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If they didn't offer to pay, it's on you. Generally paid travel for interviews is limited to top management positions, and very high paying tech jobs. There is no standard. In case, it would apply only to CEO and managing director interviews, for everything else it's pay or pass on the interview. We always have plenty of local applicants so no need to spend a lot of money recruiting from afar.
My current job flew me round trip for the interview (in one day, so no hotel/car) and paid for it without ever really mentioning it. I just assumed they were paying for it because they were booking it, and they did. I am not in management or tech. They even offered to compensate my taxi expenses to/from the airport, but I forgot to keep the receipts.
You are not. However, when an employer isn't willing to pay for travel for somebody they want to interview, it's a pretty good sign they will just go hire a local candidate anyway.
Either you have something they want and can't find locally (in which case, they'll pay for the interview) or they expect to be able to find somebody locally with the skills they need (in which case, the local people they interview will have an advantage over you).
Not necessarily. We cast a very wide net when we have an opening. Our recruiter will search from Washington to Florida from Maine to Hawaii. We do this to obtain the most qualified applicants available. I'm not looking for someone to fill a position, I'm looking for the best person to fill that position. The best isn't always the one with the most direct education or experience, often its the one with the most willingness and self worth. I expect the person expressing an interest to know enough that this is the job they really want. As such, they are going to take a certain initiative to prove they really want the job. And truthfully, if they are not willing to travel with little or no travel assistance, that's their business; have fun where they are or where you may end up. It won't be here but that's their choice.
Just to add, I have no issue with a person asking if travel assistance is available. If we decide to offer it, we offer it. If we decide not to offer it, the balls in their court. I am curious if a candidate would feel compelled to offer to pay the travel expense of a company representative if they came to the applicant's hometown to interview them.
Our recruiter will search from Washington to Florida from Maine to Hawaii.
I don't know what line of business you are in, but it doesn't make sense. I've never heard of somebody being recruited without having their travel paid for. A recruiter gets something like 20% of the annual salary of the hire. Who would take an offer with somebody willing to pay that much for recruiter to find you but nothing to fly you there? What employer is willing to pay that much for a recruiter but not a smaller bit for travel?
I agree with the "the company should pay crowd". My current company did a 30 minute phone screening with me and a week later called me back to schedule an interview. I was in Atlanta and the job was in the greater Pittsburgh area so the company paid for my flight, hotel, and rental car. The only thing I had to pay for was my food.
This was for an entry level analytical chemist position that only required 1-2 years of experience. Granted the pharmacetuicals site is located in a small West Virginia town so they might have a hard time getting decent candidates locally. 2 weeks after the interview I was offered the job with a relocation sign on bonus to cover my moving exspenses.
If the company doesn't offer to pay for the travel exspenses they are not interested in hiring you period. So don't waste your money going. Doesn't matter if it's a management position or not.
I 100% agree. Unless you're applying for a higher position like management or you have something different to offer, then they may or may not pay. If your interview is for a common job where thousands of applicants apply and they're willing to pay then you should be grateful. If they aren't willing to pay and you really want the job and can afford it, then I say go for it. I wouldn't just ignore the job like someone mentioned.
By the same token - if the job is so easily filled then why do they have to have the OP come in from such a distance? That implies the OP has SOMETHING a bit special. Unless I was starving (and in that case I likely couldn't even pay my own way) I'd really have to ask how professional it is to have an applicant pay to fly themselves. Do they cheap out on training and development opportunities too?
I don't know what line of business you are in, but it doesn't make sense. I've never heard of somebody being recruited without having their travel paid for. A recruiter gets something like 20% of the annual salary of the hire. Who would take an offer with somebody willing to pay that much for recruiter to find you but nothing to fly you there? What employer is willing to pay that much for a recruiter but not a smaller bit for travel?
What recruiter do yo use? We pay 30%. 10% at hired, at the one year anniversary, and at the 5 year anniversary. I'm sure we can pay less up front all at once but I;m looking for along term asset. I'm willing to pay more over time to make sure that's what I am getting.
(when I talk recruiter, it's the person responsible for announcing the open position, adverting and handling the weeding out of the fantasy job hunters and other rejects. I don't have an HR dept, I outsource most of it. The recruiter is essentially the initial HR staffer.)
I think many are not reading correctly. I have no requirement to pay for anyone's travel when they are applying for an available position. If I headhunted you, such as approaching you to discuss working for us, I will pay travel expenses. But, when you are applying because you want to work for me, travel isn't a part of the process you should expect. I never have any issue probably because if you don't want to pay for travel to interview, stay where you are; who cares? There are many more equally qualified individuals. The beauty of a wide application net is you'll be surprised how many superbly qualified applicants are out there eager to be given a chance to show you how good they are.
Additionally, I'm not convinced that a resume is the best way to tell who a person is. