How To Post a Job on Craigslist (2024 Guide) (2024)

You may think of Indeed, ZipRecruiter or LinkedIn for job posting, but Craigslist is another website to consider. It attracts over 170 million visitors per month, with thousands of classified ads to appeal to its massive audience.

Undoubtedly, you can attract candidates by posting your job on Craigslist, but you’ll need to follow concrete steps to attract the right talent. Keep reading for an outline of these steps.

How To Post Jobs on Craigslist

Posting on Craigslist looks the same regardless of the role. Here is the process:

1. Create an Account

Create an account on Craigslist by providing your email address. Craigslist will then send an email to that address to verify that it’s yours. After verification, you can choose your password and accept the terms and conditions.

2. Create a Post

Once you have a Craigslist account, you can start drafting your job ad. There are two buttons for this on the home page — one in the top left corner that says “post an ad” and one in the top right corner that says “post.” You can choose either one; they both lead to a page asking for your ZIP code or city. This information will help ensure that your gig goes on your local Craigslist page.

Next, you’ll need to indicate the type of post you’re publishing. Do this by clicking “job offered.” Afterward, choose the best job category for your position. You can select as many categories as you want, but it’ll cost you between $10 and $75 per category depending on your area.

3. Write the Post

This is where you fill in the details of the role. There are text boxes for:

• Posting title*: You want your job to stand out in a sea of other jobs, so craft a captivating headline. State the job title, and end with a perk or two in parentheses. For example, if you want to highlight that it’s a remote role, you can put that in parentheses.
• City or neighborhood: This field is a bit redundant because there are ZIP code and location info fields already on this page. However, you can fill this out if you want to highlight that the job is in a particular neighborhood or part of the city.
• ZIP code*: This is the ZIP code for where the job or company is located.
• Description*: Write a job description that outlines the main duties, required skills and preferred skills. You can also list a few fun facts about your company to attract interest.
• Posting details*: On the left side of this field, there is a drop-down menu to choose if the job is full-time, part-time, contract or employee’s choice. You must select one of these options. There are also boxes on the right side of the field that are optional to check if they apply to the job.
• Job title*: This can be a modified version of your posting title. For instance, maybe you use the title without the text in the parentheses.
• Compensation*: If this is a part-time position, include the hourly rate. If this is a full-time role, put the annual salary. You can also include any bonuses in this field.
• Company name: Provide the name of your company so that potential candidates can look you up. Company culture has become important for job seekers, so give them an opportunity to see if your culture aligns with what they’re looking for.
• Contact info*: You may not be comfortable making your email address public information, in which case you can use the Mail Relay feature. This feature creates an intermediary email address containing random numbers and letters to forward candidate responses to. At the very least, you must set up this email, but you also have the option to add your phone number. There is no intermediary for phone numbers, so if you choose to add yours, it gets publicly displayed on the job posting.
• Location info: Craigslist fills in this information for you once you input the ZIP code, city and/or neighborhood at the top.

*The starred text boxes indicate the fields that are required to fill out.

4. Zoom In on Location

Once you fill in the text boxes and press the “continue” button, you get taken to a page to add more location details. You can stick with just the ZIP code or add the street and city.

5. Add Images

Pressing “continue” again takes you to a page to add images. It’s not mandatory, but it can help your job stand out. We recommend images of your logo, office or team to showcase your company culture.

6. Publish the Ad

After clicking “done with images,” you go to the final page. Here, you will:

• Preview and approve the ad
• Submit your payment information

Within 15 minutes of completing these two steps, Craigslist will push your ad live. If you don’t get many applications in the coming days, you can go back and modify the post.

How Much Does It Cost To Post Jobs on Craigslist?

There is no way to publish a free job posting on Craigslist in the United States. As previously mentioned, it costs $10 to $75 per category. The price varies by location. Posting a job in Chicago, for example, costs $45 per category. This price drops to $25 per category for a job in Memphis, Tenn.

It is important to note that your job posting expires 30 days after you publish it. If you want to keep it up, you have to pay the same amount per category to repost it.

How To Attract Quality Job Candidates on Craigslist

Craigslist’s massive audience gives you access to a big pool of potential candidates. However, you need to craft a compelling ad to attract them. Here are some tips on how to do this:

• Highlight your benefits and company culture.
• Be specific but concise when describing the job duties.
• Use a positive tone in your copy.
• Make the compensation clear.
• Post your job early in the week.

After initially attracting talent, you need to keep them interested with a well-designed interview and hiring process. Here are some best practices to foster a smooth process:

• Prepare questions ahead of interviews.
• Give candidates a summary of each step in the interview process.
• Leave time in interviews for candidates to ask questions.
• Schedule the next interview shortly after the previous one to keep candidates moving through the process.
• Pay candidates for any work they complete as part of skills assessments.