Applying to Job Postings in Craigslist

Craigslist has no advertisements. It makes its money from job postings by employees. So are all the job postings in Craigslist real and worth applying for? One of the Boulder Net Professional (a LinkedIn based Colorado Networking Group) posed a question to the Boulder Net, whether anyone got a job by applying to one of those Craigslist postings. Another member said that she had applied to several but never got any response and doubted whether or not the postings are real. There is a really nice article in today's Wall Street Journal that asks "Is it a real job behind the job posting".

If you're launching an online job hunt for the first time in a while; take caution. What may look like an ad for employment may lead to something entirely different, like a hard sell for career services or job-training manuals. Or worse, it might be a plan by identity thieves to get you to share sensitive personal information via "phishing" expeditions. Some of the job postings -- sometimes for positions long filled -- also could be from recruiting agencies looking to collect résumés.

Definitely a advice we should all take to heart and follow. It may be a better idea to send a resume that only has an email address rather than the home address. But as the article points out, applying for these online postings may only have zero to low response rates.

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