Craigslist

There's a problem with craigslist. No, not that you can't sell anything on there because you can but the problem lies in that everything on there involves, well, selling. Stay with me on this.

In the great job search of 2010, I've been on every job board. Yes, State of Tennessee, this includes your completely awkward and wholly unnavigable website only to be able to tell my 'employment counselor' that, "Yes, I went on the state's website" and that I won't have to lie about it. But back to craigslist. Some of you may recall, I wrote a missed connection last year [I saved it in my facebook notes for posterity's sake]. I got a flood of emails from people asking if "that really happened" and, yes, it did.

So as a wholly qualified individual sitting in bed watching my Arrested Development DVDs on a... what day is this? Tuesday? morning, I have turned to craigslist again for job searching / entertaining the idea of buying a scooter. It's too bad I'm a capitalist that hates sales, otherwise this job board would be awesome.

About a year and a half ago, I found this blog called "Confessions of a Car Salesman" and if you have an hour or so to kill, I highly suggest reading the whole thing. Now, my car buying experience 4 years ago was much easier: I walked in, test drove the car, told the salesman what price (not monthly payment) I was going to pay and that was that... But the experience documented in "Confessions..." is fairly endemic of all sales professions. Last spring, I went on an interview with a tech company who suggested that the best way to get business was to go through the online yellow pages and start picking out places to sell the service. Being an HR professional and understanding how to read job descriptions and what they really mean, I've LOLed [look, ma! I know how to use interweb speak!] more than a time or two at some of these job descriptions, especially when it comes to the compensation part.

"UNLIMITED CEILING"
"150K+"
"NO LIMIT!!!11!"

Who knew that craigslist was such a haven for all of these six figure positions?! How have I missed this all this time?! Man, I'm gonna get right over there and apply immediately! To everything. Be still my heart! Actually, I'll probably just go over there and look at the scooters.

So, craigslist job posters, don't tell me that the job has "UNCAPPED POTENTIAL" when it comes to earnings. That doesn't make me want to apply. That makes me want to go to 3 Crow and get a beer. But it's far too early for that.