How to Respond to a Job Opening Ad on Craigslist

Craigslist is a widely used online service with a range of services that include housing and employment advertisements. While some pages require the post of a job ad to pay a small fee, responding to a Craigslist job ad will never cost you anything. Read the advertisement fully before responding, paying particular attention to how the company wants to be reached and what information you must submit to be considered for the position.

Instructions

1. Scroll down to the bottom of the advertisement and review the fine print, which displays the contact methods preferred by the employer. While all posters must give an email address, listed at the top of the ad, the fine print states whether or not phone calls are acceptable.

2. Always respect the wishes of the employer -- if the company does not want phone calls, looking up its number to inquire about the job is unlikely to bode well for you. All posters are also required to specify if recruiters are allowed to respond to the advertisement, or if only principals (actual potential employees) will be considered.

3. Use the phone number provided in the advertisement to contact the company if phone calls are listed as acceptable by the employer. Pay special attention to whether or not a contact name is provided in the ad -- ask for the appropriate person when you call the company, if applicable.

4. Reply to the advertisement via email using the email address in the "Reply to" section, located near the top of the ad. Click on the email address if you have a default email program set up on your operating system to open a new message to the address in the Craigslist advertisement. If you don't have an email program set up, highlight the email address with your mouse, right-click and select "Copy," go to your mail account and compose a new outgoing message, right-click in the recipient field and select "Paste" to drop the email address into the field.

5. Provide all of the information requested in the advertisement when you respond via email. In most cases, employers will ask for a resume and sometimes a cover letter or salary history.

6. Just as with phone calls, check the advertisement to see if the company provided a name for the personnel that you are contacting. Always address the email to the appropriate person, when applicable.