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How to Get a Job on Craigslist

Written by: Guy Kawasaki

Article Overview: I recently ran a help-wanted ad on Craigslist. The position was a photo-editor job for a site that I dare not mention because some people will complain that I promote it too often. Here’s what I learned a lot from this experience—much of which you may apply to a job search if you respond to a Craigslist ad:

How to Get a Job on Craigslist

I recently ran a help-wanted ad on Craigslist. The position was a photo-editor job for a site that I dare not mention because some people will complain that I promote it too often. Here’s what I learned a lot from this experience—much of which you may apply to a job search if you respond to a Craigslist ad:

Apply fast. I posted the job at 11:19 pm on Thursday, August 2nd. The first response came in thirty-one minutes later. Fifteen more responses came in the next day. Therefore, 43% of the responses came in the first day or so. If you wait a few days, employers who advertise on Craigslist may already fill the job. Indeed, looking for a job is a job, so don’t take a few days off (for example, the weekend) from your search.

Write a cover email that addresses the position. Two people simply attached their resume to their response. I pushed back on one and suggested that he write a cover email. He copied and pasted my job description to, I guess, let me know which job he was applying for. Needless to say, both candidates didn’t get serious consideration. I don’t know about other employers, but the thing I can’t stand the most is laziness. Although, to be fair, the ad was for a position at the worst website in the world.

Rise to the occasion. The vast majority of the candidates were highly-qualified professional designers, photographers, and photo editors. My response to the first thirty-one applicants (who were diligent enough to write a cover email) involved a test to find pictures that illustrated five sample stories. Twenty-six (94%) of the twenty-nine immediately completed the test. Now you know that there are highly-qualified diligent candidates in the Craigslist talent pool.

Apply well. You should jump right on an opportunity because if the position is filled there’s usually nothing you can do. However, the three people that we hired did apply on the fifth and seventh days after the listing. The reason is that they simply picked the pictures that we liked best—which is to say either our tastes were similar or they figured out what we liked, both of which work for me.

Apply really well. The person who was the most obvious “right candidate” did something that no one else did: He not only chose good pictures, but he also resized them to approximately 140 x 105 pixels. This is the size of the pictures that we use on our site. Thus, he figured out what kind of pictures we liked and what size we used.

Several other candidates said something to effect of, “These aren’t the right size for your site, but I figured you just wanted to check my taste, not my ability to resize photos.” Actually, we wanted to see how much initiative candidates had too. Most companies would love to find the one candidate that stands head and shoulders above the others, so be that person by applying really well. Ask yourself this simple question: “If I were hiring for this position, what would impress me?”

Don’t be stupid. I mentioned in the ad that Macintosh expertise was highly desirable—specificially with a handful of apps. One person wrote back, “Quite frankly, I’ve never even heard of FlySketch, Skitch or MarsEdit (or Ecto or Qumana).” Honesty, is not the best policy: either don’t mention your lack of qualifications or spend ten minutes to go figure out what these applications do. My conclusion from the candidate’s response was that he was lazy, and laziness wasn’t in the job description.

By the way, the ad cost $75, and it yielded approximately thirty-seven good candidates—therefore, at a cost of a mere $2 per candidate. I’d heard from other companies about the extraordinary effectiveness of Craigslist, but now I “know” this is true. And if you’re a candidate for a job on Craigslist, now you “know” what you’re up against, so apply fast, write a good cover email, apply well, apply really well, and don’t flaunt your lack of qualifications.

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Article Tags: august 2nd, craigslisti, editor job, email, few days, first response, how to get a job, job description, job search, looking for a job, photo editor, photo editors, photographers, professional designers, resume, rise to the occasion, talent pool



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Re: New Famous Entrepreneur - Craig Newmark - Craigslist has got both positive and negative feedbacks although I admit I've used Craigslist as also one of my good references for finding listings, jobs, etc that'll benefit my business. Well, Craig has done a great job setting up this website and it was the people around who makes the bad impressions. I hope that won't hurt the whole Craigslist reputation though.
Re: Craigslist/Kijiji Sales - From my understanding, Craigslist is known as more of a place to buy/sell and find deals on products, rather than services. Personally, I would never buy a service from a seller on Craigslist (eg. a tutor, tennis instructor, etc) because there's nothing to measure credibility.
Re: Using Craigslist SEO to Promote Your Website - Hi Trent, I did do some of my own research and a lot of what I found was quite similar to what you said. They do have the no follow on links and flagging has become a problem. Since you've written a book on the subject, have you found an alternative to Craigslist in terms of using it as a tool for promotion? I know Craigslist is hard to top with its SEO-friendliness and traffic, but as entrepreneurs when a door closes we must open another!
Craigslist/Kijiji Sales - Would like to know who on this forum is having any success with generating business through Craigslist or Kijiji by posting ads there? What kind of business do you run and what do your ads state? I've been using the sites to generate leads for Foreclosure properties and I've been having some success. One of my Business Coaching client is a software developer and he's been having a lot of success with Craigslist - almost $7000/month. what's your view on it ?
I think Craigslist is better than Ebay - As a relative novice to selling online, I found that Craigslist is a very effective tool. In less than a month, I've sold over $800 worth of my excess tennis gear (which I was planning on getting rid of) and I haven't really lost much from my original purchase price. The postings on Craigslist are very search engine friendly on Google and I feel it's an easier site to use than Ebay (as a seller). Unlike Ebay there's no seller/posting fees on Craigslist and you're not even limited to selling to "local" consumers. I've had international buyers contact me and pay for the shipping costs. These buyers will pay me first via PayPal, and then I'll simply ship out their product and provide a tracking code (and the parcels are automatically insured for up to $100). Do any of you have any selling experience on either platform you'd like to share?


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