Temping in Chicago: am I being realistic?

May 20, 2021 7:52 AM

Is it possible to live survive off temping in Chicago? Is this a good pathway to find more permanent work?

I don’t like my job, and I don’t like my line of work.

Background: I currently live in the South East. I got a job removing invasive species in January. At the time I was just grateful to get a job during Covid that didn’t involve much exposure to the pandemic. But I’ve since been vaccinated, and its HOT. I don’t want to continue in this line of work. Currently my ability make money depends on the integrity of my body and I would prefer to switch to a more white-collar job.

I have relatives who have stated I’d be welcome to live with them in Chicago while I get my feet under myself. I’m hoping within about a month I could find an apartment(Without roommates!) and be able to support myself.

I have a bachelor’s degree, but no prior experience in an office environment, will this be a problem?

Things I would like to know/hear about:
Is it possible to survive off temping?
Will this lead to a more permanent position?
What am I not considering?
Is this at all realistic?

I’d love to hear any personal anecdotes and experience with this kind of thing

posted by ockmockbock to Work & Money (16 answers total)

I temped in Chicago in 2008 . I made $15 an hour at one of my favorite jobs I've ever had (still to this day), and got offered a job in the first week (I declined as I was going to go to grad school). In the 3 months that I had full time work, I definitely could survive on it with all the eating and partying I did. It's nice not to have anything other than taxes taken out of your paycheck. I'd suggest looking into Obamacare or other high deductible health insurance. However, after that 3 months full time, my hours were unpredictable to the point that I had a couple months where I didn't work at all.

However, a couple caveats:
1) I had a big boy job before where I had banked around 30k
2) I have a trust fund and parents that would help me out before I would go broke (I didn't dip into that and probably would have been ashamed to)
posted by sandmanwv at 7:57 AM on May 20, 2021 [1 favorite]

Also to add, I lived with roommates who actually subsidized my rent (they were making a combined $350k a year as first year lawyers), which still was around 45% of my takehome (in good months). Rent in Chicago has blown up since then.
posted by sandmanwv at 7:59 AM on May 20, 2021 [1 favorite]

While landing a temp job with no office experience is possible, finding a temp job with no office experience that will allow you to live alone in Chicago is not.
posted by DarlingBri at 8:03 AM on May 20, 2021 [9 favorites]

I agree with DarlingBri for the most part. It's not a bad way to get started while you're staying with relatives and save a nest egg in preparation for moving but you probably won't be able to pay for your own apartment on temp wages. Roommates or some other greatly compromised living situation may be possible, though.

You can definitely land a permanent job through temping, but there are also lots of shitty gigs. It really depends. Don't be afraid to tell your agency it's not worth your while to do jobs for that pay less than $X an hour.
posted by Jess the Mess at 8:14 AM on May 20, 2021 [1 favorite]

If the company you’re temping with wants to bring you on permanently, which means more money for you (yaaaay), they will most likely need to buy out your contract when you’re with a temp agency. This can take time.

For example, moving from temp to permanent at one job years ago doubled my hourly rate, but it literally took three months to formally get switched over.
posted by mochapickle at 8:19 AM on May 20, 2021 [1 favorite]

I did some temping 15 years ago and then sort of stuck a toe in the waters in the past few years and I would urge you to listen to advice on the feasibility of this only from people who have recent experience with temping.
posted by needs more cowbell at 8:37 AM on May 20, 2021 [5 favorites]

The only two good jobs I've ever had, including the one I have now, were both landed as temp-to-perm. Both permanent jobs' starting salaries allowed me to live alone, frugally, in the city. You should apply to both City Staffing and the LaSalle Network.

You temp at random stuff until you are placeable as a permanent hire. The recruiters at your staffing agency will be your guide here. It is in their financial best interest to make you an appealing permanent hire candidate, so show up, do well, and take their advice.
posted by phunniemee at 8:38 AM on May 20, 2021 [1 favorite]

Is there a particular reason you're interested in temping as opposed to working a more stable entry level job like a call center? And when you say "Chicago" are you referring to the city of Chicago itself, or like Naperville or Schaumburg or Des Plaines?
posted by kevinbelt at 8:38 AM on May 20, 2021

For reference, I survived in Chicago on a temping salary about 10 years ago, but just barely, and I still relied on family support to pay a rent of a whopping $750. It wasn't sustainable 10 years ago so I'd be surprised if it was sustainable now.

That being said it is a great way to build those office skills, get to know the city, meet people, and get a resume started so you can grow your career. However to really get going you'll need some kind of specialization and probably a degree or certificate of some kind. It might be better to set your sights on a trade of some kind rather than general office work because I honestly don't know how I would have graduated out of starvation wages without a specific degree in a lucrative field.
posted by bleep at 9:14 AM on May 20, 2021

I mean, I lived for 15 years off temping in New York City, which I imagine is harder than in Chicago. But that was largely pre-recession. It did give me inroads into a couple of full-time real jobs.

However, I did have the advantage of some previous office experience through a college work-study job, and I could type pretty damn fast. And I was never able to afford a place on my own.

It might not be a bad idea to start in with temping when you get there, but I think that for someone with no office experience, you're going to have a steep learning curve, and I think that expecting you to be able to afford a place of your own after only one month is a little overly ambitious. SIX months with roommates, however, may be do-able, especially if you pick up the office stuff kind of quick.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:25 AM on May 20, 2021

Yeah my temp experience is old but, depending on how long the stay-with-family offer would be good for, I do think it's still a great way to get some office work skills under your belt so that you have more solid footing applying to permanent office jobs.

