Starting out in SF....Again!

October 9, 2009 2:54 PM

Back in San Francisco for a Holiday, friends trying to convince me to stay. What to do????

OK, so I've been out of the Bay Area for a 10 year hiatus, mostly traveling the world and working. I still have a lot of friends here and it's been great to see & hang out with everybody. I already have plans for next summer (going back to Ireland to enjoy the festivities of the world cup). My friends have taken it upon them selves to each try & convince me to stay in the city til June. I'm not averse to the idea and I have the option of staying with a good friend in a great apartment.

This question is really a 3 parter, about getting my feet on the ground again.

Part 1:

My background is in IT and I was hoping to find some contract work. I would like to get a list of IT recruiting agencies that provide contract staff to companies in the city. Does anyone know what agencies provide IT staff to the likes of Levis, Gap, Charles Schwab etc. I've tried contacting these companies directly but they all just tell me to apply for full-time gigs.

Part II:

I've ran my own PC repair business for some time in Austin and was hoping to fix a few machines while searching for a full time gig. I've been using Craigslist to advertise on but surprisingly I have received absolutely no calls. In Austin, I got tons of work advertising on CL, but SF is dead.
Apart from Craigslist, Where should I advertise?

Part III:

Another way I was thinking of getting some extra cash was signing up to take part in Focus Groups......does anyone know of any agencies in SF that are busy with this kind of work? Or anybody got any idea how to make some quick cash while waiting on a more permanent gig?

If I can't get some work soon I'll run out of cash. This is not the end of the world as I can return to Austin & get work pretty quick. But I think I'd like to give it a shot in SF.

All suggestions welcome!

posted by leftfooter to Work & Money (4 answers total)

Best to go home, save up and prepare for a move. That way you'll land with your feet on the ground.
posted by Ironmouth at 3:12 PM on October 9, 2009

Tacit Knowledge does a lot of high end technical staffing and has a good presence in the e-commerce space. Start trawling the major outsourcers posting - Verizon Business, Accenture, IBM, AT&T, Oracle, HP, they are all hiring for various bay area contracts.


This is not generic desktop support, but more high end systems/applications consulting..
posted by iamabot at 3:36 PM on October 9, 2009

Response by poster: Thanks iamabot, I'll definitely check them out.
posted by leftfooter at 3:57 PM on October 9, 2009

Focus Point does focus group stuff in downtown San Francisco. Look at www.focuspointglobal.com. When I was there they paid around $70 for a 1.5 hour committment, and I got called maybe once a month, maybe a little less.
posted by ohio at 5:20 PM on October 9, 2009