NotchUp

I received an invite to NotchUp. It's the latest and greatest social networking tool allowing job-seekers to solicit potential employers. It has high aspirations -- namely, to change the way recruiting is done. It's 100% free to join, but pays its members for going on interviews based on a price they set.

The founders were inspired by three themes they noticed in the recruiting process:

1) Significant amounts of time and money are waster
2) Key unfilled positions can cripple a company's growth
3) Every company wants to hire great individuals

Not a bad idea, eh? At least I thought so until I started to develop my profile and set my "asking price." New conversations are the way I create success in the world - for both my own practice, as well as my client's. Charging my prospective clients (or employers) for a conversation seems unintuitive. It doesn't support my desire to make new connections, rather, introduces a new barrier to them. I think this would also be true for someone full time employed looking for a new job. The key observation I think is missing from the founders' themes above is this:

4) Social networking online can facilitate new connections between employer and employee in ways that are more open, personalized and relevant than existing alternatives.

Seems fostering people's natural desire to create more personalized and relevant connections between employers/employees (without charging them for the privilege) would be a more reliable way to innovate within this domain.