How to Find Jobs Using Online Classified Ads

For decades, the newspaper classified ads were one of the most important sources of leads for most job seekers. With ink-stained fingers, pens, and paper, job seekers in the past poured over the daily or weekly newspaper’s Help Wanted classified section, noted the promising opportunities, and followed up with telephone or typewriter. Not so much, now…

Now, we have the Internet which has provided us with many more options than our local daily newspaper.

Classified Job and Employment Ads
In addition to the print newspaper, we have many more options.

New Classified Ad Sources

Instead of publishing traditional classifieds online, these classifieds usually appear only in their online form, and they are a rapidly expanding force in the online job search marketplace.

The most obvious of them is craigslist.org, an enormously popular - and growing - online marketplace with 700 locations in 70 countries. Like most job boards, craigslist charges employers to post their jobs (it was free originally). Now, the cost is between $7 and $75 per job posting in "selected areas" in the USA, like Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, New York City, D.C., and so on. If you're not in one of those major areas, posting a job on craigslist may be free.

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Like local newspapers, craigslist is organized by location. So, pick the craigslist location closest to you to start your craigslist job search. Check out both the "jobs" and the "gigs" categories for options for you.

Since work posting is free or minimal effort for businesses and in light of the fact that craigslist is so easy to utilize, it extremely prominent for little and medium-sized bosses to utilize. You will discover genuine occupations with little businesses on Craigslist that you won't discover anyplace else. You will likewise discover work postings from bigger managers too.

Within each craigslist, postings are organized into categories by industry or profession (e.g. accounting + finance, admin / office, arch / engineering, art / media, and so on). Within each category, jobs published by date in reverse-chronological order, with the newest at the top (however briefly).

Since most occupations are posted for nothing, some "garbage" is posted thus shockingly, are tricks. You should be moderately wary and suspicious about applying for occupations you find on the web. Read 9 Characteristics of a Job Scam for more data.

Craigslist is self-policing through a few "group balance" strategies. Over 15% of all craigslist postings are evacuated because of group input. A few urban communities have all the earmarks of being more tolerant than others, so every craigslist area/site exhibits its own novel identity.

See Job-Hunt’s Guide to Using Craigslist to Find a Job for more details on effectively using craigslist for your job search.

Because craigslist is so successful, other craigslist wannabe’s are appearing every day, usually just emulating what craigslist already does so well and so inexpensively.

Traditional "Help Wanted" Classifieds – Online

These days, many newspapers have put those Help Wanted ads on their websites. For the web, these are usually unique listings, specific to the location. It is worth checking out your local newspaper's website to see if they post their own classified job ads on their website.

Local businesses like dentists’ or doctors’ offices, car dealers, and apartment complexes that have always advertised in the Help Wanted are still advertising there, but probably reaching a smaller audience. Often, those are the only places you will find those particular job postings online.

Sometimes the ads are presented as un-searchable images, organized into the traditional classifieds categories – perfect duplicates of the printed paper. Sometimes the printed classifieds are converted into searchable text.

Sadly, the number of those “classic” classifieds actually being published online seems to be declining.

Pseudo Classifieds

Numerous daily papers, including the biggest, adjusted to the new rivalry from expansive occupation destinations by outsourcing the "Occupations" part of their site to those same work super locales, regularly Indeed, CareerBuilder, or Monster. Basically they give a window into the current database of occupations at an alternate site, very separated from the "genuine" Help Wanted advertisements showing up in the printed versions of the paper.

Initially, perhaps, the rationale was to retain the value of the printed ad, which was only available to those who purchased the printed edition of the newspaper. Unfortunately, you and anyone else using the big job site will find the same ads. So no particular benefit to you, except perhaps the jobs visible may be restricted to those in your location.