Get paid to be interviewed?
I saw a write-up in my local paper about a new recruting website that I thought I'd share...
The site aims to attract "happily employed professionals" who are "passive job seekers" and preferably have great skills/experience, etc. As a job candidate, you plug in info about yourself (industry, job, pay, experience) and the site helps you determine what amount you should charge employers to interview you. It's called NotchUp.com. If an employer/recruiter comes along and is interesed in you, it pays your asking price to NotchUp (they take a 15-20% "transaction fee"). It launched in late Feb. and had over 10,000 job seekers registered in the first week!
Comments
I have to wonder when their marketing is:
you're happy at your job
you're good at what you do
you're not looking for a new job
what kind of candidates are they truly building a database of? Do I really want to PAY to interview a person who claims to be happy where they are, good at what they do who ISN"T looking for a new job? To me this just sounds like abusers will go on interviews but not really be overly interested in getting a job, but rather at getting paid for the interview!
Also if you look at the samples of interview requests, they are using the following: Merrill Lynch, Google, McKinsey, MGM Mirage, Facebook, etc. I would be VERY VERY surprised if any of those companies would need to pay to interview.
It seems odd to me. I have close friends in the HR departments of both Merrill Lynch and Google and they have never heard of paying for interviews. In fact, they both said that they have a difficult enough time scheduling all the excellent active job seekers they have applying to their jobs and through referrals.
Maybe it is a dummy site for something else...
Theyare really marketing themselves as a low cost recruiter. But they dont seem to offer much more then posting your job on Monster will get you. I cant see paying this company to send me resumes that I can get from other job posting sites for free.
No where on thier site do they mention how many companies are using their service. They also infer that companies will engage in bidding wars to have the privilage to interview you. It sounds more like a work from home part time for $100,000 a year type scam to me.
I too have to wonder if it is a sham site to get basic information on people (especially salary information). Because it asks just enough questions (service, field, wage) to collect it for use elsewhere.
I think those companies that pay recruiters will continue to do so rather than pay interviewees (beyond possibly some travel expenses). And I think if I were one of the companies listed in the fake job listing, I would have my corporate counsel send a cease and desist letter.