to pay for a specialized skill only as long as it is needed, and many feel it is strategically smart to use contract help when a business is growing extremely rapidly or is in a phase of uncertainty.
Professional temps have had a dramatic impact on the temp industry in general, up scaling its image and calling attention to the pleasures of temping as well as to the economic sense of using temps. One programmer told us, "I am financially and emotionally secure... I never needed to be a company man." Most recently, the type of professions getting press include medicine, law, engineering, accounting, science, and management. Temp firms based on these specializations have been created, and the field is growing wider and wider. American universities graduate 37,000 lawyers, 16,000 doctors, and 51,000 accountants annually; a growing number of these individuals will opt for temporary employment.
Finding a service
Locating a service for your special talents is not as difficult as it may seem. First, many services are based in a certain area, but they send temporaries out on contracts and assignments all over the country. You can register with a firm in Indianapolis and work in Seattle or, of course, closer to home. Second, almost every service we interviewed was in the Yellow Pages, not necessarily with other temporary services, but sometimes listed under its specialty. For example, depending on where you live, a legal temporary service might be found under "Legal" or "Law." Third, most of the professional temps we spoke with had hooked up with their firms through a referral by a friend, business contact, or professional association. This was, by far, the most popular way of finding a service that they were happy with.
Services also run recruitment ads in newspapers and trade journals. Many run open houses and invite prospects to come in with their resume for an interview. A few firms recruited through direct mail, using mailing lists of members of industry trade groups and associations.
The Pros and Cons
Many of the temps we spoke with in the professional marketplace loved their lives and temped as a career; they were neither seeking jobs nor pursuing outside passions. An overwhelming number had found that this career life-style was a way to focus on the aspects of their professions that they enjoyed the most without dealing with corporate politics or feeling guilty about not wanting to move up the expected ladders. These people always had work when they wanted it, with the exception of the creative group. In an attempt to see the big picture, we asked what the real problems were in choosing this way of life.
We were told that some of the permanent staff on jobs where temps were working were not receptive, and insisted on checking over work until the individual either said something or proved his or her expertise. Several remarked that continually having to prove one was tiring, and some missed the advice and protection of a mentor. Those who had temped and then went back into permanent work (or attempted to) said that once outside the walls of the traditional work force, it was difficult to get back in. Employers were not skeptical of their skills but of their staying power-there were the perception that such a candidate had been out on his or her own and could leave again.
Finally, whether it truly is the jargon, or temporary professionals are more career-and status-conscious than they think they are, we found that almost all those in this category referred to themselves or their employees as freelancers, consultants, or independents. Rarely did we hear the term temp, although the way in which the services worked was, in fact, the way a temporary help service operates.
