craigslist hiring process by chris leake
My Craigslist Hiring Process by Chris Leake On Craigslist you get a really mixed bag of candidates applying for jobs. There are some not-so-appealing candidates, and there are people who mindlessly go through and respond to almost every job posting, but I have found there can be some really good candidates on Craigslist as well. What it takes is a process to filter out some of the undesirable candidates in order to get down to the good ones. The skills and tasks for the positions I’ve hired have varied, but one thing that’s consistent is that I’m always looking for responsible, hard-working people over whose shoulder I don’t have to be looking all the time. I’m a detail person, so it’s also important to me that the people I hire are able to follow instructions and pay attention to details. Phase 1: Craigslist Post and Email Response I start by running an ad on Craigslist for the position. Here’s what the ad includes:
An introduction of our company A list of the tasks involved in the position A list of the characteristics and personality traits I’m looking for in the person I hire The schedule I’m looking for someone to work (sometimes it’s a precise schedule, and sometimes they have some flexibility to set their own schedule, within certain parameters) Description of the compensation being offered How to apply
I always sell the position as a chance to work for a small, local, family business where we truly care about you and you’re not just a cog in a machine. Many candidates have said that this spoke to them and made our ad stand out from a lot of others. (And most importantly we deliver on this promise, because we do genuinely care for our employees.) I don’t put any contact info in my Craigslist ad except for the Craigslist email relay address. I tell the candidates who are interested to send an email to that address, and I give them very specific instructions to follow. This is where I start filtering out the candidates who pay attention to details and can follow instructions from those who can’t. I say something like: “To apply for this position, send an email to the Craigslist email relay address associated with this post. Address your email specifically to Chris, and in it include the exact phrase ‘I’m applying for the ___________ position being offered by ___________ (company name). Please send me the application form. Candidates who fail to follow these instructions will not be considered.’ “
Depending on the position, I usually get anywhere from 25 to 100+ responses to my job posting on Craigslist. Of those, around 25% typically don’t address their message to me or don’t include the exact phrase I called for, so I immediately discard those candidates and don’t consider them any further. Phase 2: Application Form and Resume The candidates who pass the first test receive an email from me. The email has the application form attached as a PDF file, which I instruct them to fill out and then return to me via email. Then I give them another round of instructions to follow: In my email to them I say, “In your email reply with your application attached, write a paragraph of at least four sentences explaining why you’re interested in this position and why you think you would be a good fit.” The application form has just a few general questions:
Contact info Days and times you’re available to work Work history Education history Your key strengths, abilities, and characteristics Your areas of needed growth
The instructions I put at the top of the application form itself have one more very important directive: “Please attach your resume to the email when you return your application.” So I’ve given important instructions in my email response to the person, as well as within the application form itself that I send to them…I’m again looking to see if they’re thorough and if they pay attention to directions given them. I purposely send the application in the form of a PDF file that isn’t fillable. I do this because I’m looking to see who the problem solvers are. Some people have Adobe Acrobat, so they have no problem filling and returning the application. Some people find a way to convert the file, or they copy and paste it into a Word document. A lot of people print out the application, fill it, and then scan it and return it. The people who send me an email back saying something like, “I couldn’t open/fill out the application, but here’s my resume, I hope you’ll consider me” immediately get discarded. I know they’re the ones who, if I hired them, would be coming to me wanting me to fix every little issue they run into in their work, and/or they would be making excuses for why they couldn’t get their work done properly. Of the respondents who pass the first test, usually only 20%-30% return a completed application form. This allows me to filter out a whole lot of people who don’t care enough about this particular position to fill out and return an application form and write a four-sentence paragraph. A lot of people go through Craigslist responding to numerous job postings, and I only want the people who are truly interested in my particular position.
Of those who do return an application, usually only about half of them properly follow the instructions to include their resume as well as to write a paragraph of four sentences explaining why they want the job and why they’re a good fit. So here again, I filter out another group of candidates who would frustrate me as employees because they don’t pay close attention to instructions or because they hope it won’t matter if they cut corners. Of the candidates remaining at this point, here’s what I’m looking for in what they provide me:
The application form mostly just lets me know whether their availability matches up, and it also gives me a little insight into their personality and what amount of effort they’re putting into this process. The paragraph in the email shows me more of their personality, who they are, and why they want the job. Those few sentences are one of my most heavily weighted factors. If candidates are applying for a position where they would be communicating with customers (especially doing things like writing customer service emails), then I’m paying a lot of attention to their writing and communication skills. (In fact, if a significant portion of the job is going to be customer service emails, then I add an extra step to their application: I give them a scenario where a customer is upset about something, and I ask them to write a sample email they would send to that customer.) The resume helps me understand a little more about who the candidate is and what life experience he/she has. I frankly think it’s a little silly how big a deal we make about resumes in the employment world, but since resumes are such an accepted standard they do tell me an awful lot about how much a candidate cares. I’m paying a lot of attention to how neatly laid out (or not) the resume is, how well-organized it is, and how well the person writes. Is it up-to-date? Are there misspellings or grammatical errors? Does the resume fit with this particular position they’re applying for (is it at least a good, general resume for many different positions, in other words), or did they just send me the resume they wrote six months ago when they were looking for a position at an engineering firm? Work experience: I pay a lot of attention to the work history provided on a candidate’s resume and job application. If they have had nine different jobs in the past six years and never stayed at one longer than seven months, that’s a huge red flag for me. I know I’m not hiring for positions that anyone is going to make a career out of, but I’m going to put a lot of effort into training them and integrating them into our team, so I want people who are going to stick around a while.
