I signed on at Manpower in Winchester almost immediately after I got back from university this year. I was officially on their 'books' - before I got sick of waiting and got my own job - for about a month, and in that time I was only offered two jobs, or assignments as they are properly called. One was a night shift at a mail-order firm, and the other was something involving chickens and an industrial vacuum cleaner. Not a wide and varied selection there, I think you'll agree.

I did take the night shift job - it was for one night only -and I did find that what the company did, they did efficiently. I was telephoned the day I was to have the job, and went down to their office, where I was sat down, filled out various internal and tax forms, and then given my official signing-on book etc., that you get when you do your first assignment. They gave me very clear instructions on how to get to the place, what my hours would be (although these in fact turned out to be wrong!) and who I was to report to. Afterwards, the money came through exactly when they said it would, and the payslip promptly after that. So all in all, they've got this side of things about right.

But this is exactly the problem. It's no good getting all the niceties right if you can't actually get someone any work in the first place. This may just be a problem that I and most other people seem to have had this summer, and they did at least get me some work, so I'll reserve judgement for now, except to say that the lack of any offers wasn't overly impressive.

If you know they can get you work, then they are a great agency to go to. But check beforehand.