How to use Craigslist to Find a Job and Get Hired

Using Craigslist to find a job? You Betcha!

After being out of the job market for quite sometime (we owned our own business for 14 years), I was quite baffled at how to go about looking for a job a couple of years ago. Being an avid Craigslister, I noticed that there were quite a few job listings on Craigslist and decided to try using Craigslist to find a job.

I was not disappointed. In fact, I have found Craigslist to be the best way to find a job and some really good ones at that. I am also registered with Monster and Hot Jobs but have had my greatest success on Craigslist. I have had over 6 interviews through applications submitted on Craigslist and 4 of those interviews ended up in job offers. The latest position I landed was as a newborn baby photographer (a position I just absolutely love) and the position prior to that was that of an art teacher for one year (I have been an artist for over 40 years - 30 of those commercially)

The other job that I found on Craigslist was that of a reporter/examiner for the San Francisco Examiner. Although this position is not salary it has helped my career as a writer and has also given me more credibility and recognition within the writing community (The San Francisco Examiner pays per page views - somewhat similar to HubPages except you are reporting on a specific topic - mine is that of Climate Change examiner)

Looking for a job on Craigslist is very easy. All you need to do is create a user account (you don't have to do this but I find it easier having an account since I do so many things on Craigslist) There are many categories of jobs to choose from, jobs from admin all the way to "etc" jobs ( I have found 2 of my jobs under the "etc" category and one under the writing category) You can search for jobs many ways - by city, type and/or category. Since I'm usually looking for writing or art jobs, I usually look under the art/media, etc, or writing category (you can also search by using specific keywords such as "drywaller" or "carpenter" - words my husband uses in his job searches)

Employers looking for employees on Craigslist will usually ask for you to respond by either sending them an attachment with your resume, sending you to their website to fill out an application or by asking you to come into their office at appointed times. It's very important when you are searching for a job on Craigslist that you read the whole ad, as some employers absolutely do not want calls on the position or walk-ins. Most of the job ads that I have applied for asked for a resume and a cover letter, and it was very easy to just click on the reply ad and send an email to my new prospective employer. Some employers will give you specific information on how they want you to respond to their ad, so once again it's important to read the whole ad. Some employers want you to fax your resume or even mail it in.

Since I don't have a fax machine set up in my home anymore, I used a local career center to send in my resume and application for a couple of the jobs that I responded to.

As all job hunters know, persistence is the key,. Every day there are new listings on Craigslist with new job positions so it's important to check out Craigslist everyday. Although some Craigslist job listings stay up for weeks, it's always a good idea to be "ahead" of the crowd and on top of any new positions that may come available.

There is one particular position that I have been interested in for over a year so I also search Craigslist for that companies name from time to time. This has netted me 2 interviews with this company. Although I did not get the position, it is one that I will keep searching for as it something that I am extremely interested in.

Although most jobs on Craigslist are either part-time of full-time, there are also some freelance or temporary jobs available. If you are just looking for some extra cash you can search using the word "temporary" and also check the "etc." category. There are also come freelance jobs under the gigs category.

There are also many non-paying jobs on Craigslist as "interns" which some people may have an interest in for furthering their career (some of these are very interesting but for me right now cash is king. I simply cannot afford to work as an intern although it's been tempting sometimes)

Below is an actual list of the job search categories from Craigslist.

• accounting+finance
• admin / office
• arch / engineering
• art / media / design
• biotech / science
• business / mgmt
• customer service
• education
• food / bev / hosp
• general labor
• government
• human resources
• internet engineers
• legal / paralegal
• manufacturing
• marketing / pr / ad
• medical / health
• nonprofit sector
• real estate
• retail / wholesale
• sales / biz dev
• salon / spa / fitness
• security
• skilled trade / craft
• software / qa / dba
• systems / network
• technical support
• transport
• tv / film / video
• web / info design
• writing / editing
• [ETC] [ part time ]

The other wonderful thing about searching for a job on Craigslist is that you can also search other cities, states and even countries for jobs. Maybe you are looking for a change and want to move - so using Craigslist could be a great way to set yourself up with a job somewhere else. I have no intentions of moving so all my job searches have been local and I usually look for positions within 20 miles of my home (I don't like to commute) I was actually fortunate enough to land my photographer position in the city that I live in so I was quite happy about that. The other 2 positions I had were temporary but they were also local which worked out great. My reporting position with the San Francisco Examiner is a telecommute position which is even better!

As we all know times are tough and many people are either being downsized or losing their jobs and finding it hard to find another one. When I first started job searching on Craigslist I realized that I could actually broaden my job search by looking for positions I may have not considered in a traditional job search. That is one of the beauties of job searching on Craigslist - there are so many positions that you actually have quite a few to choose from as long as you are not too picky. I had to lower my expectations and start looking at the bigger picture. I realized that although I might not get the exact position I wanted, perhaps the position I did get would be a stepping stone to something else.

I hope my story and personal experience of finding a job on Craigslist has helped you and I wish you well in your job hunting. To check out my other articles on Craigslist and ways to make money using Craigslist you can read more about my other Craigslist successes here.

(Dorsi Diaz is a freelance writer/publisher who writes about a variety of topics including Craigslist and creating multiple streams of income. She earns money writing here at HubPages in addition to her work as a photographer. To sign up for HubPages and earn money writing you can go here (it's free) and also subscribe to her reader fan club/RSS feed. Thanks for reading)