NotchUp: Either the Best Idea Since LinkedIn, or the Worst Idea Since Flooz

Kevin Maney contemplates: So Jim Ambras, the founder and CEO of NotchUp, came by to explain the company's somewhat-shocking premise: that it can get companies to pay you to be interviewed for a job. The site launches a gaggle of new features today, including integration into Facebook, and it's trying to get traction. The buzz on the Web is all over the place -- from commentary that NotchUp is brilliant, to put-downs that say it's lunacy and is instigating friends to spam each other.

As Ambras explained, NotchUp is an attempt to help employers find good candidates who are NOT looking for a job. "The best people are often not active job seekers," he says. They are happy and productive in their jobs and don't even return recruiters' phone calls, much less look at job boards on the Web.

NotchUp wants to act as a double-blind broker. You upload your resume on one end; companies upload their criteria on the other. You -- a person not particularly looking for a job -- post an amount you'll charge a company to interview you. The average price being set right now is $440. Companies see that and make an offer. Ambras says about 40% of offers made get accepted. Only then can the the employer and prospect know who each other are. Once an interview is done, the company pays you your fee. (For some reason this is reminding me of those deals where you listen top a totally noxious timeshare pitch in exchange for a day pass at a luxury spa.)

The intriguing thing is that NotchUp could allow professionals to passively stay in the job-seeking mix, and give employers an inexpensive way to find the kinds of people they now pay recruitors to dredge up. The question on the flip side is whether this will work. Will enough professionals post their information to give the site critical mass? Ambras says 100,000 have joined -- a tiny droplet compared to the millions of postings on job boards. And then, will companies find it worthwhile to fork over $400 to interview someone who would not otherwise have been interested?

It all remains to be seen. At the very least, NotchUp is stirring conversation about the future of on-line job markets.