In the UK, estimates of the number of temporary assignments that turn into full-time appointments tend to vary between one in six and one in ten. In the US, on the other hand, a study by one leading recruitment organization suggested that the figure there may be as high as one in three - and what happens on that side of the pond more often than not repeats itself, sooner or later, over here.
Before you decide whether or not to pursue this route, however, there are a number of factors which need to be considered. To begin with, there is more than one reason why people may consider temporary work. It may be seen as:
- a way back into full-time employment, when a temporary assignment leads to the offer of a permanent post;
- a short-term stop gap - for financial or other reasons - while looking for a full-time job;
- a longer term filler (e.g. a contract for a year or two) taken on when the market is difficult in the hope that, by the time the contract comes to an end, the economy will be more buoyant and permanent jobs easier to find;
- a career in itself.
The advantages are as follows.
- Extended periods of unemployment on your CV tend to generate a negative reaction in the mind of a potential employer. It is easier to get a job when you are in a job, even if that job is a temporary one.
- You may gain valuable additional experience which helps you to market yourself.
- It often enables you to add useful new contacts to your network.
- If your confidence has started to sag, doing a useful job again can boost your morale.
- Psychologically, you will also benefit from the social and intellectual stimulation it provides.
- You can normally take time off for interviews without the embarrassment this may involve for someone in permanent employment.
- It pays the bills.
- For older candidates, who often get screened out on age grounds by headhunters and people who advertise vacancies, it provides the opportunity to get a foot in the door and to prove their worth. Although people who are over 60 may have problems getting even interim work, those in their 50s should not find age a disadvantage, provided that they have a lively appearance and manner, are energetic, and have kept up to date technically - especially with computers.
- Temporary work tends to be 'feast or famine' in its nature: you are either going flat out or doing nothing at all. Some people find this difficult to adjust to.
- You may have to tie yourself in to a contract for a period of time which limits your availability to start a new job.
- The prospects of a temporary contract leading to a permanent job can never be predicted in advance. Although you can to some extent make your own luck, there is still a large element of pure chance.
Given these disadvantages, you may decide to concentrate initially on a full-time job search, turning to temporary work only when the gap on your CV becomes worryingly long, your financial resources become worryingly short, or you simply do not seem to be getting anywhere.
Who's Who and What's what
If and when you do decide to take the plunge, you may initially be confused by the number of different terms that is bandied about: executive leasing, contract work, independent consult-ants, interim executives, interim managers, temporary executives and so on. Apart from the 'adviser* nature of consultancy and the *doer' emphasis of the other terms - and even that distinction is by no means clear cut - the only differences that go beyond pure semantics relate to the duration and level of the assignments you work on.
At one extreme are the one or two-year contracts whose length effectively takes you completely out of the job hunt for a period of time. At the other end are the one or two-week postings which occur mainly at clerical and secretarial level, filling in for people who are on holiday or off sick. In between are contracts lasting anything from a few weeks to several months and it is into this area that most executive level assignments fall.
The reasons for which such assignments arise tend to fall into two broad categories. The first is the increasing trend towards outsourcing. Having pared their permanent establishments back to the core during the recession, many organizations are extremely chary of increasing their fixed overheads again. Instead they prefer to bring in independent professionals to cover peak loads, one-off projects, or even - in some cases -ongoing needs.
The second category is the panic measure. For example, an executive may have left an organization at short notice (voluntarily or otherwise), a manager may have to take a period off work for health reasons or - as more women succeed in shattering the glass ceiling - there could be a need to cover a period of maternity leave.
The first place to look for such work is a company specializing in interim management, which is becoming the most widely accepted term for this business. Such companies may specialize solely in this sector or may be part of an organization that also handles permanent vacancies. Broadly speaking, they deal with managers who would, in permanent employment, be on salaries upwards of £30,000. Some may not be too keen on giving assignments to executives who are merely seeking filler between permanent jobs so, even if this is your true situation, you may be better off keeping quiet about it and suggesting that you are considering interim management as a longer term career.
Unlike temporary agencies, which often specialize in a particular discipline, like HR, IT or marketing, nearly all of the interim management firms cover the whole range of executive functions. Another difference is that, whereas agencies tend to have local branches, most interim management firms operate from a single location, many being based in or around London. Since you will probably not actually have to go to see them, however, until they have an assignment for you, this need not create too much of a problem.
The average length of assignments is around three months, although they can be as short as a few weeks or as long as a year or more. In order to get work from them, interim management companies may insist (for reasons connected with the Inland Revenue and self-employment) on you registering yourself as a limited company.
Do not expect, however, to be coining a regular income as soon as you apply. It may be some time before you get your first assignment. In order to be able to satisfy the wide range of needs which their clients may throw at them, interim management firms need to have a large pool of readily available candidates, by no means all of whom will actually be out at clients at any one time, and downtime tends to be highest among those who are in their first year as interim managers.
It is therefore sensible to register with several firms, and also to take other steps to find contract work. Depending on your seniority, it may be worth contacting temporary agencies. They operate in much the same way as executive leasing firms, but at lower levels. Nevertheless, those that specialize in a particular discipline, such as accountancy, banking, engineering or IT may handle some assignments which encroach on the lower end of interim management territory.
Bear in mind too that there is a tendency to over-employ when filling temporary positions. Clients need candidates who can hit the ground running. Although this may mean that you are asked to operate at a slightly lower level than you are used to, the temporary nature of the contract means that you are unlikely to be doing this for long enough for it to get boring. In any case, a new environment always provides fresh interest, and there are often stimulating challenges inherent in the assignment itself.
