Nelson

I went to an Employer Forum at YWCA Careers for Women 50+ in San Rafael. The person speaking was a woman who worked at Nelson in the Accountants department (Santa Rosa), telling us how the company worked. I asked her about Legal Secretary jobs, and she gave me her card to send her an e-​mail and she would send me an e-​mail back cc’ing the appropriate people at Nelson Legal SF (Sarah Pisani, Sebnem). Sebnem got back to me shortly after, but she was very negative. I am a Legal/​Litigation Secretary with 27 years experience and she completely dismissed me without ever interviewing me or having me fill out any of their forms or take their tests. She said «their clients don’t want anyone who hasn’t worked continuously» or something to that effect. It is true I had taken a 6-​year break from work (sabbatical), but geez, with 27 years experience under my belt, I didn’t think I should have been thrown in the garbage. I’m a very good worker, and have a lot of excellent qualities. So I complained to the woman who spoke at the Employer Forum at YWCA and told her the person she referred me to seemed very unprofessional and dismissed me completely. She apologized, and said she would take over my job search. She sent me all the usual e-​Docs to sign and tests to take on my computer, etc. She never got back to me and it’s been over 2 months.

I am writing this review for my recruiter from this SF office, Sarah Pisani. Her professional help and support was instrumental in helping me find a job during a rough time in my professional life.
She went above an beyond her role as a recruiter. Much more than any other recruiter I have dealt with in my job hunt. She followed through, and kept me updated via phone calls AND emails. She let me know about all jobs I was qualified for and those I could possible fit in with. And what meant the most to me was how she traveled down to the Nelson Staffing Peninsula office to meet with me and prep me before the interview that she had helped me in securing. That gesture meant the world to me in giving me the confidence to go in to that interview.
I cannot say enough about how pleased and satisfied I was with Nelson Staffing and its representative Sarah Pisani. I highly recommend anyone looking for a position contact her for their job search.

The recruiters «seemed» enthusiastic in working with me, and we had a great meeting, but it turns out that I am just another sucker to help them reach their «meet and greet» quota. Did they returns my calls/​emails or acknowledge my job applications on the company website? Of course not.
Go there only if you want to waste your time.

I had very positive experience working with Nelson Staffing, namely Tom Abbott and Jame Hsu. They presented this good opportunity to me with a prestigious company. With their experience and professionalism, the whole process went smoothly. All in all, it took less than 3 weeks from sending in the resume, coordinating the interview process, soliciting feedback till getting the final offer. Tom acted promptly after each step in the process, ensured the timely communication with the hiring company and pushed the entire process forward. James worked with me patiently and helped me great deal with my interview skills. I’m very impressed with their quality and efficient recruiting work. Thanks, James & Tom, for getting me a job that I’m excited about!

Nelson has been mediocritly helpful so far with the whole system. I’m actually being very generous right now by giving them a 3 star rather than a 1 star but I understand that you all have a lot of people to deal with and whatnot. They didn’t inform me well enough and so I have to take initiative myself to get notified of everything. minus one star.
Then the other one. Your map directions linked to help are horribly wrong. I don’t know whether it’s your fault or googles fault but you managed to guide to SF Credit Union on California rather than Market St. I took 30 mins of extra walking with a lot of sweat involved too!
Please fix! :(don’t let others take that extra exhausting mistake

**Best staffing agency ever!**
I love Sarah and Sebnem! They’re the best!
I work with several other staffing agencies and Nelson is the best out of them all! They found me several temp positions, prepped me for interviews, and provided me with a lot of professional help!
They do things-​that are beyond what other staffing agencies would do! Other staffing companies will just email you things such as interview confirmation and questions to prep. Nelson, on the other hand, will have someone call you to go over things such as how to properly answer certain questions and and what type of questions to ask! And the best thing is – you’ll be prepping with someone thats pretty experienced (such as Sarah who is the the Staffing Manager).
Sarah even shared her number with me just in case I have any last minute questions! :)
They are very very professional! They are understanding! I highly recommend Nelson!!!

