A post by Laurie Smith over at Career Hub talks about the rise of Craig’s List as a job hunting and recruiting tool.  That’s right.  Not only can furnish your new apartment or sell your old baseball card collection on the classifieds mega-portal, you can also find your next gig, or your next star employee.

Based on a job market intelligence tidbit Smith picked up from a Career Master’s Institute newsletter, she said that many recruiters believe that the portal has surpassed Monster.com as a resource for uncovering good talent. Craig’s List's forums that span 450 cities worldwide draw more than 7 billion page views and 20 million users per month, placing it at #7 ranking, behind sites like Yahoo, AOL, and Google. More than one million new job listings are posted per month.

Smith does express some valid concerns regarding the potential for online identity theft and fraud, and suggests that candidates limit contact information, using system’s online contact mechanism and providing “real” e-mail address, phone number, street address, and name of current employer only after credibility of the person inquiring had been established.

She also points out that Craig’s List tends to cater to a particular level of jobs, namely entry to mid-level positions.  I would agree with her that if you’re looking for a VP position (or candidate), you should probably stick to more traditional executive recruiting sources for the time being.  Keep your eye on Craig’s List, though.  It’s coming up in the world.