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Takeaway: Several big tech bloggers recently launched job boards. Michael Arrington at TechCrunch has the best board, but his competitors rejected his partnership offers, fearing he'd take over the partnership.

It feels good to get someone a job. And in tech, where everyone's on their way in, their way out, or their way up, it's no wonder that every tech blog launched its own job board to capitalize on its Valley audience. So far, there are job boards at 37signals, GigaOM, TechCrunch, and paidContent, four of leading tech-pundit sites, each led by a big ego.

While happy-go-lucky papers like the Red Herring like to present this as a happy cottage industry, we hear it's a lot more rough-and-tumble behind the scenes.

TechCrunch owner Michael Arrington (pictured standing) invited both 37signals and GigaOM to join his "CrunchBoard" jobs board, but he's said that both turned him down. But word is, GigaOM's Om Malik (pictured genuflecting) was willing to talk — he just had to consult his investors.

But Mike's been telling folks that Om just can't say no, so all this investor talk was just stalling while Om launched his own thing.

Meanwhile, Jason "Let's Get Small" Fried, owner of 37signals, seems loath to hook up with Mike at all. He feels like Mike's offers of partnership are really attempts to take over the whole tech-job-posting scene.

Of course, even if these guys realize that each of them may die off unless they team up, none of them will admit the real way to fill a job in the Valley: hang out at all the monthly meetups and parties and casually ask who's looking. (For example, Mike Arrington, rather than hire through his own job board, chats up journalists and bloggers at his parties and hints that they should join him.)

Blogs start job boards [Red Herring via CrunchNotes]
37signals Jobs [37s]
GigaOM Jobs [GigaOM]
CrunchBoard [TechCrunch]
paidContent Jobs [pC]
Photo by Laughing Squid's Scott Beale [Flickr, CC]