Sarah Pisani helped me get my dream job. She knows the market in the Bay Area legal world and is well connected. She listened to my wants, stayed in touch with me, helped me prep my resume and got my foot in the door at an amazing firm. I worked with her when I first became a paralegal as another friend of mine had luck securing a job through her. A year and a half later, we kept in touch and she helped me transition to a better job with more pay, better benefits and a perfect commute. She is the best!

Allison Kirby has been an amazing recruiter to work with. I was looking for a part time job with some pretty demanding requirements. She went out of her way to find the perfect match. Allison made the on boarding process extremely smooth and was there for any questions I had with immediate response. I love the company I was placed with and have her to thank for taking the time to listen to what I was looking for. Great work Allison!

I feel that I must put in a good word for Nesha Phaire, as she has made my phone communication with Nelson Staffing extremely pleasant and easy. Even from another timezone she is truly dedicated to fixing any problem that arises and does it with care and consideration for my schedule.

Kara Nysaether,
Thank you so much for advocating for me. If it wasn’t for your hard work, I wouldn’t have this opportunity; you’re awesome!

I joined this agency about five years ago but never ever got a call for ANY job. At the time I decided to stay with my existing company so it was no big deal in the end.
However, I joined again recently and have not been called for any jobs. My recruiter did e-​mail and said she would pass my resume on to someone but I have had zero contact since. Since I joined (and there are countless forms to fill in which are time consuming and disappointing when there is not even one job offer) I have called my recruiter twice and left a voice mail. To date I have not received the professional courtesy of a reply to those voice mails which I personally think is quite tacky and unprofessional. I did get to talk to her but only because I called back — not because she called me in response to those voice mails.
Now they have a recruiting drive tomorrow (11÷22÷13) for ‘recent college graduates’ to bring them on board and ‘get their foot in the door’ with a company. How about trying to get your recent existing workers in the door with a company? My last voice mail to my recruiter was a question about this recruiting drive and to ask if they, Nelson, age discriminate. No answer!
To be fair. My recruiter did say jobs depended on what their clients wanted but again, they are obviously filling positions with existing people on their books and not new people. I’m by no means a recent college graduate but if you are one, and you join, you will most probably be more successful than I in being offered a job.
I’ve given up on hearing from my recruiter and will join other agencies. Hopefully I’ll be more successful with them or at least get the professional courtesy of a return phone call if I leave a voice mail!

I contacted Nelson while I was transitioning from So Cal to San Francisco. They were absolutely amazing throughout the entire process and placed me into an excellent job. The staffing supervisors are extremely attentive and always keep you updated and in the loop of communication. They worked with my individual circumstances and worked around my schedule/​what I needed. I would recommend SF Nelson to everyone!

I moved to the city in June 2013 and Nelson Staffing was my savior. Sara Williams was incredibly helpful and placed me in a temp position within 2 weeks of being here. I felt that she actively tried to help me as she considered my experience and interests. When I landed a permanent job a few weeks later, Nelson Staffing was more than understanding and supportive of my decision. I have also recommended a number of friends to Nelson Staffing and they have had a positive experience as well.
Thank you Nelson Staffing!

This review is for my wonderful recruiter Sarah Gonzales. She was able to get me a 3 week temp position at an awesome tech company getting paid more than I originally asked for. AND the tech company decided they could use more help so they are keeping me around longer. It took about a month being in their system to get an interview so if you need a job ASAP then an agency in general is probably not the best choice but if you give it time and continue to follow up with your recruiter on a regular basis then they can find you a great job. It’s also kind of annoying that they make you fill out a ton of paper work prior to being interviewed but I guess it saved me a visit coming into the office again once they placed me.
To comment on the reviewer who said you had to drug test and do a background text prior to being placed is not true. I had to consent to one (part of the boatload of paperwork I filled out) but they never actually ran a credit check or drug tested me.
Thanks Sarah for the awesome placement!

