Automate Craigslist for Fast Job-Posting Alerts

By Joshua Waldman from Job Searching with Social Media For Dummies

Craigslist is a great resource for part-time jobs, temp jobs, and entry-level jobs. Typically, jobs posted on craigslist are filled at a fast pace and can be a real solution for someone not interested in spending (or not in a position to spend) a lot of time on strategy or networking.

Despite the craziness of craigslist, it’s still a marvelous place to find up-to-the-minute job postings. (If you’ve ever tried to sell something on craigslist, you know that some people are nut cases!) In fact, if you were to walk into a business and ask the hiring manager about the first place he would post an ad for a new job, without much thought he’d likely say, “Oh, I’ll just drop it on craigslist to get some résumés in the door.”

Listings on craigslist don’t always allow time to research a company. You want to apply when you can and as soon as you can, before someone else snatches the job right from under you.

Follow these steps to guarantee you’re the first person to know about any new job postings in your area of interest without camping out on craigslist all day:

Visit craigslist and go to the Jobs section you’re interested in.
Type in all the necessary filters in the search field so you see specific jobs that interest you.

For example, if you’re an educator, click on the Education link in the Jobs section and filter with the keyword “ESL.” The results should be a list of jobs you could do pretty well at.
Click the small, orange RSS button at the bottom of your results page.
Copy the entire web address that appears on the RSS feed page’s browser window.

(It’ll be long and ugly, so use copy and paste for this one.)
Open a new browser tab or window, head to the Feed My Inbox website, paste in that long web address and your e-mail address, and then click on the green Submit button.

You’ll soon receive an e-mail asking you to confirm your feed by clicking a link.
Click on the link that appears in your confirmation e-mail.

After you confirm the feed, craigslist sends you daily e-mails, providing information on any new job postings that match your criteria.

The faster you respond to a craigslist posting, the more likely it is that someone will read your résumé. So while daily e-mails are helpful, they may not help you beat the competition. You need more instantaneous information.

For about $5 per month, you can upgrade your Feed My Inbox account so you receive updates the instant a company posts a new job matching your criteria to craigslist. Consider this small investment to improve your chances of getting hired and speeding up your job search.

As you find job opportunities on craigslist, remember to jot down the names of the companies. You need these names later when you search out people on LinkedIn to talk to.