What to expect when working with a staffing agency.

You've applied to 50 jobs this month. Maybe more. You've rewritten your resume for each one, drafted cover letters you worry no one will read, and refreshed your inbox until it starts to feel like a compulsion. You're not doing anything wrong. According to one analysis of more than 165 million job applications, roughly one in 200 applicants gets hired for any given role. The traditional process is statistically stacked against you.

If you need help finding a job, working with a staffing agency puts a recruiter in your corner who already knows hiring managers, understands what they need, and can get you in front of them directly. Athena Parker knows this from both sides. She started at Kelly as a temp, hired part-time to do a filing project.

"In my second week, I got called to recruit at another site," Parker says. "Three months later, I was hired full-time. That was 10 years ago."

Today, Parker is Senior Director of Recruiting for Kelly Science, and she still thinks about what that first staffing opportunity meant for her career. Here's what she wants candidates to know about the process.

What is a staffing agency?

A staffing agency is a company that connects job seekers with employers who are actively hiring, matching candidates to contract, contract-to-hire, and permanent positions across industries. The way staffing agencies work is that companies pay the agency to find talent. You will never be charged a fee to work with a legitimate agency.

What working with a staffing agency is really like

"There are a lot of different ways to work with a staffing agency," Parker says. "There's no one-size-fits-all solution."

That said, most people start the same way you'd start any job search: browsing postings on Indeed, LinkedIn, or the agency's own website. The difference is what happens after you apply.

Instead of your resume disappearing into an applicant tracking system where roughly 8% of candidates make it past initial screening, a recruiter reviews your background and reaches out to have a conversation. If they see potential in your profile, they may contact you even if you're not the right fit for the specific role you applied to.

"If you apply to a company and don't get the job, they're probably not going to call you again," Parker says. "An agency recruiter is different. If they see potential in your background, they'll reach out when new opportunities come up. It's an ongoing partnership, not a one-and-done scenario."

That ongoing relationship is what makes working with a staffing agency different from applying on your own. Your recruiter becomes a point of contact who knows your goals, tracks openings across multiple employers, and can match you to roles you wouldn't have found independently.

Depending on your goals and what's available, those roles might be contract, contract-to-hire, or direct hire positions. Each path works differently, and your recruiter will walk you through which ones make sense for your situation.

Your first conversation with a recruiter

Your first call with a recruiter is closer to a consultation than a job interview. The recruiter's goal is to understand what you're looking for so they can match you accurately, and that means the conversation goes deeper than your resume.

Expect to spend about 30 minutes covering your work experience, the types of roles you're interested in, your salary expectations, preferred commute, and what you liked and didn't like about previous jobs. The recruiter may also review your resume and offer suggestions for strengthening it.

The most important thing you can do in this conversation is be specific. Parker has seen what happens when candidates aren't.

"Some of the least helpful conversations are when I ask what someone's looking for and they say, 'I'm open to anything,'" Parker says. "That actually makes the job search harder. If there's no direction, it's difficult for recruiters to know where to focus."

That doesn't mean you need every detail figured out before you pick up the phone. But even broad preferences help.

"Do your homework ahead of time, but also stay flexible," Parker says. "Being open to a recruiter's recommendations, like considering a contract role you hadn't planned on, can open doors you didn't expect."

This first conversation is also the right time to set communication expectations. Let your recruiter know how you prefer to be contacted, when you're available, and whether anything in your schedule might affect your response time. That kind of detail keeps the relationship in sync from the start.

How your recruiter matches you to opportunities

After your first conversation, the recruiter's job is to find roles that fit what you told them. That process is more nuanced than matching keywords on a resume to words in a job description.

"It's not always a one-to-one skills match," Parker says. "We're having in-depth conversations with hiring managers about the role's pain points, the soft skills they need, and the leadership style that fits their team. Then we're matching all of those factors against what we know about our candidates."

This dual knowledge gives staffing candidates an edge. Your recruiter isn't just reading your resume; they've talked to the hiring manager and understand what that person actually cares about, which is often different from what the job posting says. Sourced candidates are nearly eight times more likely to be hired than people who apply on their own. When a recruiter puts you forward for a role, you're in that category.

