Craigslist Is THE Source for Great Staff

I've been doing a bunch of hiring as of late, and found that Craigslist.com is the best place to find qualified candidates.

Forget about monster.com, careerbuilder.com and all that other sites that charge a ridiculous amount of money for a bunch of nothing.

On Craigslist, it's the no-nonsense approach and simplistic design (or lack of design altogether) that's made this more of a community bulletin board than a legitimate website.  But legitimate it is, and then some.

Be it a corporate executive or a project assistant, I've found every type of qualified candidate on Craigslist.  And my peers echo my sentiment.

But a website full of postings is only as good as the post itself.

THE REAL WORLD RETAILING TAKEAWAY
Differentiate yourself through your description of your company and the job itself.

Online, everything is the same.  And job descriptions are no different.  From the job description to the job requirements, everyone writes the same thing.  So be different and you'll really stand out.

I recently posted a job for a new position of executive assistant at a company I'm doing some work for.  The job description?  Well, it didn't really have anything to do with the duties of being an executive assistant.  Because listing those makes the job seem like any other job out there.  So we took the opposite tack and listed qualities and traits we wanted in the person (a big smile, a warm hello, and a general joie de vivre).  Lest you should think it was all fluff, when the previous sentence was coupled with other tangible qualities, the job description read like a position that anyone who was looking for a unique, challenging, team environment couldn't help but want to apply.

Oh, and we also talked about our company in a way that anyone who was reading it couldn't help but get excited about what we do.

The results?  Over 150 resumes were sent in.  And in paring them down, I made three phone calls and talked with three candidates, all of who exhibited exactly the traits we were looking for.

We now have three pre-qualified candidates with 7 other backup candidates ready to go.  All from a little posting, on a not so little website called Craigslist.com.

How are you describing and differentiating your company to attract top talent?