Would you pay to fly yourself to a job interview?

[globetrotter]

I did it 3 times, because I was coming from israel to the US and Czech republic, got one job. didn't like the company. hard to say what to do. a good company should pay, but it is a worthwhile investment.

 

[ama]

Originally Posted by dcg

I presume they will make substantially more then $350 should they place me.
Depends on their arrangement, but they should make more than 20% of your first year salary. The only thing that ought to keep you from doing this enthusiastically is the fact that you aren't interviewing for a job, you are are interviewing for an internship that may become a job.

 

[JohnGalt]

my current position was obtained via a recruiter. the company paid my travel costs. i don't think that recruiters generally would

 

[Matt]

Originally Posted by JohnGalt

my current position was obtained via a recruiter. the company paid my travel costs. i don't think that recruiters generally would
suspect they'll rebill it with a markup....

 

[dcg]

Originally Posted by globetrotter

hard to say what to do. a good company should pay, but it is a worthwhile investment.
Yes, I can see both sides. Employer is a 10k+ person company. My feeling is that they shouldn't hesitate for a second to cover this, and if they are it's a serious red flag to me. Might just be the recruiter trying to save a few bucks, so I'll see what the outcome is when I press them on it this morning.

 

[jgold47]

I saw a posting on a recuriters website for a job back in my hometown. I Contacted the recuriter who I had worked with on something else. The company wanted to hire someone local, no relocation expenses, and no interview expenses, made sense, the position was for someone with local knowledge. I agreed to pay my own way (just driving back and staying with my parents), and wound up getting the job.

So dont write it off completely, they just may have not gotten the budget to pay for those expenses, and if its not a highly speicalized position, may just want to chose for a local candidate. In my field I am seeing this more and more, with so many highly qualified local candidates, whats the point of ******* around with relocating someone (I am not an HR person, but I guess this probalby has a higher rate of failure than somoene local), when you can just hire local. That said, if you really want it, it would show them, and probalby get you to be considered as if you were local.

 

[andas]

Companies like you are describing are probably doing a lot to cut costs, and they know that the average american would do a lot to get a job. I would say go for it unless you have better options available

 

[dcg]

Originally Posted by jgold47

I saw a posting on a recruiters website for a job back in my hometown. I Contacted the recruiter who I had worked with on something else. The company wanted to hire someone local, no relocation expenses, and no interview expenses, made sense, the position was for someone with local knowledge. I agreed to pay my own way (just driving back and staying with my parents), and wound up getting the job.

So dont write it off completely, they just may have not gotten the budget to pay for those expenses, and if its not a highly specialized position, may just want to chose for a local candidate. In my field I am seeing this more and more, with so many highly qualified local candidates, whats the point of ******* around with relocating someone (I am not an HR person, but I guess this probably has a higher rate of failure than someone local), when you can just hire local. That said, if you really want it, it would show them, and probably get you to be considered as if you were local.

In the situation outlined above I would agree with paying your own way, and even in my case were it an issue of a 2-3 hour drive I'd suck it up. The differences here are that they contacted me, and that I'm 800 miles away. I'll reiterate, though, that I do own a home in the area and have spent the majority of my life there, so there should be minimal concern on their end in terms of this not working out due to the relocation.

I don't know if I'd consider it a highly specialized position, but it's not a huge field and I have the industry experience they're looking for as well as experience in the somewhat specialized field. I do not imagine they have a large pool of candidates with the experience they're looking for.

I expressed my concerns to the recruiter this morning, and am awaiting feedback from a call they had previously scheduled with the hiring manager. I was asked about the possibility of completing the interview over video conference, and suggested that we look at our options after the call.

 

[Trompe le Monde]

Originally Posted by medtech_expat

A candidate should NEVER pay for interview travel. Period.

Even a "cheap" company recognizes this to be a virtually universal standard. If they really refuse to pay for your airfare, then you may have to consider the possibility that the hiring manager doesn't consider you to be a priority candidate after all. If you travel on your own dime, you reveal yourself to be overly eager (euphemism) to get hired, which definitely works against you in the selection process. Even if they decide to give you an offer, you can count on that offer being lowballed due to your enthusiasm (again, euphemism).

Finally; if this is how they treat candidates, just imagine how cheap and small they treat employees once they're in the door. The interview process is courtship - in both directions.


basically everything here.

 

[dcg]

Apparently this employer does usually pay for travel, but the fact that this is temp to hire instead of permanent from the start is the sticking point. Hiring manager is looking into his options to get the travel expenses covered.

 

[RSS]

Depends upon how much l like the job description ... and how much I want the job.

 

[West24]

i pay my own bus fare to get to work everyday.

 

[Mr T]

Don't let a couple hundred bucks interfere with your goals.

Years ago an organization I had been targeting for a long time had a recruitment road show. I first flew (at my own expense) to San Francisco to interview. Two weeks later, after being turned down in San Francisco, I flew (again at my own expense) to Washington DC to interview with the same folks. The look on the guy's face was priceless. He asked me, "didn't we just interview you in San Francisco?"

 

[JohnGalt]

Originally Posted by Mr T

Don't let a couple hundred bucks interfere with your goals.

Years ago an organization I had been targeting for a long time had a recruitment road show. I first flew (at my own expense) to San Francisco to interview. Two weeks later, after being turned down in San Francisco, I flew (again at my own expense) to Washington DC to interview with the same folks. The look on the guy's face was priceless. He asked me, "didn't we just interview you in San Francisco?"

Did you get the job?

 

[cheessus]

would i? yes, in my situation and in this economic climate, i feel as though all avenues should be considered and even exhausted.

should i? no, that is messed up. it just shows me that the company really isn't that interested in me and that there will probably be problems in the the future if i work with them regarding dollarz. i also feel like some places are abusing this whole "bad economy" thing just to save a few bucks when theyre losing so much more face.

have i? yes. i turned down their offer. ive also had a lot of problems getting reimbursed too fwiw.