Craigslist is a great tool! I have been a craigslist surfer for a few months now and through it I have managed to get a few items I wanted, get rid of a few I didn’t, pick up a few odd jobs, meet some interesting people and have fun. In fact, if you have been following my Factoidz, you know that that I have been laid off for quite some time. Low and behold I’m returning back to work tomorrow, thank you very much craigslist.
Keep in mind that it took me months of searching to find the right job that fit me and the right contractor that I wanted to work for. Also, I had to go through the pain in the butt of talking to people about work and never getting return calls, leaving messages and getting no response and people being flakes in general. People are funny. You call talk to someone and they sound really interested and then you never hear from them again. Or in the case of one person, I sent him an e-mail with my phone number and asked him to call me because I prefer to talk to a person to gauge their personality. This person refused to call. He just continued to e-mail and finally, after about 5 e-mails, through his wording I was able to ascertain that this guy was a pompous ass!
That’s the beauty of talking to a person live versus e-mail, you can find out more about a person via telephone. But that’s also the beauty of craigslist, your e-mails allow you to retain some anonymity in case it’s not quite right or something doesn’t jibe. This contractor that hired me seems nice, has a sense of humor and our thoughts on painting run right up the same alley, so all in all I feel good about this job. I hope it works out and I’m excited to be going back to work!
My advice to those of you out there using craigslist is be cautious. There are a lot of strange birds out there. Find out as much as you can before dealing with a person, common sense is the rule of thumb. If you feel funny about something or someone stay away from them! For those of you out there looking for work or wanting to sell or buy something Craigslist is 100 times better than anything out there that I have found, but keep in mind you have to be patient and wade through all the BS to find that gem of a job or deal. In the end it pays off. Happy surfing!
