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Get A Job: The Craigslist Experiment

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Re: Get A Job: The Craigslist Experiment

#81

Post by bilbobaggie »

justjimmy wrote: post #25

I recently started looking for an iOS artist to work with and I posted a job ad on Craiglist and Kijiji, for the first time. I was overwhelmed with the response - I mean I knew there was alot of people using Craigslist but I had no idea of the scope. And the spam. I even had people submitting me their resumes who had nothing to do with what I was looking for. Needless to say, I was quite surprised by amount of respon…

I actually need to start looking for a graphic artist for a small job soon - Do you have a recommendation for where to post other than Craigslist?

Re: Get A Job: The Craigslist Experiment

#82

Post by nandemo »

dbecker wrote: post #55

I'm wonder what the ratio of job postings to job applicants is. If there are 600 applications per listing, and each applicant sends 50 applications, then there are 12 times as many applicants as listings. Do the 600 and 50 numbers seem about right?

For what is worth, the job_seekers/opening ratio is usually published by the same agencies that provide unemployment rates.

For instance, a quick search reveals that ratio was 3.5 in the US in May 2012 (down from 4.5 one year before), while it was only about 1.25 in Japan.

https://mninews.deutsche-boerse.com/content/japan-may-job-of...

http://www.labor.ny.gov/stats/job-seekers-per-opening.shtm

However, if we assume a 3.5 seeker/opening ratio then 600 applications/opening implies 171 applications per seeker, which sounds too high.

Looking at the methodology, it's clear what the problem is: the denominator in the official seeker/opening ratio is simply the number of currently unemployed people. Those 600 applications must include people who are working, perhaps part-time, so technically not unemployed. I think your estimate sounds about right.

Re: Get A Job: The Craigslist Experiment

#83

Post by pjungwir »

tseabrooks wrote: post #9

This is interesting and well written. Find yourself a grad student in Math and you've got your job. I want more articles of a "pop math" variety exploring the numbers of everyday life. Not only are they interesting and engaging, these types of stories provide the groundwork for helping "us" (entrepreneurs) know what industries we should be attacking.

The world could indeed use more people who can write like Martin Gardner.

Re: Get A Job: The Craigslist Experiment

#84

Post by dennisgorelik »

1) "Administrative Assistant" postings attract lots of job seekers. For some reason unemployed candidates like to apply for these jobs.

2) Scammers like to post "Administrative Assistant" postings too. I'd say that at least half of "Administrative Assistant" postings are scam (scammers are trying to recruit people for money laundering or pyramid scheme).

3) Job postings looking for software developers are totally different story. There are plenty of openings chasing limited pool of available developers.

4) See how jobs/resumes ratio varies for different skills:

http://www.postjobfree.com/skills

Re: Get A Job: The Craigslist Experiment

#85

Post by dennisgorelik »

patdennis wrote: post #4

We’re familiar with the art of the job search: day after day, scanning the classifieds, Monster, Indeed, Craigslist, etc. for open positions; forever touching up résumés to appeal to specific job requirements; writing endless cover letters that never seem to sound quite right; applying to dozens, maybe hundreds of jobs per week; staring vacuously at the familiar monitor glow at 3 a.m. This sounds horrible. I've never…

What's your niche?

Re: Get A Job: The Craigslist Experiment

#86

Post by dennisgorelik »

bilbobaggie wrote: post #81
justjimmy wrote: post #25

I recently started looking for an iOS artist to work with and I posted a job ad on Craiglist and Kijiji, for the first time. I was overwhelmed with the response - I mean I knew there was alot of people using Craigslist but I had no idea of the scope. And the spam. I even had people submitting me their resumes who had nothing to do with what I was looking for. Needless to say, I was quite surprised by amount of respon…

I actually need to start looking for a graphic artist for a small job soon - Do you have a recommendation for where to post other than Craigslist?

http://www.postjobfree.com/post-job

Re: Get A Job: The Craigslist Experiment

#87

Post by deelowe »

el_cuadrado wrote: post #5

For big companies, the degree is just a requirement. If they ask for a minimum of bachelor, then they likely do not care if you have a Ph.D. For smaller companies, experience is everything. And Masters in English is not an advantage, unless you apply for a blogger position or something.

You aren't kidding. This "every degree" is worth something mentally is what's killing the workfore. Some skills are highly marketable, some aren't. With the decline of professional journalism, I imagine english majors aren't in high demand at this point and no one wants to hire someone who's over qualified and will get bored in 3 months.

Re: Get A Job: The Craigslist Experiment

#88

Post by patio11 »

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #41
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.

It is a market failure if people want to sell editing and people want to buy editing and no transactions take place. If no one wants to buy editing, no sales of editing is a market success. For example, it informs people wondering if they should learn editing or nursing that nursing is the socially and personally optimal choice. One could argue gl that government subsidies for editing misinform participants about what society wants and, simultaneously, redirect societal resources from things people want to things they do not want, like editing.

Re: Get A Job: The Craigslist Experiment

#89

Post by abiekatz »

This is part of why temp agencies and "talent resource" companies can exist. Trying to filter the ton of resumes and hire the right candidate off of craigslist.com can be quite the pain.

I do wonder though what jobs bright people without hard skills should pursue. This guide is interesting: http://www.slideshare.net/choehn/recessionproof-graduate-172...

I think people in that position should try to learn a valuable skill. Of course easier said than done but there are a number of skills that should lead to a middle class life that can be learned relatively quickly.

Programming could be a good choice. See: http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/10/dev-boot-camp-is-a-ruby-suc... DevBootcamp seemed to produce quality developers in 3 months.

Though also PR, online advertising, some focus in marketing, web design, sales...whatever.

Re: Get A Job: The Craigslist Experiment

#90

Post by Cd00d »

pjnewton wrote: post #43

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…

Personally, I hate the hurdle of the .txt only, or pasted in resume.

I put a lot of effort into the layout and style of my resume, and wrote it in TeX. My knee-jerk response when people won't glance at my .pdf resume is that they are lazy, don't respect the effort that goes into design and layout, and only wish to keyword search.

This may not be true of your case, just saying what my emotional response is in that situation. I agree that minor hurdles to weed out the insincere are valuable.

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