WEB OPERATORS CARVE LUCRATIVE CAREER NICHE.

Byline: Laurie J. Flynn The New York Times

A Web-page developer, Jayson Elliot could have his pick of permanent jobs in the San Francisco Bay Area. But that's the last thing on his mind.

``I don't want a job,'' Elliot said. ``I would never take one.''

Instead he works as a temp, with no job security, no benefits and little chance for corporate advancement. Instead he has the flexibility to pursue his own interests, which include the underground music scene, and most important to him, a freedom from long-term commitment.

``I don't want to get tied down to anybody's plan,'' said Elliot, who is 25.

These days, Elliot can be found in front of a Macintosh computer at the Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the giant utility company in San Francisco. Since November, he has helped manage the company's public Web site, building Web pages and posting documents.

His previous assignment was at Peachpit Press, a technical publishing company in Berkeley where he worked for nearly a year, far longer than the temporary employment agency, or the publishing company, had planned. Elliot filled in as technical production manager, a position the company eventually offered him permanently. Elliot, of course, turned it down and moved on.

The agency he relies on is Mactemps Inc., a national company. When the Pacific Gas & Electric job ends, he has no idea where he'll be sent next.

Elliot's approach is not a life strategy for the faint of heart, but at roughly $20 a hour, the equivalent of more than $40,000 a year if he were to work every day, Elliot can save money to get him through any slow times. And so far, since beginning his temp career when he arrived in San Francisco from Chicago a few years ago, there have not been many. Elliot said he could not remember all the places he has worked for Mactemps.

Elliot grew up using computers, and as a student at the University of Iowa in the late 1980s he became proficient with a wide variety of software. He has been a frequent contributor to the Internet's discussion forums for nearly 10 years, and watched the development of the Internet into a commercial medium. His breadth of knowledge wins him a variety of assignments, but he sees the Internet as the ticket to the more interesting ones.

``I've always been a tech freak,'' Elliot said. ``It just so happened that when I came out here they could put me to work.''

Like most people working on the Internet, Elliot taught himself most everything he knows about the Web, staying up late at night to build Web pages, try out the latest Web software and generally poke around.

During the assignment at the technical publishing company, he helped co-workers build and launch the company's Web site, in the meantime picking up what experience he could.

Picking up skills in one job that can be applied to the next is how many temps raise their salaries. In Elliot's case, he wants all the Web publishing experience he can get so that he can someday own his own Internet services business. But he is also a jack-of-all-trades computer operator within the Macintosh world, with a wide range of expertise. At Peachpit, he set up the company's data base and helped manage book production.

He turned to Mactemps, he said, because he thought that would land him better assignments than he could find as an independent. And the managers at Mactemps, which has offices in San Francisco and Santa Clara, in Silicon Valley, say his background is perfect for today's high-tech market. The Internet has led to a surge in demand for anybody with Web development experience.

``The reason an agency is good is it gives you access to places you wouldn't otherwise have access to, like PG&E,'' Elliot said. ``It used to be companies like PG&E would hire direct, but now they go through agencies.''

Like a lot of ``permanent'' temps, Elliot is choosing this way to earn money so he has time and energy for what he considers his true career these days: he publishes a culture magazine about the underground music scene, a project he began three years ago while working in Chicago as a sales clerk in an apparel shop. Today, he devotes his evenings to the magazine, working out of his apartment after a day at one office or another.