Cheezhead

The dialogue generated around Notch up has been quite interesting. If nothing else there will be lots of eyeballs watching what happens when they move from Beta to Live! So, here’s some final thoughts from the initial post, Joel’s detailed post and the many, many comments that have been shared:

The not so good:
1. The idea of paying for interviews, even with passive talent, is unsettling - lasting, meaningful relationships rarely begin with cash….well, maybe a lot of cash! When a recruiter reaches out to passive talent with a compelling enough opportunity their going to engage in a conversation - because that is priceless. Placing a price on my time to interview - hmmm, not so much.

2. The apparent relationship with Linkedin, which supports sending contacts to Notch Up so they can solicit their services is disappointing at best. LinkedIn has done so many things well - why this? Interesting to look at the privacy policy posted on LinkedIn - excerpts below. I realize that it is not LinkedIn directly sending the information but it is tightly integrated and highly suggestive. With social networking still being relatively new, LinkedIn has an opportunity to take a leadership position, which they have done - until now. Yes, as someone had responded, it is the person whose network you are in that is making the decision to share. However, given the newness of Social and related tools, it would be appropriate for LinkedIn to also provide some guidance to their Users - or refrain from offering this type of integrated relationship. it would be great to see LinkedIn respond to clarify their relationship and why….why….why! Perhaps they need to add an opt in to the profile set-up to confirm interest in being sold out.

“Your privacy is our top concern. We work hard to earn and keep your trust, so we adhere to the following principles to protect your privacy:

“Sharing Information With Third Parties:
LinkedIn takes the privacy of our users very seriously. We will never sell, rent, or otherwise provide your personally identifiable information to any third parties for marketing purposes. We will only share your personally identifiable with third parties to carry out your instructions and to provide specific services.”

The good:
3. Notch Up has done a great job making the profile set-up easy by partnering with LinkedIn so you can simply upload your existing profile. Would be great to see more of this for ease in managing profiles across networking sites.

4. Its fun to play around with the calculator to see what the going rate is for interviews. Wondering what influences the rates. Do they take into consideration market dynamics? Will these change over time along with market shifts and demand?

5. The overall interface and User experience on Notch Up is really good. The ability to make your profile private so your employer doesn’t find you is always a nice feature. I am curious about the approval process - which is indicated in the first email. Apparently, you have to be accepted by their HR experts - unless you’ve been invited by a friend - yes, one of those friends who sold you out thinking they could reap 10% of the interview fee. What are the conditions of acceptance?

So, time will tell if Notch Up takes off and is successful. Honestly, their interface is strong enough and User experience is good enough that they could possibly survive even without the pay to interview play concept. And, it would be great to see another approach to driving traffic without the LinkedIn sell out.