Things to Know About Responding to an Ad on Craigslist
Sunday, September 16th, 2007Guy Kawasaki wrote about this a few weeks ago.
I put an ad on Craigslist, for potential collaborators in my business. It gives me a lot of good perspectives, from the “other side”.
First, you really don’t know what the other person is thinking. One guy replied to my ad, and when I did not reply back within 24 hours, he sent me a belligerent email insluting me for being so rude as to not respond. I was just busy, of course; but I think he must have read all sorts of things into my not responding instantly.
Second, I really want to have people work with me who I like. Who feel like me, in some ways. People who I might like to be friends with.
Also, it makes me much more responsive if that person seems generally interested in life. The degree to which people are aware, awake, or whatever you want to call it–the degree to which they’re thinking about and/or observing what they’re doing, what they want to do next, and where they’re going, varies tremendously from person to person. There are plenty of mechanisms set up in our culture to encourage people to just follow along and do what everyone else is doing. In spite of this, some people insist on doing it there own way, again and again.
When someone says, “and if you don’t hear back from me in a week or so, feel free to give me a call,” what they’re saying is, “I see potential here for a relationship, but I am not convinced yet, because I haven’t felt the click. I might feel the click; and if I hear back from you, that will demonstrate an important quality in your character: follow through. And interest.
But again, I sense that people’s degree of interest in anything varies a lot. That is, the degree to which they’re even aware of what they’re interested in.
Also, I think we’ve become so used to not doing what we really want to be doing, that we don’t even necessarily see that as a hindrance to doing it. But when I talk with someone– a potential client, or a potential team mate–and it sounds like they’re a bit ambivalent about whether they want to be doing the thing I’m talking about doing–I start to wonder whether it’s going to be serving either one of us by encouraging them to go forward with this thing they’re maybe not even interested in.
Another thing I notice is: If you have potential work for someone, they’ll really pay attention to you! I was honest when I said I had potential, future work. But still–a lot of really neat people responded. And it turns out that this may end up being a good way to enlist teammates and collaborators in what I do.
You don’t necessarily want a genius, or the best person in the whole world. You want someone who feels like you. And, of course, feels like they’d be just the right fit for the job. One repondant had a very impressive resume–and I will definitely call that person–but there is this little piece of me that goes “gosh, maybe this person is even more energetic and knowledgeable than me, and I’ll feel kind of intimidated.” The truth is, I’ll call them because they sound enthusiastic, and obviously basically know what they’re doing. That their basic intelligence, general industry knowledge, and enthusiasm, will probably take them wherever they would need to go in their role with me. But something that never occured to me as a job applicant is that I might sound too impressive, or that the number one quality someone was looking for was this: I am looking for the person who seems the most likely, “out of the box”, to fit into my image of what I would want that person to be in the role I am envisioning. Because this will be the easiest for me, and the most likely for me to succeed with.
Another thing that I would never have thought of, is: the person you are responding to may very well have less confidence than you think about picking the right person. They may be looking for as many hints as possible to tell them that they are making a right choice; but they may have all sorts of doubts about this. This is one of the reasons they’re probably looking for the right “out of the box” person (above).
Therefore, feeling into what, exactly, this person is probably really looking for, and carefully tailoring your message to that, is probably far more important than having a gazillion software programs listed in your reply, or sounding completely and totally together.
I wrote in a very conversational, down-to-earth, straightforward tone, that I think conveyed that I wanted (a) to treat people as equals; (b) to be relaxed, but results-oriented; (c) I strongly emphasized the character traits I was looking for, and in fact barely mentioned anything about software requirements, etc. — Let alone degrees, blah blah blah.
And this would go for your tone on the phone, as well. You could tune into what that person really seemed to be wanting to get out of the conversation. In my case, I’m hungering for someone to tell my business ideas to who might listen, so people who seem able to communicate about this got a great response from me. People who did not feel engaged in a peer-to-peer conversation with me got a cooler response.
And like any situation, the reason someone reaches out is their “presenting problem”–the thing that got them off their duff to make the call/send the email/put the post up on Craigslist. But there might be all sorts of things underneath that presenting problem that they can’t even necessarily articulate. In my case, once I made the post, I realized how much I’d love to have collaborators in my business, and how excited I was getting about the possibility of helping to create a team.
So, if someone starts bending your ear about things that don’t seem directly related to the reason you’re calling, you might consider that a compliment–it probably means they like you, or are exploring if they like you, and using this conversation to get a sense of that. If they’re so hungry to express… whatever, and you are genuinely giving them an opportunity to do that, then you’re actually meeting a need for them–and therefore, proving that you would be able to meet that need if they hired you. Now I’ve met some blowhards in my day, and I hope I’m not one of them. Still…
Really think about this: What does it mean when someone decides that you are a “good fit” for a job?
- Seem aligned with their philosophy of the world?
- Feel relaxed?
- Sound present?
- Seem like someone they’d like to know?
- Sounds like you’d be able to take the job on, and figure out how to do it without too much fuss?
- Seems like you care about this kind of work as much as they do?
Maybe for people who make degrees important in their lives, having degrees would be up on their list. But I don’t, so they’re definitely not on mine.
Oh, one more thing: Sometimes there are things you might say that could make someone think that you might be crazy. It’s probably a good idea not to say those things until you know them a little bit.
So: If you want to make a great impression, line up your presentation, in every way you can, with what you sense the person you are responding to is looking for–and forget about all the “rules” of what that you’re supposed to do to make a good impression. It’s how you make the person feel.
Addendum:
- Part of the reason people ask what your overall plans are, or whatever, is because they want to know that you have some plans, of some kind.
- People are really evaluating you as a person. I know that may sound harsh, but it’s the whole person they’d be working with, so they need to.