Phase Three: Interviewing and Hiring At this point in the process, if 100 people responded to the initial job posting on Craigslist, I usually have about 10 people who have made it over all the hurdles. I’m now looking at some candidates that look pretty good on paper.
I pick out the two or three who I like the best on paper and call them up and invite them to come in for an interview. So far, I have always hired someone out of the first two or three who I bring in for interviews. In the interview I’m paying attention to:
Do they show up on time? Did they make some effort to dress neatly? (I’m not looking for business suits or ties, but just some indication that they care about how they present themselves and care about the position) Are they excited and positive about learning new things and being taught, or are they nervous about it or indifferent? Does their personality seem like it would mesh well with me and with our other employees? Are they willing to be self-starters and self-directed to a large extent once I’ve trained them? Do they like our business and like what the job would entail? Are there any issues with the job schedule, compensation, or tasks required that would be a problem for them?
Conclusion There are many different ways to go about hiring employees, and everyone has their own preferences. This is just one process I’ve developed that has served me well. I continue to tweak it, and each time I hire someone I learn new things and grow from the experience. Hiring the right person is very important, but it’s only the first step in the process. Once I’ve hired a great person, it’s then on me to invest the time and energy necessary to properly train them and equip them to do their job well. I’m responsible for their success, because their success is the success of my business. Assuming I’ve hired a good candidate, I then take responsibility if they ever struggle or underperform in any area, and I take it upon myself to work with them and help them improve. Hiring employees was kind of scary for me at first, but I’m so glad I’ve done it. Our business has grown far bigger the past few years than it could have with just me, and I now have a lot of freedom and flexibility with my time because I trust the people I’ve hired and trained to run the business. This allows me to invest a lot of time in my family as well as to stay focused on growing the business rather than simply running the business day-to-day. I hope this helps someone! Best regards, Chris Leake facebook.com/chrisleake
For additional reading consider the book: EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey For specific instruction on growing your Amazon and online selling team consider this course: ProvenTeamBuilding.com
An introduction of our company A list of the tasks involved in the position A list of the characteristics and personality traits I’m looking for in the person I hire The schedule I’m looking for someone to work (sometimes it’s a precise schedule, and sometimes they have some flexibility to set their own schedule, within certain parameters) Description of the compensation being offered How to apply
I always sell the position as a chance to work for a small, local, family business where we truly care about you and you’re not just a cog in a machine. Many candidates have said that this spoke to them and made our ad stand out from a lot of others. (And most importantly we deliver on this promise, because we do genuinely care for our employees.) I don’t put any contact info in my Craigslist ad except for the Craigslist email relay address. I tell the candidates who are interested to send an email to that address, and I give them very specific instructions to follow. This is where I start filtering out the candidates who pay attention to details and can follow instructions from those who can’t. I say something like: “To apply for this position, send an email to the Craigslist email relay address associated with this post. Address your email specifically to Chris, and in it include the exact phrase ‘I’m applying for the ___________ position being offered by ___________ (company name). Please send me the application form. Candidates who fail to follow these instructions will not be considered.’ “
Depending on the position, I usually get anywhere from 25 to 100+ responses to my job posting on Craigslist. Of those, around 25% typically don’t address their message to me or don’t include the exact phrase I called for, so I immediately discard those candidates and don’t consider them any further. Phase 2: Application Form and Resume The candidates who pass the first test receive an email from me. The email has the application form attached as a PDF file, which I instruct them to fill out and then return to me via email. Then I give them another round of instructions to follow: In my email to them I say, “In your email reply with your application attached, write a paragraph of at least four sentences explaining why you’re interested in this position and why you think you would be a good fit.” The application form has just a few general questions:
Contact info Days and times you’re available to work Work history Education history Your key strengths, abilities, and characteristics Your areas of needed growth
The instructions I put at the top of the application form itself have one more very important directive: “Please attach your resume to the email when you return your application.” So I’ve given important instructions in my email response to the person, as well as within the application form itself that I send to them…I’m again looking to see if they’re thorough and if they pay attention to directions given them. I purposely send the application in the form of a PDF file that isn’t fillable. I do this because I’m looking to see who the problem solvers are. Some people have Adobe Acrobat, so they have no problem filling and returning the application. Some people find a way to convert the file, or they copy and paste it into a Word document. A lot of people print out the application, fill it, and then scan it and return it. The people who send me an email back saying something like, “I couldn’t open/fill out the application, but here’s my resume, I hope you’ll consider me” immediately get discarded. I know they’re the ones who, if I hired them, would be coming to me wanting me to fix every little issue they run into in their work, and/or they would be making excuses for why they couldn’t get their work done properly. Of the respondents who pass the first test, usually only 20%-30% return a completed application form. This allows me to filter out a whole lot of people who don’t care enough about this particular position to fill out and return an application form and write a four-sentence paragraph. A lot of people go through Craigslist responding to numerous job postings, and I only want the people who are truly interested in my particular position.
