Credit: insta_photos / Shutterstock IT workers with one eye on the want ads now have a means for making their passive job search lucrative — by getting paid to interview with potential poaching organizations. Seeking to provide employers with improved hiring options, startup NotchUp offers passive job-seekers the ability to set their own headhunting price at which they would agree to be interviewed. The proposed online recruitment marketplace allows individuals to create a profile, tap the NotchUp calculator to evaluate the marketability of their skills, and put their time up for auction to employers seeking a less work-desperate pool of applicants without tapping recruiters. For the 41 percent of IT workers passively seeking a new gig, according to the InfoWorld Compensation Survey, NotchUp could very well be a hit. Rather than investing in pounding the pavement, they can simply sit back and wait for companies to pay them to talk new horizons. The service is geared directly toward organizations strapped to fill key positions for want of highly qualified candidates, who are more often than not already under contract elsewhere. Given that the inability to fill open spots is this year’s top staffing concern of IT organizations, according to the InfoWorld Compensation Survey, the marketplace, if successful, could prove worthwhile for hiring managers. Similar to eBay and other such reputation-enabled marketplaces, NotchUp offers feedback capabilities to ensure hiring organizations that those cashing in on their potential interview bid will in fact be seriously open to new opportunities when talked to. The service provides granular candidate search capabilities and, according to the Web site, a 100 percent money back guarantee on all interviews. For those putting their chops up for interview auction, the service includes privacy assurances. Prospective employers must make an offer to interview you before your contact details are revealed. More to the point, the system blocks your profile from your current employer, allowing you to sniff out new opportunities on the DL. Additional resources: Take home more tech pay in 2008 2007 InfoWorld Compensation Survey: Personal gains and personnel woes 20 ways to get promoted in the tech industry IT’s seven deadly career sins Technology Industry