I understand. You will most likely have to bring your visa with you when you interview with the temp company. I had a friend who had a student visa when we were in college and he was stuck with on campus jobs through the university only.
I’ve done quite a bit of temping in my life and I would strongly suggest signing up with as many agencies as possible.
Thanks for the advice, guys. I wouldn’t have thought to sign up with multiple agencies. (And Caffeine.addict, yeah that was the kind of visa I had, which really, really frustrated me because getting a job on campus was impossible. Thankfully after graduation I’m allowed to work wherever I want.)
In New Jersey, if you are out of work through no fault of your own and legally allowed to work you can collect. Il may have the same policy. I second looking into unemployment until you can find a temp job
There was a lot of very good advice in this thread I started about temping in Chicago. I ended up not temping and getting a job via Craigslist, but people in the thread were really wonderful and gave me lots of advice and encouragement, which helped me tremendiously.
One place to try is Front Office Staffing. They staff conventions. I worked one convention with them before starting my full-time job and they were good people.
Good luck!
Just my 2 cents from having worked with temps many years ago, and my thoughts if I were to hire a temp this minute. And that is, if you’re overqualified I’d go for you in a minute! Much as jayjay says, if you’re a competent individual you’re gold. I used to work for a weekly business newspaper that published lists each week, like the Top 25 Office Buildings in terms of square footage. This required tons of calls to building managers and developers, etc. You had to be flexible, think on your feet and “get” what we were trying to do.
Where I work now we get a lot of high-quality volunteers (usually retirees with at least some college) so I don’t have to use temps, but I would still go for someone with an MA even if it was for office work!
True story.
About 20 years ago a friend of mine moved to NYC and signed up with a temp agency. She had a Masters dgree in theatre arts. The agency suggested that she eliminate the MA from her credentials and she refused.
Her temp receptionist job turned into a permanent receptionist job. Then someone from HR at the company noticed that she had advanced education and she got called in to HR and got a huge promotion to a real job that lead to a real career.