Of those who do return an application, usually only about half of them properly follow the instructions to include their resume as well as to write a paragraph of four sentences explaining why they want the job and why they’re a good fit. So here again, I filter out another group of candidates who would frustrate me as employees because they don’t pay close attention to instructions or because they hope it won’t matter if they cut corners. Of the candidates remaining at this point, here’s what I’m looking for in what they provide me:
The application form mostly just lets me know whether their availability matches up, and it also gives me a little insight into their personality and what amount of effort they’re putting into this process. The paragraph in the email shows me more of their personality, who they are, and why they want the job. Those few sentences are one of my most heavily weighted factors. If candidates are applying for a position where they would be communicating with customers (especially doing things like writing customer service emails), then I’m paying a lot of attention to their writing and communication skills. (In fact, if a significant portion of the job is going to be customer service emails, then I add an extra step to their application: I give them a scenario where a customer is upset about something, and I ask them to write a sample email they would send to that customer.) The resume helps me understand a little more about who the candidate is and what life experience he/she has. I frankly think it’s a little silly how big a deal we make about resumes in the employment world, but since resumes are such an accepted standard they do tell me an awful lot about how much a candidate cares. I’m paying a lot of attention to how neatly laid out (or not) the resume is, how well-organized it is, and how well the person writes. Is it up-to-date? Are there misspellings or grammatical errors? Does the resume fit with this particular position they’re applying for (is it at least a good, general resume for many different positions, in other words), or did they just send me the resume they wrote six months ago when they were looking for a position at an engineering firm? Work experience: I pay a lot of attention to the work history provided on a candidate’s resume and job application. If they have had nine different jobs in the past six years and never stayed at one longer than seven months, that’s a huge red flag for me. I know I’m not hiring for positions that anyone is going to make a career out of, but I’m going to put a lot of effort into training them and integrating them into our team, so I want people who are going to stick around a while.
Phase Three: Interviewing and Hiring At this point in the process, if 100 people responded to the initial job posting on Craigslist, I usually have about 10 people who have made it over all the hurdles. I’m now looking at some candidates that look pretty good on paper.
I pick out the two or three who I like the best on paper and call them up and invite them to come in for an interview. So far, I have always hired someone out of the first two or three who I bring in for interviews. In the interview I’m paying attention to:
Do they show up on time? Did they make some effort to dress neatly? (I’m not looking for business suits or ties, but just some indication that they care about how they present themselves and care about the position) Are they excited and positive about learning new things and being taught, or are they nervous about it or indifferent? Does their personality seem like it would mesh well with me and with our other employees? Are they willing to be self-starters and self-directed to a large extent once I’ve trained them? Do they like our business and like what the job would entail? Are there any issues with the job schedule, compensation, or tasks required that would be a problem for them?
Conclusion There are many different ways to go about hiring employees, and everyone has their own preferences. This is just one process I’ve developed that has served me well. I continue to tweak it, and each time I hire someone I learn new things and grow from the experience. Hiring the right person is very important, but it’s only the first step in the process. Once I’ve hired a great person, it’s then on me to invest the time and energy necessary to properly train them and equip them to do their job well. I’m responsible for their success, because their success is the success of my business. Assuming I’ve hired a good candidate, I then take responsibility if they ever struggle or underperform in any area, and I take it upon myself to work with them and help them improve. Hiring employees was kind of scary for me at first, but I’m so glad I’ve done it. Our business has grown far bigger the past few years than it could have with just me, and I now have a lot of freedom and flexibility with my time because I trust the people I’ve hired and trained to run the business. This allows me to invest a lot of time in my family as well as to stay focused on growing the business rather than simply running the business day-to-day. I hope this helps someone! Best regards, Chris Leake facebook.com/chrisleake
For additional reading consider the book: EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey For specific instruction on growing your Amazon and online selling team consider this course: ProvenTeamBuilding.com
