NotchUp Gets You Pay for Doing Job Interviews
February 4th, 2008 (4:00pm) Samuel Dean 7 Comments
The web has produced many ways for hiring companies and prospective employees to hook up with each other, and NotchUp.com is a new and interesting one. The company’s strategy is to let hiring companies avoid expensive finder’s fees by paying prospective job applicants to do interviews. Even if you don’t get hired, you still get paid and you can set your own interview fee.
NotchUp is in beta right now, and, in an effort to keep the user base concentrated on people worthy of recommendations and referrals, you currently have to either apply to join the service or be invited by an existing member. The service was shown at the recent DEMO show, and Google, Yahoo! and many other tech giants are among the early companies using the service.
NotchUp’s service is focused on removing the expense of headhunters’ and other finder’s fees from the hiring process by offering job interviewees direct pay for interviewing. It also caters to potential hires who may not be actively looking for a job.
Once you join the service, you can set an interview price for yourself. Three hundred dollars per interview looks to be a fairly typical fee but you can set a high price if you wish and there is a calculator that produces a suggested fee if you want to use it. Companies interested in you can invite you to interview and pay your fee to do so. The site lets you post your personal details, job history, educational background, and summarize your strengths. If you are already on LinkedIn, you can import your details.
Registering for NotchUp is free (you can register automatically if someone invites you or wait until your application is reviewed), and you hear from companies who may be interested in you through an inbox where they can leave messages for you. It’s still early enough in the game for NotchUp that we don’t know whether employers will embrace its model in a big way, but there is logic behind the service. After all, companies often pay thousands of dollars to headhunters and existing employee for referrals. NotchUp’s idea is to send them straight to you.
Do you know of any dependable online solutions for getting hired?
7 Comments Post your own comment
Chris says: February 4th, 2008 8:28pm
You’re a bit behind the curve on reporting this one — they managed to piss a lot of people off, too.
That last question is a good one, though. Outside of an elite group of specialized workers (like some IT), has anyone, ever, managed to set up an online hiring service that’s not either frustrating or ineffective (as I suspect NotchUp will be)?
Vaibhav Pandey-->Technofriends Team says: February 4th, 2008 9:21pm
Definitely Notchup is into a niche area…However, i couldnt get Chris’s comment too well :(
@Chris: Could you please be a lil more elaborate with regards to your comment please?
Cheers
COD says: February 5th, 2008 6:41am
A friend of mine recently launched a similar service, but with a different twist. At Bonfire Jobs, you set a price for responding to job inquiries, and the hirer only pays if you respond within 24 hours.
http://bonfirejobs.com
Russ says: February 5th, 2008 10:52am
There are two articles at http://www.userglue.com/blog that highlight the importance of the oft-overlooked–especially by the media–Terms of Service on NotchUp’s website (say good by to your privacy!) and how NotchUp’s website bears a striking resemblance to the website of GrandCentral.com.
Those 2 articles highlight plenty of reasons why anyone who slurped their LinkedIn profile up to NotchUp should be pissed–all the protection and respect that LinkedIn offers was pretty much thrown out the window.
And now, NotchUp has a list of professionals that’s close to around, what, about a million people?
Chris says: February 5th, 2008 1:07pm
Sure, Vaibhav. A little proofreading probably wouldn’t hurt me.
I was suggesting that none of the many Web 2.0 job sites, including Jobster, Jobfox, Trovix, etc. seem to be particularly effective. At the same time, the utility of 1.0 sites (Monster.com and others) has decreased. None of them, in my opinion, have a service I’d call effective, and there definitely aren’t any clear leaders that I can see. Except Craigslist, perhaps.
Then again, I might be wrong. If there’s a good way, cost-effective to find jobs online in terms of time spent, I’d be thrilled for WWD to tell me what it is.
Vaibhav Pandey-->Technofriends Team says: February 5th, 2008 7:31pm
Thanks Chris. I got your point.
Cheers
Ted says: February 5th, 2008 8:29pm
Oh dear god, not Notchup again! I am getting flooded with invites from people who I don’t even consider “friends.” It appears they are just plugging their address books in, and hoping for the best.