Get Paid to Interview For Jobs
January 30, 2008 by Geoff Jennings
A new US based company NotchUp brings a novel twist to the hiring formula – companies pay applicants to come in for an interview.Before you start thinking of this as a way to make some quick bucks:
At this time, we’re only accepting applications from US-based professionals. We’ll be launching NotchUp in more countries in mid/late February 2008.
The site makes money by charging 15% to 20% of the money deposited by interested companies. The site officially launched on January 28.How it works:Firstly, jobseekers fill out a profile. You can import your LinkedIn contacts also.Secondly, jobseekers decide on a minimum fee that they’ll charge potential employers for interviews. NotchUp offers a calculator to help – you enter information such as education, salary and work experience, and the calculator gives you a suggested price.Then sit back and wait for the call.Will this really fill employers’ needs? Are they willing to pay those interview fees?Obviously the plan is to cut out the middleman, the recruiter, and allow employers to approach the candidates direct. What happens when the employers make an offer to the candidate and they decline? Will the company still want to pay for the interview and will the candidate still get paid?Companies get their money back and the individual isn’t paid for the interview if:
The individual no-shows or shows up late for the interviewThe individual fails to take the interview seriouslyThe individual has lied on their profile
Who defines whether an individual takes an interview seriously? How late is late?NotchUp’s business model is based on candidates being very sought after. Will this model sustain itself if we went go back to the times of 2000 when the IT bubble burst! Then you’d have the candidates paying the companies instead!
I for one will be very suprised if this takes off in Australia. The US ,being less reliant on recruiters ,may have more success. Also, do people really expect to be paid to go to ad interview for a job that they want? I dont think so.
An update email sent recently by NotchUp:
We wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for being a part of NotchUp, and let you know what’s going on here.
A note on our site speed:
Due to tremendous growth, our site hasn’t been performing as well as we’d like it to, and we want to apologize to you for that. We’ve moved to more powerful servers, and are working around the clock to improve site speed and stability. There should be marked improvements in both areas in the coming weeks.
When will the offers to interview start coming in?
To date, over 1,000 companies have contacted us about using NotchUp to recruit – everyone from Fortune 500 companies and some of the biggest names in the technology field to a variety of hot startups.
As of now we have a small number of companies using NotchUp Corporate and giving us feedback as we optimize that part of the site before we “officially” launch it.
On February 15th, we’ll roll out the NotchUp Corporate pilot program and start letting in additional companies, meaning you may begin receiving offers to interview in the next two to three weeks – so make sure your profile is complete! We’ll be officially launching the beta version of NotchUp Corporate in March, and expect the interview offers to begin in earnest then.
If the company you work at is interested in joining the NotchUp Corporate pilot program, please let us know – it’s free to join and there are no monthly or annual fees.
What’s new?
International Support: We now support countries other than the United States. If you live outside the US and you didn’t choose a country when you first registered, please login, go to your profile page and click “edit” next to the location. Once you’ve done this, choose the correct country and save your information. We’ll be rolling out a fuller set of tools to support other countries in the coming weeks.
Have an opinion?
We really want to know what you think about the site and the concept. Unsure of something or have suggestions? Please let us know what’s on your mind by emailing feedback@notchup.com or replying to this email.
Talk to you soon!
Best,
Rob Ellis
Co-Founder, NotchUp