A month to go from 0 to "living without roommates" though--that's probably not a thing. Don't forget, you'd have to not just scrounge up the rent but also first/last month's, or at least a move-in fee (those are getting more common here but they're still a cool few hundred at best). (Plus, it will not cost 0 dollars to move here in the first place.)

Maybe you have savings you haven't mentioned, or maybe the stay-with-family offer is very open-ended. Maybe roommates aren't a dealbreaker even if they aren't ideal? Hard to say from what you've written.

In short, I don't think what you specifically describe, on the timeline you've given, is realistic. However, the broader plan of moving to Chicago and working temp jobs and eventually getting a more permanent gig is.

(NB: it's fuckin hot here too lol.)
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 9:54 AM on May 20, 2021

I work part-time and frequently have temping gigs to keep me busier/make extra $$. I don't have any advice for living in Chicago or how to deal with fixed costs without a fixed salary, but I can give some advice on FINDING temp gigs. Two areas in which I've had luck are 1) elections; and 2) community colleges.

It seems that every year the county/city needs folks to process outgoing and incoming absentee ballots, the vast majority of these people are temps. This was a random extra gig I picked up 4 years ago but it has now turned into an every-year seasonal gig for me. Hiring goes directly through the city/county in my case. The second job is working at a university bookstore before and during the beginning-of-semester textbook rush. I have only done this gig once so far, but I intend to do it again if it's available. It's generally warehouse work/mailing work with a side of customer service dealing with student accounts. I also found this gig directly through the college website.

So, I think it's worthwhile to keep an eye open for these sort of "longer-term but with an ending date" gigs at places that have "seasons". Ballparks need ushers in the summer, garden centers need plant waterers in the spring, etc. And once you're in and if you enjoy the work, tell the supervisor and most of the time they'll make a point of calling you back when the "season" rolls around again.
posted by Gray Duck at 10:39 AM on May 20, 2021 [1 favorite]

The job market is in flux because a lot of people are currently sidelined, there were lots of new Pandemic-related jobs, many workers either died or now have health issues, etc. Right now is a great time to look for work in the US if you're vaccinated. Look online to see what temp jobs exist, and work on articulating your skills to be better placed.
posted by theora55 at 11:31 AM on May 20, 2021

I also got my two best jobs as temp-to-perm - one of them is my current job, which I have now been in for over 10 years, and just before that was the one in Chicago, which ended up lasting 5 years. In both situations, I was moving to a brand new city with no job lined up.

Which means this advice is about 15 years out of date, but I suspect it's still pretty true -- yes, it can be done, but no, probably not that fast. For reference, the firm where I went temp-to-perm in Chicago spent 3 months interviewing me before hiring me as a temp and then it took 6 months after that for that job to go to perm. During those 3 crawling months of interviews I probably had like, 15-20 temp gigs. I managed to survive with a combination of savings, room mates, parental support, and occasional applications for unemployment checks.

In your shoes, I'd find out exactly how long my family members would be willing to house and feed me before accepting their offer. If it's six months to a year, I'd say go for it (and help them out a LOT around the house and yard, because that would be super generous of them!). If it's just a month to three months, I'd be a little more concerned.
posted by invincible summer at 2:46 PM on May 20, 2021 [1 favorite]

A recommendation to check out the jobs sites for local universities. They're stable, they often offer great benefits and pathways to longish-term work, and there may be other applicable positions (logistics, operations, event planning, entry-level lab or research work) that would more closely match your skills, in addition to many admin roles.

Something I think it's important to consider is that office work is a skillset, and that there will be a lot of people with undergrad degrees applying to the same jobs as you who have been doing it for years. My first job was as an office admin, when I was 14. It's also a field where many people *without* degrees can succeed, and so (sometimes) the competition can be stiffer. I say this in the interest of taking the work seriously: lots of folks think admin is easy or low-skill work. They are wrong. I also say it in the interest of your being able to proactively identify *why* someone should hire you over a 28-year old who's been working admin for 10 years. Have you served in coordination/planning/leadership roles as a volunteer or member of a community organization? What activities or internships did you do as an undergrad?

Best of luck!
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 3:16 PM on May 20, 2021

Just some general temping advice from someone who supported herself for years by temping:

1. Sign up with more than one agency. Sign up with at least three or four. That way, when one assignment ends, you have a better chance of another one starting immediately. This is not unethical; after all, the agencies deal with lots of other people looking to temp, too. In fact, if you’ve proven yourself smart and reliable and they find out you are registered with more than one agency, they’ll work harder to find you gigs, because reliable temps aren’t common, and they’ll try to gain your loyalty so that they can count on you being there when they need you.

2. If you are between gigs, or one is finishing up, contact the agencies every other day to remind them of your existence. And I would recommend a phone call rather than an email, it’s harder to ignore. They have a tendency to forget you as soon as they place you in a gig, because they’re now thinking about the new person they just signed up this morning. So be a (polite) pest.

3. After you’ve done a handful of jobs for a particular agency, and done them well (been reliable, shown up every day you’re supposed to, and gotten good feedback from the client), you can negotiate pay a little. If they contact you and tell you they have a job that pays $15/hour, tell them you want $16. They have wiggle room, they just don’t advertise it. This is especially true when it’s a client who’s important to them, and they want to place someone they know and trust, instead of a new person who might flake and not show up, or show up drunk, etc.

4. Be flexible. Be willing to do pretty much any type of job as long as it pays what you’re looking for.

Caveat: my most recent experience was ten years ago, but that gig lasted 3 years and paid $65k+ in Houston, which was very high for Houston at the time.
posted by MexicanYenta at 5:12 AM on May 22, 2021