Everything In Between

I’m looking for work in the field of (as you probably guessed) web development and design. My father is a graphic artist so I’ve got some connections that way but as usual it turns out you can do very little without other people. (In my case, my father’s connections.)

So he told me to go check out Craigslist to look for additional work.

Well, here’s what I think about that:

I looked through Craigslist’s several categories for job postings.

The bottom line on Craigslist is this: it’s free to post. It’s free to respond. It’s all anonymous.

Which means:

1. It’s limited to only what recruiters post, which is an estimated 30% of the actual job openings. (www.job-hunt.org) Not to mention, this is an utterly random technique.
2. Each poster is probably inundated with replies daily. It’s too competitive.
3. Employers over-specify the necessary skills and experience needed for the job, creating a job posting with requirements that no one can meet (e.g., 10 years of experience with a technology that’s only 7 or 8 years old). Besides, job seekers over-apply. Also according to job-hunt.org: “Many recruiters have shared with me that they don’t like to advertise a job opportunity because they receive so many responses from unqualified applicants, an estimated 80% to 90% of responses. Job seekers view it as a “why-not” opportunity; recruiters see it as more dumb (or lazy) applicants who didn’t pay attention or don’t understand what is required.”
4. It’s a lose/lose situation. You lose because you must spend a lot of time finding and combing through job opportunities for the ones that match your qualifications and/or interest you. The recruiters lose because they must comb through hundreds, if not thousands, of resumes to find the truly qualified applicants.

And that is why job postings on craigs list suck.

Believe me, I know. [The organization I currently work for] posts its [entry level job] openings on Craigslist. And we get over 50 responses daily!

-m

P.S. That’s why I want to get [our new client's] site up (last week). That would be word-of-mouth. It taps a potential market never available to people responding to job postings, it’s less work, and it’s ultimately higher paying.