Here's a Twist: Employers Pay You For Interview

The economy is shaky, so candidates lack leverage with employers, right? Not exactly.

NotchUp.com, a newly launched Web site, leads off with this striking pitch: "Get Paid to Interview For Jobs." It's gotten off to a strong start with a business model in which employers actually pay candidates they interview. And we're not talking Joe's Fly-By-Night: such platinum names as Google, Yahoo and Facebook are already recruiting on the site, Associated Press reports.

The typical NotchUp candidate is what's known as a passive job-seeker – a person who's doing well where they are and doesn't post resumes or answer job ads, but is potentially open to the right deal if someone approaches them. The AP story explains:

You plug in your industry, job, pay and experience into a calculator on the site to help you set your pay for an interview. (NotchUp recommends a range between $200 and $500.) Then you submit your profile to the site. If a hiring company is interested in you, it deposits the money with NotchUp and talks to you. If you seem like a real, engaged candidate, NotchUp will transfer the money to your PayPal account once the interview is over. The site makes money by charging a transaction fee, which it estimates will be somewhere around 15 and 20 percent.

Site Arranged Pay for Job Interviews [AP]