Get Paid to Interview for Jobs?

You heard me right. There's a new online job search site called NotchUp that claims that through them, companies will actually pay you to interview for their jobs.

Sound ludicrous? Well, maybe it's not so far-fetched. There's a whole industry of people whose job it is to convince "passive" candidates (those people who already have a job and aren't really looking) to interview for jobs that they have been hired to fill. So maybe putting a price on the time it takes to interview for a job was inevitable.

Speaking of the price, what might that be? On this site, you get to name your price. They even give you a calculator to help you figure out what to charge based on your industry and years of experience. For example, they're telling me I should charge $200. Go ahead, I'm listening...

The catch, of course, is that you have to apply to join NotchUp, or be invited. So they're probably not going to accept you unless you are a highly desirable candidate that the company might want to hire. That increases their chances of getting paid their fees.

So, this could be just another gimmick that fades away fast, or it could be the next big thing.

Thanks to HR Wench (a human resources professional who clearly has not drunk the corporate Kool-Aid) for mentioning NotchUp on her blog.