Is working for Aerotek a good choice?

Aerotek is a company that provides recruiting & staffing services across Canada. But is it worth signing a contract with this so called recruiting company? In their web site, they have said:

"Since 1985, Aerotek's history of dealing fairly and personally with clients and job seekers has made us a leader in the marketplace. We have a long history of customized recruiting and placement solutions that continually place the best candidates at all levels of skill and expertise. We know first hand that expertise is critical for finding the perfect fit and a successful placement." http://www.aerotekcanada.ca/

Words like those would lure anyone looking for a job, but is it really worth giving them your time? Sure, you'll be having other people find you jobs without you slamming your head on your desk banging the phone on the wall, but words are just words. They say it but do they really mean it? Everybody is different, so some people may follow what Aerotek says, and some might not.

Blogger Yajaec has claimed he worked with Aerotek and he has posted this:

"So, my sub-contract company sucks total ass.

After first they offer me no vacation time except 6 holiday a year, that's it. After I talk to them, they said since I'm a good worker, they give me 5 personal days off on that, last year.

This year, due to my TW-military trip thing, I must go and take about 2-3 week of time. so I request them to give me more, like 2-3 week of the vacation time...

Just now, this lady called back saying that, ok, yea, we have extended and give you 2 weeks off...

2 weels meaning, I have my regular 6 holidays a year and then 10 personal day off(they call that 2 weeks off)." http://yajaec.livejournal.com/134980.html

In my own defence, I do not know what TW-military trip thing means, but it does in fact sound serious since it has the word 'military' in it. Also, labour statistics shows that the minimum vacation time in Canada is 10 working days, determined by provincial law. This statement says a bit of Yajaec's problem. The least amount of vacation days given in the world is 7 days in Hong Kong, Mexico, Singapore and Taiwan. The most vacation days given in the world is 35 days in Finland, so does it seem fair for Aerotek to give Yajaec only 2 weeks off which was his 6 holidays and then 10 personal days off.

But here's where things go against Yajaec. The minumum amount of vacation days given is 2 weeks after 12 months of their first day of work, 3 weeks after 5 consecutive years of employment. It is said that if an employee has not worked for 12 months, the employer does not have to allow the employee to take any time off. The reason for this is that they do not earn any vacation time, only vacation pay. He said he requested more time off and they gave him 10 days, the minumum amount of vacation days given, so when you look at it from one man's perspective and not a ranter's, it's his loss of the fight.

Some have had problems of Aerotek being only a scam. Take this blogger's post:

"When I finally arrived for the interview (dressed professionally with my resume as requested) they told me to call back within a week to see if there's an open position ... I contacted the manager (the interviewer) and could not get a hold of him to save my life. All I could get is the snotty receptionist who was so horrible at making excuses for her boss. She transferred me to the boss who never picked up and I got forwarded back to her. Their excuse? Sorry my boss must've picked up another line on accident can I take a message? I leave her a message and she makes a snotty noise." http://www.jobvent.com/review-of-job-at-aerotek-R52185

That's a big problem for Aerotek if this story is true. Aerotek claims they are the leader in technical and professional staffing, but if they keep receptionists like those, they won't be sooner or later. Also, putting her boss in the conversation also makes it look bad for her boss indeed.

I probably agree with him in the call back within a week talk because I have had that same experience. I came with a resume, looking good. They said they'll call if anything comes up or I can call to see if there's something for me. Now I'm pretty sure there was since I told him I would take anything, but that's not me to accurately say. It took them pretty much 5 months to call me back, but here's where the odd part comes, it was someone else who called me, not the same guy who called me in and looked at my resume. Nevertheless, I have signed with them and worked for them for 3 months now.


Need I say more odd things? all right I will. My first job with them lasted only 3 days out of a 2 week contract. They told me I will surely work for 2 weeks, I didn't. They said there will be a lot of young people working there because it was during the summer season, I was pretty much the only one. Does that give you enough reason to not work for Aerotek?

Here's my last complaint for Aerotek. My third job was supposed to be a 3 month contract, I read it and signed it myself. But now it has changed to only 1 month. I signed papers that have said 3 months, but when I looked at my copy of the agreement, it has said 1 month. Some people I have worked with have also complained about the 1 month switch, but Aerotek denied their doing. They had also denied to pay my last weeks work on Monday when Monday really was payday.

Here's a story from a former employee of Aerotek who shall remain anonymous as he wishes.

"Well, I've been working as a temporary worker with Aerotek for 6 months and done 3 different jobs for them.

My first job with them was with a logistics company, that shall be unnamed, and the work there was fine although there was this one tiny little problem that I didn't pay attention to much back then. It was the people I worked with who were such strange characters. One was obviously a druggie but he was an ok guy, another was this 30 y/o asian who had this twitch where he would stretch his teeth whenever he was trying to think (I even got into a fight with the guy but that's another story) but the kid that stood out the most there was this seemingly stable brown guy. Out of all of us, he seemed like he actually had his sh*t together but simply after three days, he blew up at one of the Logistics employees and he was immediately thrown out.

Second job was at Greyhound Bus Depot. The work there was pretty simple and I got paid a very decent wage. Work was good until I got careless one day and left my phone at the lunch room table because apparently there was no one on the platform and two buses rolled in. 20min later I checked to see if my phone was still at lunch table and it wasn't. Through some questioning, I found out that the only people in and out of that room was end of the morning shift for Aerotek. I was pissed off but hey, that's life... until the guy rung me a $300 phone bill the next day from buying games for the phone and sh*t. I got super pissed off so I called Aerotek to demand who was morning shift for that day; they refused to give out any names so I'm stuck with this giant phone bill I can't pay.

Not only that happened but Aerotek made me work 10 days in a row without any overtime at Greyhound. How did they pull that off you ask? Well apparently due to the fact that we're being paid weekly, they can and have made me work on the last five days of the first week and then gave me work on the first 5 days of the second week for a solid 10 day work week. Normally with a bi-weekly pay schedule, people would of clued in that 'Hey, this guy worked for more than 40 hours in a row without any days off, he deserves overtime' but no, that didn't happen to me. Reading this paragraph, I sound like a little b*tch for complaining about some simple work but near the end of 10 day work weekm there's was tons of people on the busses b*tchy and whiny about their trips. With these grumpy people came their 30lbs to 80lbs bags that had to be loaded/unloaded quickly.

Now for my last and final job with Aerotek, they told us we would be working January so I waited, denying part-time work because I was going to get full-time work 'any day now'. What was supposed to be Jan. 14 turned into Jan. 28 which became Feb. 2nd. That's a full month of not working to help pay off that f*cking cell-phone bill Aerotek so kindly denied me the chance of seeking damages because I couldn't fins out who to sue. So now that's another $100 to my bill from not being able to pay.

When I finally recieved that call to work I was glad only to have Aerotek turn my 5 day mon-fri work schedule to thurs-sat morning shift and the sun-mon afternoon shift which screwed up my sleeping a bit. 'Wait, sunday-monday?' Isn't that 6 days in the work week; hooray! That means a day dedicated to overtime right even though I should be getting 4 days right? Wrong... Apparently Aerotek has the ability to change the start of the work week whenever they want because it is not a defined term in the contract. They pulled some really gay bureaucracy on me. WELL F*CK YOU TOO, THIS IS MY LAST JOB WITH YOU GUYS."

Judging from that little story, he's got a plate full of problems on his hands. Some of you might say, no way, it's nothing but a fake story. Well, if you opened your eyes a little more, there's plenty of people who have problems worse then this, and Topicied Blogger doesn't lie.

About his cell phone problem, I don't understand why Aerotek wouldn't help him find the person who stole it and gave him a big hearty bill in return. Aerotek claimed to be, and I quote "Professional Staffing and Employment Services"
http://www.aerotek.com/About-Us/Default.aspx

If they claim to be the leader in technical and professional staffing and employment services, why do they hire drug addicts and people with disorders and obviously mental problems? Sure, everybody is different, but having someone that gets drugged up from Aerotek is making the bubbles overflow the cooking pot. They said (if you look at the beginning of this blog) they have a long history of customized recruiting and placement solutions that continually place the best candidates at all levels of expertise and skills. So why is it that almost 80% of the people I seen from Aerotek doesn't reach that quota?

As for the overtime problem, I am really surprised at that. Aerotek changing the work week making sure that they do not get paid overtime. Is Aerotek stupid, or just greedy? I mean, this guy obviously earned the overtime pay, working 10 days straight, I would pay him overtime, HE EARNED IT! but if Aerotek (excuse my french) doesn't have the balls to pay a man extra for his hard work, then you gotta ask yourself, who out of the whole Aerotek company holds the balls, because he needs to give them back to keep his company a leader in professional staffing.

This is the end of my Blog, long but very serious indeed. So, the answer to this question, is Aerotek really worth applying to? My answer is no, there are numerous jobs out there that are more loyal, no matter how lame the job is, it's better than having bosses turning you into their puppets with too many strings attached. I know a lot of you will agree with me on this one.

It's your choice to sign with them or not, even if you want to find out for yourself, you won't know it at first, but you'll start to understand.

Remember, not all things are what they seem. You really can't judge a book by it's cover, I learned the hard way.

The Topicied Blogger, signing out till next time.