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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Using LinkedIn Endorsements

Sometime back I wrote a blog post on LinkedIn Endorsements. The post was discussed within the Boulder Net LinkedIn group (Boulder Colorado Networking Group for Professionals in LinkedIn).
One member pointed out information from Ladders.com tips on job search that stated that recommendations do help. I do agree but claim that LinkedIn endorsements alone cannot be a differentiating factor. Since everyone can get endorsed, it only helps if people are competing against do not have any. It is also very difficult for a reviewer of a profile to see the nuances between the endorsements of two different candidates. It also means that if you ask for LinkedIn endorsements you work with your colleague to get an authentic and nuanced text rather than platitudes.

Do you write recommendations for your colleagues? What do you think?

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Growing Faster Than Most Colorado LinkedIn Groups

Boulder Net is growing faster than the top five Colorado networking groups. Will you join us?

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Targeting the Right Segment for Boulder Net

In one of my previous post I analyzed the membership information of Colorado related groups in LinkedIn. I defined the the total addressable market for Boulder Net group as professionals within LinkedIn who work within 50 mile radius of Boulder. The top ranked group has less than 1% of membership. One way to increase Boulder Net's membership could be to target these members of top ranked groups but the most the Boulder Net group can achieve is to be the same as those. Besides what is the unique value add from this group if the people in this group are already in another Colorado group.

The right approach I believe is to target the rest of the market, those who are not in any of the groups, which is about 94% of the market. That is the target segment. If this is the only group that has members who cannot be found in other groups, then that is an attractive value proposition for other members to join this group. In addition this group has a popular blog and significant web search engine presence. But I am looking for more ideas to improve the value add to the members. Please send your ideas to my email or post as comment.