Craigslist.org, the leading classifieds site is a good source of resumes if you are looking for local jobseekers. I said local jobseekers because craigslist is designed in a way to conduct local community searches only rather than a countrywide search. Actually craigslist consists of over 500 craigslist sites in all 50 US states, and over 50 countries, in which each site has a unique sub-domain and content.

For example if you want to search for resumes in New York City, you have to select New York that will open a new page with a list of all cities, then you have to select New York City from the list that will redirect you to http://newyork.craigslist.org which includes resumes from New York City only. Now, to search resumes click on the resumes link at the bottom of the page, a new page will open up with two search options, either to search resume titles only or to search all the content of the resumes. If you are looking for local jobseekers then craigslist is a practical tool and an excellent source of resumes.

How to conduct a countrywide search on craigslist?
If you want to search for resumes anywhere in the US on craigslist, then you have to select the state, city and then the resumes section every time for the 500 different cities. I am sure no one will do this, it’s not practical and time consuming process. So is there an easier way to do this?

To overcome this time consuming process, the easiest technique is to use search engines to X-Ray craigslist using the site: command. For example, to do this on Google, if you are looking for a construction project manager then the search string will look like this:
site:craigslist.org “construction project manager” inurl:res

And if you are looking for resumes in a specific state then the search string would become:
site:craigslist.org ”construction project manager” (California | CA) inurl:res

Unfortunately, this search string will produce irrelevant results because this will return all the resumes that contain the word California or CA even if the jobseeker address is not in California.


How to use ReferYes Sourcer to search for resumes on craigslist?
Recently, ReferYes Sourcer which automates Boolean search strings added craigslist to its list of sourcing websites that includes the top social networks and search engines. ReferYes Sourcer handled this in two ways, the first way is by X-Ray searching on Google which I’ve explained earlier.

The other way that ReferYes Sourcer searches resumes on craigslist is by selecting the cities from a dropdown list which saves a lot of time and effort of going back and forth between craigslist sites. The question you might ask yourself now, if I can X-Ray craigslist why should I use the city search tool? The answer is simple, because if you are looking for more relevant results for a specific location then using the city search will return more reliable search results.

Now, to start searching for people on craigslist with ReferYes Sourcer go to: http://www.ReferYes.com/source_people.htm