Make a Contact, Find a Job and Get a Pair of Jeans

from ERE Net

by John Zappe

Jun 9, 2009, 12:40 pm ET

Talk
about win-win. There's a job networking event tonight in San Francisco
where everyone comes away with at least a new pair of designer jeans.

!IT Jeans
is giving away jeans that retail for around $65-$70 a pair to everyone
who shows up with proof they're unemployed and proof they tweeted or
posted to Facebook about the event at Lime, a retro-60s restaurant and bar in San Francisco's hip Castro district.

With
the jeans carrying names like "Hottie," "Industry," "Dream Diva," and
"Studio," don't expect to see any resume-carrying, tie-wearing,
business-suited, job-seeking mid-managers at this event. But it also
doesn't look to be just a group of 20- and 30-year-olds surprised to be
out of work. Judging by the profiles on the MeetUp site that the Bay Area Job Seekers & Professionals Looking to Network
group calls home, there's a curious mix of talent coming to make
contacts and learn how to get into consulting, which is the theme of
the evnt.

According to the description, "This event will also focus around the
theme of ‘Creating your Consulting Career,' which simply put, means how
to focus your job search efforts on consulting positions instead of
permanent positions."

One of the sponsors of the networking event, the MeetUp group is organized by Mark Thomas, CEO of the equally curious job site, WorkYourCareer.
It's a sort of job board that incorporates classic job postings with an
interview auction. Participants apply for a job in the usual way, with
one exception: neither application nor resume may carry contact
information. If an employer shows interest, the job seeker is invited
to bid for an interview. The top bid gets the pick of interview time,
with other bidders winning slots until they're filled.

And yes, the job seeker must pay; most credit cards are accepted.

Thomas, whom we couldn't reach, also has MoneyBackJobs.com. Pointing
back to WorkYourCareer, it seems to have faded with the recession. Its
business concept, though, is similar to the many bounty programs that
have been tried over the years. Job seekers who accept a job with an
employer participating in the MoneyBackJobs program get paid between 4
and 10 percent after 30 days on the job. There are some hoops they have
to go through, but the concept is fundamentally bounty.

Tonight's event, however, is free and open to all job seeking members of the MeetUp group or co-sponsors Pinkslipmixers.com and Slipsquad.com,
both of them national networking groups for the laid-off and
unemployed. Recruiters from IKON, LOLApps, Jobspring Partners, and
Magley & Associates are expected, says Slipsquad.