How To Use Craigslist.com To Find A Telecommuting Job
You've probably already seen this article, but if you haven't - here's the rundown.
Craigslist is an amazing place to find a job that fits your lifestyle and matches your skill set. With this blog post, I'll be giving you advice on how to use Craigslist to find a telecommuting job.
In this article I will be giving you advice on how to utilize Craigslist.com to find a telecommuting job. Using the advice in this article, you're going to find that it's actually pretty simple to use Craigslist.com as a stepping stone towards your dream job. Most people who are able to find a career that fully utilizes their strengths and weaknesses, do so using Craigslist as a stepping stone for finding an employer or contractor who is looking for someone with their particular skill set or experience.
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Preparing To Find A Job On Craigslist.com
First and foremost you need to understand that the Craigslist.com is not the only place to find a job. There are going to be thousands of other sites like Craigslist - but they're not going to be as "good" as Craigslist. Some people really, really like HotJobs.com (I'm one of them) - but it's definitely not on par with Craigslist in terms of finding a job and working your way up... or down that ladder I guess. The point is - there are others besides Craigslist which will help you find the right job or career path for you, but they generally aren't as well established as Craigslist is and usually require significant effort to properly use them effectively.
NOTE: I'm going to be using the term telecommuting job quite a bit. What I mean by this is any job that you can do from your home computer. This could mean sales, customer service, tech support, graphic design work - anything! If it can be done on a computer and you can do it in your home... then it's probably a telecommuting job.
Preparing For Your Job Search
The first thing that you're going to need to do is figure out what you want to do with your life. Once you understand what kind of work you'd like to do, then it's time for some research... or so they say. I've found that doing a lot of research into any job or career just doesn't work with most people. Let me give you an example.
Let's say you want to be a Linux or UNIX admin, you do some internet research on perfectly legitimate and official websites and they say "If you become a UNIX admin and have 5 years experience, the average salary is $85,000 per year...". Well - what if you only want to make $80,000? What about $75,000? Or even $70,000? Should you get discouraged that on average UNIX admins make so much money and choose another career path entirely?
No... this is not how it works.
The average salary for a UNIX admin is not the number you should look at. If you go to places like Monster.com, CareerBuilder or simply use your favorite search engine and look for "UNIX" and "Salary", you'll find that the average salary for UNIX admins is actually $60,000 or even $85,000 if you're willing to expand your search geographically.
All of this information is useful - but I would only use it as a starting point. The real information that you need will come from site like Glassdoor which publishes actual salaries based on zip code and job title.
The other thing that you need to do is consider your skill sets, what your strengths are and what jobs you're best at. In most cases this will be directly related to your skills and experience. I have read hundreds of articles from people who have been looking for a job recently in a specific field. Out of all of them - very few people talk about their strengths! If you don't know what kind of work you're best at, then how are you going to find it?
It's really important that you think about your skills and experience. Once you take the time to really understand what kind of work suits you best, it's going to be a lot easier for you to find a job that fully utilizes your skill set and experience. Let's say that you're really good at managing people. You've got years of management experience under your belt and are looking for a job in management - congratulations! You've just increased your chances of finding the job that you want based on the research above.
If this sounds like you, then it would be a great idea to browse career sites for someone who is recruiting managers in your area or zip code. You can then apply for the jobs that you see, but you need to be prepared to use your skills as a manager to get noticed. You know that you're good at management and taking on projects, but do you have any experience in the field? Do you have any skills in recruiting and hiring? These are all things that someone with a lot of management experience will always have - so apply for the job using those skills.
Other than being really good at something like management - how else can you use your skill set? The best way would be to get involved with a community where people who share similar interests and passions work together. This is just as important as being really good at something. In most cases, people are going to want to work with you if they share some common interests with you. If they're really good at what they do and it's something that you're interested in - then why not apply for their job? You'd probably get along with them pretty well and everyone likes having a friend at work.
I know from experience that this works pretty well. I spent years applying for jobs until I found something that fit me perfectly. As it turns out, the job that I wound up getting paid me more than twice as much as the job was paying the person who originally had it. This just goes to show that being really good at something isn't always the most important thing. If you take the time to network, become a part of an online community or even just have a real job that allows you to work with people, then chances are good that you will wind up finding the right sort of work for yourself. If it doesn't happen overnight and it takes a little while - then that's okay!
Using Craigslist To Find Telecommuting Jobs
Craigslist is one of the most popular places to find jobs or get hired in nearly every city across America. While this site is mostly used by individuals looking for apartments or homes to buy or rent - there are a lot of telecommuting jobs listed here as well.
Conclusion
All in all, I think that telecommuting jobs are a great idea. If you can get a job that will allow you to work from home without changing too much of your daily routine and learning how to work remotely is fairly easy.
The main problem many people have when they start looking for telecommuting jobs is that they don't understand how to use the internet. Once they do, it will be a lot easier for them to look for help online and find the right type of job that fits their needs perfectly. Most of all, it's important to remember that most telecommuting jobs are just a temporary solution - which means you need to keep your eyes and ears open for something better.