by M. Adley » Tue Sep 29, 2015 2:12 pm
As a medical writer I see at least half of the advertised positions being through temp agencies. Furthermore, many of the non-temp positions are for people with more experience so if you're not going to network your way into a job, non-temp work seems hard to come by early on in your career, even at PhD level (requirement or "strongly preferred" for almost all positions that I've seen).
While the lack of job security is highly annoying, I'm actually pretty satisfied with the treatment I've received so far, so maybe it's just a matter of luck causing people to lose their passion for what they used to love. I can safely say that there are recruiters out there who really care about their contractors, as mine (no longer working at the company) used to call every couple of weeks to check on me and see how I liked the company I was temping at. I have been called by recruiters, though, who really didn't care and just wanted a list of names they could hoard (why are you asking a person with 1 year of experience to fill a director-level position?), so I can see how some people might have little faith in temp agencies.
As for how I've been treated, I think I've been treated every bit as well as permanent hires, sometimes even better. I've had positions at two places so far (one 6-month contract and one 18-month contract in progress but ending soon), and both had supervisors that saw me as an apprentice, not cheap labor. They both trained me in the nuts and bolts of regulatory med writing and included me in department functions as if I were permanent. When HR decided to cut temps at my first company (yes, you'll be the first to go), the 4 supervisors I worked with all went out of their way to help me find something new. Combined with my recruiter's help, I was given 2 job offers within 2 weeks of starting my search and had no dead time between positions. So temps aren't necessarily seen as second-class citizens, though medical writers are often freelance anyway so maybe it's different in my situation than a bench scientist. Just adding this to let you know that it's technically possible to be treated pretty well as a temp. This is NOT to say I won't pursue a permanent position because I certainly will if I don't get permanent hire at my current place (supervisor already recommended me but it's ultimately up to HR). I just don't think a temp worker has to be a "bottom feeder".
One last thing is that even if I'm not the top rung of the ladder (yet), this is leaps and bounds better than my postdoc/academia experience. From what I can tell, a "bottom-feeding" temp med writer is in paradise compared to even a successful postdoc (speaking from both my own and others' med writing/postdoc experiences). In other words, temp workers are treated better in general from what I've observed. Hope this gives you at least a little bit of hope