The only good thing to name in this review is Aaron Harrison. He’s a very good recruiter! The bad thing to talk about with this agency is his boss. Her name is Samantha Ciepiela. Apparently on the east coast you can be late for interviews and be rude, and have the inability to admit when you are wrong with no excuses.
She was late twice for phone interviews with me and sent me some lame ‘I had personal circumstance, that I was unable to put on hold”. She was late the prior day for our phone interview and not by much about 10−15minutes, but the next day she was late 45minutes. I made it a point to get up at 6am for the phone interview because she is on the east coast but she didn’t call till 6:45am. Instead of apologizing, she asked if we could do the phone interview at 6:45am right then. I said no and please remove me as a candidate for that position. It’s amazing to me how this staffing agency can have such an awesome recruiter like Aaron and then have a boss «OVER’ him that is sub-​par. This agency isn’t like Modis IT recruiting. They aren’t even like Kelly Services (which I never use) and they aren’t even as good as Manpower. It’s pretty bad when your boss can’t make appointments and then rationalizes her being inconsiderate and not even letting me know by email. The 1 Star is strictly for Aaron and not for anything else.

16 one star reviews enough said. I can’t even get them to respond to any communication. Waste of time.

I got a call today from Mary Ann regarding position
We will see :))

After using Nelson in the past, and having one of their people say that I was one of the best candidates they ever had – I thought I would try their tech division to re-​enter the job market after a hiatus.
Unfortunately, they’re completely useless now. :(

I don’t understand the point of this company!
I have used Nelson Staffing before in Santa Rosa. I gave Nelson my resume and took some computer tests. An employee of Nelson called me when they had a job that was appropriate to my qualifications.
Here in San Francisco I tried to use Nelson to find a job, but they run things differently. I went in, gave them my resume, took some tests. Then they put me on an email list and every day or so they would email me a couple of available jobs (this email gets sent to hundreds of people) and I would have to send in a resume and write a cover letter explaining why I would be a good fit. Um, can’t I just do the same thing using Craigslist? Shouldn’t the girl at Nelson know why I’m a good fit if I’ve met with her and she already has my info? What is the point of signing up with Nelson if they don’t actually do anything for you? Waste of time!

From reading other people’s reviews, it seems that Nelson’s is either a hit or miss. Well, this one’s a HIT.
I moved to SF in summer of ’08 and immediately went on a job hunt, Nelson being the first agency I visited. I showed up on a Thursday afternoon and met one of their recruiters Elizabeth who was just awesome. Still, I thought I won’t hear from them for a few weeks at the most (as most agencies do) and I went on and signed up with the next agency.
Elizabeth called me THE NEXT DAY around 7 AM and left a voice message asking if I could be at an assignment by 8 AM. I wasn’t expecting to hear back from them so soon so I of course missed that morning call. I called her back by noon and she said, no worries, can you do a 1-​week assignment starting Monday? And that’s how my relationship with Nelson began. One assignment after another and it even came to a point that certain assignment days would overlapped with another. And for someone who’s unemployed and trying to get by with working temp jobs, that was very good news.
After Elizabeth left the company, her supervisor Nicole took care of me and she was also really great to work with. She didn’t call me as much as Elizabeth did so I wasn’t as busy, but occasionally she sent out emails of jobs available so she got me some assignments that way.
Until finally I got lucky when one of the firms I’d temped with previously decided to keep me on contract for all of ’09. Nicole was great at setting it up and giving me a raise and keeping in touch with me for that year I was with the company. I had a very good feeling they would have kept me on board longer or hired me on a permanent basis had I not moved out of the city.
If I ever move to SF again, I know who I’ll be calling!
Here are some of Nelson’s clients in case you were wondering… some I worked with and some I was thisclose to: Hood & Strong CPA firm, Cornish and Carey Commercial Real Estate, Carpenter Moore Insurance/​Nasdaq OMX, Tides Foundation, LucasFilm Ltd.