Get A Job: The Craigslist Experiment • Hacker News Board

Re: Get A Job: The Craigslist Experiment

#41

Post by eli_gottlieb » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 10:13 PM UTC

Foy wrote: post #3

I've heard that the employment prospects with a humanities degree were... not optimal. But to think that so many people with Bachelor's or Master's degrees are out there fighting tooth and nail over meager admin assisstant jobs that barely pay anything. I'm shocked. o.o Also, have you ever thought that maybe having a Master's degree makes you seem over-qualified for a secretary (sorry) position? When I think of a Mas…

Editing and journalism are still very necessary, but somehow the actual streams of monetary income for them have almost entirely dried up.

The result is that we get very little independent (of state funding) journalism, and what we do get from any sources is very badly edited. But somehow there's no need being expressed on the market for journalists or editors?

Sounds like a market failure to me.

Re: Get A Job: The Craigslist Experiment

#42

Post by eli_gottlieb » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 10:15 PM UTC

ilaksh wrote: post #28

There are not enough jobs. The 'economic' model is broken, and the 'economy' is being strangled. But its worse than that. The very concept of a job doesn't even really qualify as civilized.

Pretty much agreed. The notion that there will or must exist demand for labor corresponding to every individual's basic needs has never actually been proven. The statement is then left as a should statement, but why should we force our society into the mold of a bizarre reverse-moralization?

Re: Get A Job: The Craigslist Experiment

#43

Post by pjnewton » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 10:16 PM UTC

Great timing on this for me. I just posted a job (a real one) to Craigslist and received a handful of responses.

Making the assumption that I would get a bunch of resumes I decided to add one little hurdle. I asked the applicant to copy & paste their resume into the email body. I did this to see who was actually paying attention and who was just spamming every posting and hoping someone would bite. Sadly this hurdle come not be overcome by the majority of the people I heard from... The search continues.

Re: Get A Job: The Craigslist Experiment

#44

Post by galfarragem » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 10:19 PM UTC

I'll share my experience on how I get jobs. I never won any job answering job offers. All the jobs I got (6 or 7, doesn't matter) I got knocking doors. Literally. I never "lost" any interview that I got this way.

Is this a rule to follow or was just luck? I don't know the answer. I know that it works for me. Ok, I'm in the architectural field, within other industries and corporations probably would be impossible to have this approach. Age is also an important factor. Knocking doors when you're during your 20's is not the same as during your 40's. Even during your 30's is already more difficult.

It's my experience. I hope it can help somebody.

edit: This way people who could make the interview already know you. You are already interviewing without any appointment! If they ask you a more formal interview you're in. Early mornings always choose early mornings. Afternoons are terrible for this approach. Everybody just wants to go home. Nobody will have any patience to listen to you.

Smile in the face and confidence of course. This can make the difference. Of course lucks has a big role also: if the decision-makers are in the office or not, if tehy are free, if there is any (even a slight is enough) need of people, etc

Re: Get A Job: The Craigslist Experiment

#45

Post by justincormack » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 10:20 PM UTC

Retric wrote: post #34

hkmurakami wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you happen to have a Resume/Cover Letter that when read, has a high chance of making inroads at a company, then snail mail works surprisingly well. (obvious downside is that it takes a very long time to research companies and tailor the documents to each one) Snail mail is the route I took back in the Fall of 2010. The response rate was roughly 20% for me.

That's rather high, I once had a 3 hours of interviews and then zero contact after that.

Some companies are just incompetent. I had that too, although I had decided I was not interested by hour 2.5 so was not so bothered. They still advertise on HN sometimes...

Re: Get A Job: The Craigslist Experiment

#46

Post by l3amm » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 10:22 PM UTC

wcchandler wrote: post #21

I attempted something similar during my last year of college. I made a posting at my closest large city, detailing my ideal job. I also laid out what seemed to be good requirements that I would have satisfied for the position. I was astounded by the results. I quickly had to remove the ad, too. The messages were heart wrenching to read. One man was unemployed after being discharged from the military. Another man had…

> I had broad competition

While the competition in these situations is not often that broad (though there will always be a few ivy leaguers in that mess), the real problem is the noise factor. The chance that your resume even gets read is slim due to the fact that it will take many hours to go through 600 applications.

Re: Get A Job: The Craigslist Experiment

#47

Post by alfredp » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 10:25 PM UTC

I posted an ad in the newspaper with a similar kind of experiment in mind. A dead marketing dude was daring me to do something crazy. What's the worst that can happen? (About midway through this: http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Newsletters/aslz_winners...) You can read this first to see what he actually dared me to do.

The short version of what happened: my cellphone was ringing off the hooks and I had to just turn it off for a few weeks. Totally insane response.

Re: Get A Job: The Craigslist Experiment

#48

Post by liamondrop » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 10:30 PM UTC

I've gotten several gigs through Craigslist. Both fulltime and one-off / freelance. It rarely has taken me more than a couple days to get an interview/callback.

My single most important tip for doing this successfully is to get your app in fast. Like within 30 minutes of the job going on the site max. I'm certain that almost no one looks at more than the first 50-100 submissions. It helps to put relevant categories/searches into some kind of rss reader that updates frequently and allows you to see multiple feeds simultaneously so you can see at a glance as soon as something you're interested in pops up.

Second to speed is writing a good cover letter. The letter should be concise, active tense, probably with bullet points for easy scanning, and talk about what you have done and what you will do for them that will make their life easier. Having most of the letter drafted in advance will help you get it in fast, but you will likely want to at least touch on a few key points from their job posting.

Re: Get A Job: The Craigslist Experiment

#49

Post by gsibble » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 10:33 PM UTC

I am sooooo happy that I'm an engineer right now.

Re: Get A Job: The Craigslist Experiment

#50

Post by galfarragem » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 10:34 PM UTC

rizzom5000 wrote: post #32

Why would the author believe 600+ applicants for a semi-skilled entry-level job posting in NYC is an unusual number? How does that number compare to a similar job posting in London, Tokyo or Shanghai? This experiment is silly, contrived and unscientific. The data is without context, and essentially meaningless. Also, while I wouldn't exactly call it unethical to do something like this - it is dishonest, and something…

Some time ago I made the same experience but making it more extreme: I posted a job for an architect offering very bad conditions (minimal money, long hours not paid, 10 hours day, etc). I can say that I got 250 answers. I'm speaking about Lisbon, Portugal reality, not in NYC.