My 10 Tips on how to hire using Craigslist.
It’s amazing.
After all these years, Craig Newmark’s Craigslist still ranks as one of the best sources of candidates.
I just read a great article from Zen99 which pointed out that the majority of the on-demand economy, Uber and Postmates for example, are all pouring money into Craigslist for their hiring. Craigslist baby!
Craigslist is awesome, but also frustrating.
The two big frustrations I have seen from using Craigslist are:
1. Too many people applying (applicant flood).
2. Poor quality of candidates (too much junk/spam/bad talent).
This is the solution: You need to attract the good candidates, make it harder for bad candidates to apply and then be able to quicklyidentify the best candidates.
Not rocket science. But remember, most of your competitors posting jobs on Craigslist are not rocket scientists.*
We built SortBox based on these best practices. Right now (this week) I am using SortBox to hire for an internal position, and I’m using Craigslist for $25 here in NYC. I’ve posted one job post on CL.
My results: 340 clicks from one post on Craigslist. 49 Applicants who uploaded their resumes, sent in a cover letter, and also answered 3 questions. It’s for a part time gig, so not only do I already have some great candidates, but I also have a go-to list for the next time I need help.
SortBox also organizes and manages the talent once you attract them; but let’s focus for now on getting talent in front of you.
And also, for this list, let’s assume SortBox doesn’t exist and you had to build everything yourself.
Here’s what you need to do to really turbo your Craigslist hiring strategy:
1. Create a separate landing page that describes the job. Not just a job description. Describe the role and describe why it’s something someone should be interested in. Include graphics. Include video. Make it very clear what the job is, but also promote the great things about this job. Sell the job.
2. Ideally you would also have a specific careers page, a web presence that is mobile friendly that tells prospective applicants all about you, your culture, your mission, as well as any press, testimonials from existing or previous employees etc. All elements proven to increase interest from talent.
This is separate from your job page. NOTE: Craigslist doesn’t condone a link to a careers page (against their Terms of Service). You can link to one job page, but not multiple jobs on one page.
3. Create a step by step application using google forms. You want to make it easy for applicants to slowly apply; a big ugly form is just bad mojo. Sometimes the best candidates are the ones who are the least hungry; make it easy for them to show interest.
Make sure applicants can upload PDF resumes, social media links, images and cover letters. Make sure that the order of information you ask for is optimized to gather the most amount of data, while not frustrating an applicant, while also making it difficult enough that you only get serious applicants.
4. Create a custom folder system for intake in google docs that maps the form data into a user experience that allows you to review all the info in one interface.
You want to make sure that with applicants uploading resumes, multiple images, portfolio links and even answers to custom questions that all the info is stored and displayed in one view so you can identify who is good quickly. Opening multiple attachments takes a minute, but with 120 candidates, that’s 2 hours.
5. Create a labeled storage system in Dropbox or Google drive that stores all the candidates and their info for after you have sorted them.
Again, make sure that there are no additional files to download because that will greatly slow down workflow. Imagine a content management system where all the applicant info gets published into a micro blog if you will. You can also hack IFTTT and Trello into a system to organize the applicants.
6. Set up notifications so you can tell when someone has applied, and so an email receipt is sent to let them know what they applied for; remember recruiting starts with the first contact, this is especially true for the best candidates.
7. Go to Craigslist and start your post in the city you are hiring in. Pick your one industry and location. Pick the area where you know people will be looking, for example if you are in Dumbo Brooklyn, I would use Manhattan since more people look there.
8. Now describe your job in the CL post. Be honest but also be positive. Remember, you are selling your job to a job seeker just as much as the candidate is selling themselves to you.
You have to also explain why this job is a great job to get the best applicants. Remember: this step is just to get the person to click on the link to see all the other information and content on your job’s landing page.
9. Paste in the link for your job landing page directly into the CL post. Don’t use words like “click here” or “for more info”, CL doesn’t like that. Use a CL covered email, don’t use your own.
10. Pay craigslist. Check your email for the confirmation email from craigslist. Double check everything. Then Publish!
That’s the workflow to really leverage Craigslist to attract and collect talent, it’s not really a “hack”, but it sure does make the most of the great ocean of talent on Craigslist looking for jobs.
The talent is out there, just use great looking bait and the right sized net to only catch what you want.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Justin Sherratt is the Founder/CEO of SortBox, a hiring platform designed for ecosystems and business networks that allows you to attract, collect and manage the best talent from networks, ecosystems, social media and even Craigslist.
Justin has worked in branding, technology, film and recruiting since 1997 and holds degrees from the Johns Hopkins University and the London International Film School and is the former Director of Founder Institute NY.
He is currently a mentor for Founder Institute in NY and Co-Founder of the Blue Jay Syndicate. He can be followed on twitter @justinsherratt.
SortBox is currently in invite only beta. For a free trial you can use “CLhack” as your invite code: https://sortbox.co/signupbeta
*this is an indirect quote from Levitt and Dubner’s “Think like a freak”. They also mention how you need to make it a little bit difficult for someone to apply for a job, as this negates false positives, which is an opinion I also share. Worth a read!
