Popular 1:1 Traffic Exchange

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Looking for a good time? Try Craigslist Employment Ads!

As you might imagine, I am getting in a bit of a panic about my impending unemployment situation. (Because no income = no Ebay and that's a sad, sad thing, dear Internet)

I've gone to the Job Bank site (great if I want a $7 an hour job), Monster.com (great if I want to sell insurance), Careerbuilder (great if I want to buy a franchise or want a job where I have to make a "minimal financial investment"), the local newspaper (great if I want to work at a part-time job for an entry-level wage), Hotjobs (great if I were a nurse) and, finally, Craigslist.

I find a plethora of jobs on Craigslist that offer $25-$35 per hour. None of them list a company name. If you send an inquiry to the anonymized email the autoresponder sends you a link to a site where I've filled out about 100 identical applications which, in about 3 days, send another link to yet another cookie-cutter website asking for references. Then they send emails to the people I listed as references and then... I never hear another peep. Except from my references who are now all screaming "WTF??? Don't use me as a reference anymore!!" which is not so good when a real, legitimate job calls them wanting a reference.

Even better are the replies that say this "Hi, thanks for the interest in the XYZ Agency LTD. Asskisser job. It is a fun position, and we already have quite a few people wanting
To apply. We only need 3 people so if you’re interested try to get you self Applied today.{sic}

You've probably seen our promos (or promos just like them) all over the Internet. Sometimes they look like little quizzes, like current event type of stuff, other times they promote specific products or companies.

We picked Craigslist and backpage to look for people because the people who use
these sites are obviously smarter then the average person in regards to using the Internet. At least that is our gut feeling. And since this job has a lot to do with surfing the net and research, it just seemed to make sense.

But, the bad thing about Craigslist is the number of computer viruses and spam that people send. So, we came up with a simple two step process to prove you are a real person, and not some automated robot used to collect email addresses or send spyware.

The first step will help us verify your email address. We can use one of our regular promos like this one to confirm you are a real person....." and then there's a link that sends you to a site where you enter your email and then have to complete (1) Gold offer (2) Silver offers and (2) Platinum offers... And strangely, the promised link to upload your resume never appears. Maybe because I'm a cynic who won't provide my credit card number for the "nominal shipping charge" (that then enrolls you in an autoship program that charges your card $69.95 per month for the rest of eternity) and if I JUST had a little more faith, I'd get to the promised resume upload link.

Since I started applying for these jobs on Craigslist, I get some very interesting email, though...

"Overcome your Alcoholism today" (interesting that unemployment = alcoholism)

"Let the Debt Warrior Save You from Recession" (Does he look like Conan the Barbarian?)

"Find a great job with a Radiology-Degree" (Yay! More radiation!!)

"The Government Is Giving Away Money Come See!" (Homeland Security Agents standing by!)

See the excitement and good times y'all are missing out on?

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