Should you pay to upgrade your membership? There are a number of executive and professional organizations on the internet. I belong to a number of them and enjoy the benefits of membership. However, even some of the ones to which I am a member I have a problem with some aspects of their business model. I fundamentally do not want to pay for anything. At least not for some of the services offered such as “access” to job opportunities that are “hidden.” These sites “uncover” job opportunities for their members at no cost. So far so good, as previously mentioned these jobs are hidden. I am not sure how because they show up on just about every exclusive executive job search website. So, what makes them hidden?

They are hidden from you applying. That’s right, unless you upgrade to a paid membership. This raises a few questions. Why would a company hide a job opportunity from potential candidates? Two, since when should a job applicant have to pay to apply for a job. Is this what they mean by Job Search 2.0? I hope not, anyone else have a problem with this?