Craigslist has taken down the newspaper industry fairly rapidly due to the decline of classified ad revenue at most regional newspapers. Whether you love them or hate them, classifieds, and now Craigslist, are often the first source of leads for job hunters, but as any hiring manager or experienced job seeker (read: unemployed for a long period of time) will tell you, the results are often meager. So how do you get through the average and rise above the sheer volume of applicants?Luck, for one. Obviously something I can't really help with. Cover letters, which we talked about yesterday. But even more than that, it's doing intelligence checking. Use Craigslist as a lead, but don't just hurl an application or resume the second you see an opening, use that as the starting point for an in-depth check. Do you know someone at the company? Can you get a vibe for how the company operates? Do your research, and you'll come away with a better picture of what the opening truly means, and that means you'll have a better shot at the job, and potentially coming away with job satisfaction-- something that lasts for a lot longer than the initial research process.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Stephen says: (1:28PM on Jun 25th 2009) Vote Up Vote DownReport2/5
Randall, great post. Craigslist is actually an underutilized resource by recruiters I feel. They typically shy away from it because of the sheer number of resumes they receive from postings that are typically unqualified for the requirements. However, one thing that tends to make this a lot harder for applicants to jobs is the anonymity involved with craigslist and the ability to post without having anyone know who the position is for. I would suggest to applicants to cut and paste important parts of the job descripttions and search for them on a search engine. Sometimes this will pop up the listing on the company site and will provide you more details that way as well.
Nice post.
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Andy says: (3:05PM on Jun 25th 2009) Vote Up Vote DownReport2/5
Stephen, good point about searching for parts of the description to see if the job is listed somewhere a bit more "reputable." I've had people tell me about their Craigslist success stories (mostly for freelance and contract work), but I can't say that I've enjoyed the same success.
The first and last Craigslist ad I answered for work was for a band who needed design work (website, logos, other collateral). I was instructed to come talk to them after their show one night. So after showing up (and paying a cover charge), I waited until their set was over. As they climbed off stage, I saw a swarm of other people approach the band members.
Thinking they were just fans, I maintained my approach. As it turned out, the swarm of people were others who were responding to the ad.
Alex Rudloff says: (3:24PM on Jun 25th 2009) Vote Up Vote DownReport2/5
We've heard from some job seekers who have posted their emurse url's (i.e., http://alex.emurse.com) on craigslist and have seen some decent traffic. From my conversations with recruiters though, their job postings often lead to a flood of noise. Probably depends on the market I guess.
One thing I've noticed is that sites where postings are free to tend dampen the quality of the postings. I wonder if people have better luck in the bigger markets where Craigslist charges for the post?
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