Temporary agencies may well offer you the choice of operating as a limited company or going onto their payroll. (Like interim management firms, they cannot pay you on a self-employed basis.) Operating as a limited company has some tax advantages in that you can reclaim various types of expenses, but this has to be offset against the costs, and time, involved in setting up a company.
In addition to interim management firms and the temporary divisions of agencies, you can also source your own assignments as part of your networking activities by mentioning to contacts that you would like to consider short-term assignments. One thing to remember, however you source the work, is that temporary requirements can be of an extremely urgent nature -you have to be ready, if required, to drop everything else and start at a few days' notice.
A Question of Commitment
The commitment to being available virtually immediately is not the only one you have to make. It is also vital that you approach the actual assignment with every bit as much commitment as you would put into a permanent job. Think of yourself as part of the company, not as an outsider who is acting as a consultant or doing a fire brigade exercise.
If you adopt this approach, you stand a far better chance of becoming a permanent employee of the organization in question. Even if the post you are filling on a temporary basis cannot be made into a permanent one, there is always the chance that another position may arise within the company and that you may get a crack at it before it is advertised or put out to headhunters. In fact, if you make a really strong impression, and take advantage of every opportunity to make key decision makers aware of the tangible benefits you could bring to the organization, a post may even be created for you.
This is the beauty of temporary work. It gives you an opportunity you never get when you apply for a job from the outside. Working within the company, you can demonstrate your ability both to do the work, and to fit in both with your colleagues and with the culture.
A further advantage is the chance it gives you to get the feel of a new business sector, organization or position from the inside. If you are offered a permanent post, and decide to accept, it is much more likely to be a success than when, as is the normal case with a new job, you start cold on day one. The impression gained at interview is, for a variety of reasons, not always a completely accurate one.
Interims International
Although interim management is established in the US, a British executive is unlikely to get the opportunity to work in America. With the exception of the Netherlands, Western Europe is not particularly fertile soil either, the problem being more to do with attitudes and legislation than with languages - what interim work there is for Brits is likely to be for European subsidiaries of UK groups. The best bet, if you do not mind working there for a few months, is Eastern Europe, where the effects of the sweeping political changes have created a demand, usually through international institutions or global accountancy and consulting firms, for experienced executives.
The Best of Both Worlds?
Because of the disruption full-time assignment work causes to the main priority of finding a permanent job, you may prefer to consider part-time work. This has nearly all of the advantages of temporary assignments in that it:
- plugs a gap in your CV;
- may provide marketable additional experience;
- often adds new contacts to your network;
- can boost flagging confidence;
- provides social and intellectual stimulation;
- helps to pay the bills;
- creates even fewer problems when you want to go for an interview.
- Furthermore, part-time work is mercifully free of two of the four disadvantages of temporary contracts in that:
- it tends to come in a steady flow, rather than being feast or famine stuff;
- it leaves you a reasonable amount of time free, on a regular basis, to pursue your hunt for a permanent, full-time position.
The first problem is that a lot of part-time work tends to be permanent, rather than temporary. Even if ditching the part-time job as soon as a full-time one comes along does not bother you, it is likely to be a concern to prospective employers, who may prefer to hire a candidate with genuine long-term reasons for seeking part-time employment.
On the other hand, interim management firms do seem to be reporting an increasing trickle, if not yet a flood, of temporary assignments that involve working for anything between one and four days a week. This area is worth exploring.
A second problem is that, with the exception of assignments handled by interim management firms, part-time work may be harder to find. Since the amount handled by agencies is negligible, you will have to rely predominantly on advertisements and on your own efforts - networking and speculative applications. While the techniques you use will be largely the same as those for seeking permanent employment, do bear in mind the following points.
- Conduct a thorough review of all your skills, experience etc. to assess what is most likely to be saleable in the part-time marketplace.
- This may not be the same as what is saleable in the permanent, full-time market. For example, you may be able to obtain part-time work lecturing in your technical discipline.
- Do not necessarily expect to find temporary work at the same level of seniority as permanent work. Although your last position may have been largely managerial, be prepared to go back to using your core skills if necessary.
- Think carefully about your targeting. The buyers of part-time services will not necessarily be the same as the people who are likely to have a permanent Job for you.
- Use focused letters, rather than your CV, when you comtunicate in writing. Prepare your letters carefully, ensuring that they highlight the benefits you can offer to the recipients.
A Final Thought
If earning a crust has not yet become your number one priority, you could get your foot in the door with a prospective employer by offering the ultimate benefit - something for nothing.
Should you, through networking for example, identify a need but find that the person in question is dubious about committing funds to the project in question without being a little more confident of the benefits you could offer to do a certain amount of work for no financial reward.
You could explain that the project is something which particularly interests you, or that you simply wish to keep your hand in and this would be an ideal opportunity to do so. The initial work might involve researching a market, or investigating a product and producing a preliminary report on its viability.
You may even stumble across a situation where a company is merging creating a new post, but is hesitant about going over the uncertainties in the economy. Alternatively, your are an older candidate and they may want to see before taking you on to the payroll.
Naturally, you have to take care not to be exploited, and to limit the amount you are prepared to do without either being offered a permanent job, or at least a paid assignment. It is a calculated risk, but remember the old saying: nothing ventured, nothing gained.
"The killer CV and the professional assassin have a lot in common."