Part of that matching process is also filtering out roles that would waste your time. With 6.9 million job openings across the U.S. and hiring timelines stretching longer, recruiters are selective about where they send candidates.

"If a candidate tells me their minimum salary threshold, I'm not going to set them up to interview for a role that can't meet it," Parker says. "We don't want anyone falling in love with a job that's not going to work out."

Preparing for interviews through your agency

Once your recruiter identifies a match, the interview prep process is where the staffing advantage becomes most concrete. Your recruiter has talked to the hiring manager. They know what the team needs, what the interview format looks like, and what matters beyond the job description. That's intel you wouldn't have walking in cold from a job board application.

"We often have jobs that aren't being promoted externally," Parker says. "So we can get candidates considered for positions they wouldn't have found on their own. And because we've already pre-screened them and had those in-depth conversations, they go in as a top candidate. They've got a cheerleader in their corner."

Before your interview, ask your recruiter what the hiring manager cares about most, whether there's anything specific to emphasize or avoid, and what the interview format will be. Treat this briefing the way you'd treat insider advice from a friend who already works at the company.

After the interview, the recruiter follows up with the employer for feedback, so you get a real answer about what went well or what didn't, so that you can apply that information next time.

What happens after you start a role

For contract and contract-to-hire positions, your relationship with the staffing agency doesn't end on your first day. "It's not just a placement and then goodbye," Parker says. "When candidates are working with Kelly, they have a dedicated talent care professional helping them build skills. We're investing in the people who work for us."

That ongoing support also functions as a safety net. If a role doesn't work out, your recruiter manages the transition and can start matching you to new opportunities immediately. You don't go back to square one.

Parker sees this as especially valuable for candidates navigating a career change or returning to work after a gap in employment.

"One of the hardest things about a career transition, or coming back after a gap, is getting that first opportunity," Parker says. "We can advocate for candidates directly to hiring managers and explain why they'd be a good fit, in ways that a resume alone can't."

The relationship can also extend well beyond a single placement. Parker has worked with candidates across multiple roles throughout their careers, from entry-level positions to senior and executive placements. Your first placement doesn't have to be your last conversation.

How to get the most out of working with a staffing agency

The single biggest factor in building a productive recruiter relationship is communication.

"Overcommunicating is better than no communication at all," Parker says. "If something changes in your search — you accepted another offer, the roles we're sending aren't the right fit — just tell your recruiter. We can pivot our approach, but only if we know what's going on."

A few practices help you stay at the top of your recruiter's list:

• Stay in touch. Update your recruiter when your availability, preferences, or situation changes. Even a quick check-in every couple of weeks keeps you top of mind.
• Be transparent about your full search. If you're working with multiple agencies or applying on your own, let your recruiter know so they can coordinate rather than compete.
• Pick an agency that fits your field. A generalist agency won't have the same depth of relationships in your industry as a specialist. A mismatch leads to a frustrating experience for both sides.
• Verify before you share. Legitimate agencies will never ask you for money. If something feels off, double-check that you aren’t dealing with a recruitment scam.

Parker emphasizes the point about specialization. "If you come to someone looking for a role outside their specialty, you're not going to have the best experience, and then you'll think the whole process was a waste of time," she says. "But it was just a mismatch." That’s why it’s worth it to find a staffing agency that knows your industry as well as you do.

Get started with a staffing agency

Job searching on your own asks you to compete as one anonymous resume among hundreds, then wait in silence. Working with a staffing agency puts someone in your corner who already knows the hiring managers, understands what they need, and can make the case for you in ways a cold application never will.

Kelly places 350,000 workers a year across 5,000 client companies and organizes that scale into specialist divisions: engineering, science, IT, education, finance, and more. Each is staffed by recruiters who know your field. That means the person reviewing your resume isn't a generalist scanning for keywords. They understand the work you do and have standing relationships with the companies doing the hiring, including the majority of Fortune 500 employers.

Ready to stop guessing and start getting in front of the right people? Create a MyKelly profile to connect with a Kelly recruiter who specializes in your industry and can advocate for you at every stage of the process.