7 Benefits of Joining an Agency When You Turn 18

When we leave education, it can often be a hard decision to know what we really want to do when we enter the world of work.

We are made to decide at a young age what career path we are going to take, and sometimes the college course we pick may end up not being the right one.

There are two choices when we leave education – go to university or get a job/apprenticeship. If university isn’t right for you, and you’re ready to start working and earning a full time wage, here’s how we can help you…

1. Nearly all placements pay above the NMW for 18+ years

The current National Minimum Wage for 18-20yrs is £6.83 per hour (April 22-23), and most sectors that are popular with young people when choosing their first job, like hospitality and retail generally always pay the NMW.

However, aside from the odd few placements, practically all of our placements pay £9.50 per hour and above from 18 years plus. So if we’re recruiting for a job that pays £10.50 per hour, you will receive £10.50 per hour, just like the rest of your colleagues! This means that you could be earning a good full time wage from 18 years old.

Another bonus is that if you want to pick up extra shifts, there are good overtime rates available, whereas when working in some other sectors you are still paid your basic hourly salary when working extra hours.

2. A great way to build up your CV

Being out in the big wide world of work can be overwhelming, especially if you are still unsure of the type of career you want. By signing up to an agency you can be placed into temporary roles to help you gain work experience and build up your CV. This is a great way to learn new skills, understand the expectations of being within a working environment, gain responsibility, network and meet new people. Joining an agency doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll find your dream job, but it can be the first stepping stone in finding your dream job:

We have an abundance of no experience roles which will help you to build your skillset, in turn enabling you to progress to applying for more experienced roles.

We also have lots of trainee opportunities available, so there is opportunity to find a placement that offers career development.

A lot of our placements also have progression opportunities, so there are lots of opportunity available to you!

3. Find what suits you

Working for an agency is a great way to see what suits you best. You can try a variety of shift patterns, work different roles and work within different sectors to help you to gain an understanding of where you would like to progress your career, so when you’re searching for that long term role, you know exactly what you’re looking for!

4. Start your personal growth development

When you enter the world of work, as well as professional development, it really accelerates our personal development too! The earlier we start working, the quicker we start to become more grown up and start to gain a solid work ethic.

From financial stability to understanding how the world works, we’ve listed 15 things that you can gain from having a job:

5. Improve your skills

You can gain experience and improve a variety of skills when you join an agency, including:

Interviewing skills

By working different placements you can start gaining skills in phone and face-to-face interviewing. Each interview experience will help you to learn how to act during an interview, how to respond to common interview questions and increase your confidence when being interviewed.

People skills

When you work, you come across lots of different characters and personality types. The more you work with different types of people, the more knowledgeable you become about working alongside different people. This is especially useful if you’re looking to progress up into a leadership / managerial role, as you will learn how to change your approach to suit someone’s personality and temperament.

Transferable skills

You will learn a lot of transferable skills when you’re in employment, that can be used across any placement that you work, these can include:

Customer service skills
Computer & IT skills
Organisational skills
Time Management
Teamwork
Communication
Problem Solving
Attention to detail

6. Broadens your job opportunities

Some companies only use agencies, rather than recruiting in-house. By using an agency this gives you the option to be able to work for more local companies within your area.

7. Spec you out to companies

Did you know even if an agency isn’t recruiting for the exact position you’re looking for they can spec you out to companies? Agencies work very closely with their clients, and once you’ve started building your CV and skill set, they may see an opportunity where one of their contacts would be interested in hiring someone with your specific expertise and skills.