Extra Help, Inc

One year ago I was placed as a temp by Extra Help at an up and coming startup company. Little did I know that I would be working for the #1 fastest growing startup in St. Louis AND help the company grow to what it is today {RoverTown}. I have advanced in my position and could not be happier with what I am doing. Extra Help is very involved in the St. Louis Startup Community.
Extra Help was very helpful through the entire process and I have no complaints. If you are looking for a job I HIGHLY recommend going on their website and filling out the form, it is so easy. Sara G. is the best and when my company moved to town, she welcomed them with St. Louis goodies and frequent stops by the office to see how everyone was settling in.
Teresa and the entire Extra Help team deserve an A+ rating!

Sometimes I get calls from staffing agencies about potential projects. Extra Help is no exception.
My review is a case of «Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.» You can be easily lured into a position from a job description touted (and maybe even written) by this agency, but soon realizing that these job descriptions are heinously misleading (maybe even after it is too late).
In March of 2012 I was successfully placed by Extra Help at a local plumbing company in the St. Louis metropolitan area. According to the job description, I would be handling the marketing of this company, utilizing graphic software and my web content writing skills to drive web and print marketing initiatives.
I didn’t last a single month at this assignment. I found myself being trained to answer incoming customer calls and doing very few marketing projects. In fact, I had one marketing task only: to set up and maintain a Unilocal page. I was asked to flirt with TOS violations because «the competition was doing it.»
Oh, and as far as software was concerned, for graphics or otherwise: I don’t think any of the in-​house computers even had Microsoft Office. Just the propriety phone screening software.
Oh, and the plumbing company already had a contracted PR firm working for them, and this firm was spearheading all of the marketing initiatives. Of course I didn’t find this out until I had started.
All that aside, the only time Extra Help ever called to check in on me was after the one time I clocked out too early. I used that as an opportunity to explain my situation and the lack of fitness in the assignment. I was simply reprimanded by Extra Help staff for not being proactive in reporting this lack of fitness, but no further action was taken on the part of the staffing agency (to my knowledge). I ended the temp-​to-​perm assignment shortly thereafter.
Never again, I told myself, would I work with Extra Help. Until very recently.
I received a phone call about a potential temp-​to-​perm assignment from Extra Help for a start-​up that had moved into the city from Carbondale. I was given a job description, was able to research the client company, and actually got really excited about the opportunity. The client company was looking for a Marketing Manager, much in the same vein as the plumbing company’s job description.
When I sat down to interview at Extra Help, little was said about the assignment. The woman who interviewed me had asked about my level of comfort with cold calling. I said it wasn’t something I would prefer, but knowing the client was a start-​up, I figured they might need some help in that area getting off the ground.
The interviewer went on to explain that the position would start out as a cold-​calling/​lead generation position, $ 8.25 an hour, and that I would work my way up to Marketing Manager or some other position that they might need filled.
NOWHERE in the job description was this mentioned. Not to mention, I have been in the workforce for five years and was not about to take a pay-​cut of about $ 10.25 hourly (this was made evident on my resume). I walked out in a fog, got to my car, and immediately called the Extra Help office I was just in and told them to cancel my application.
I swear I won’t bite next time. Or maybe they’ll read this and decide to not call me with an assignment again. I’d be better off if the latter happened.

I have to wonder if they really hire people, or people they just know.