Pagebites is sourcing with cold-hard cash...

Check out this sourcing method Pagebites just implemented.

We will pay you for your time: PageBites is hiring, and we are willing to pay you $100 to interview with us.

Who we are looking for: Smart and hard-working programmers who want to help us improve PageBites. We want someone who can join our team immediately. You must have (or be working towards) a degree in Computer Science. We are located in downtown Palo Alto, CA, so you need to be in the Bay Area.

What you need to do: Upload your resume to PageBites. You can sign up for an account here.Send us an email at jobs@pagebites.com with a link to your resume and the subject line: "I want to work at PageBites."We will select qualified candidates for a phone screen. If you pass the phone screen, will bring you in for an interview and pay you $100.

***

Well, I must say that this is a clever ploy because it works on so many levels. Let me count the ways...

1. It is something different! It breaks through the clutter of the everyday jobposting.

Geeks have been emailed and phoned ad nauseum for gigs ever since the first computer crashed. As a result, many flat out ignore the siren song of better opportunity and regard recruiters as a nuisance (which is why many of your blind emails and cold calls go unanswered). But since Pagebites is flashing C-notes as an incentive to just talk, then a geek may very well try her/his luck at the roulette wheel of career chance. Afterall, who else is tossing (potential) greenbacks just to chat? (Hmm... How many geeks will think about all the other phone interviews they have given for free?)

2. This is buzzworthy!

If I could do the stuff Pagebites was advertising for, I would turn my resume in and tell my buds.

"Dude," I would say, "Try your luck over at Pagebites. Whomever wins, buys the beer."

(And then we would chuckle like Beavis and Butthead as we continued playing my XBox 360.)

The flipside about this is that Pagebites will attract geeks who have NO intention whatsoever in joining them as they only want the money (for the weekend, or maybe the holidays). Not neccessarily a bad thing as a requirement to playing Pagebites' job lottery is to upload your resume into their system. This serves (of course) to increase their inventory, making them a more attractive offering to their customers. More resumes translates into more traffic from recruiters and with more traffic, the potential to make more money increases as well. (Ka-ching!)

Pagebites has a win-win plan here. I would be very curious to see how it all pans out. (And how many people take them up on their offer.)

Click to vote for Digability!