Would you pay to interview a candidate?

by Brett Iredale February 8, 2008



Would you fork over $250 or $500 for the right to interview a candidate?

This very interesting approach is being trialled by US site Notchup and from all accounts is generating quite a bit of interest.  The concept as I understand it is that the candidate registers their profile, specifies an amount that they would accept for an interview (generally a few hundred dollars) and then employers can get in touch and pay the fee if they would like to speak to the candidate.

Clearly there are a number of potential flaws in the system, such as candidates bonusing their experience to drive up the interview price, non genuine candidates interviewing for beer money, or genuine candidates who are no longer active.

Potential flaws aside this is a very interesting approach in a candidate short market.  Would you pay $250 to interview a candidate?  I think I would.  I would pay $250 without hesitation if I was sure that (a) the candidate was genuine and (b) that they knew enough about my company or role to be able to qualify their interest before I paid the fee.


1 CommentAdd your own

1. Kevin Howard February 14, 2008 at 11:17am

Well as they say, 'time is money' and I'm sure there plenty of busy people out there who have had their time wasted by some recruiters and/or employers. The payment should at least give candidates some comfort that the interviewer is serious.

As you say Brett, there are of curse some obvious ways that candidates can take advantage of this. I'm sure it wouldn't be long before 'blacklist' of some sort is set up.

I wonder how these payments will be treated from a taxation perspective, by both the payer and the payee...

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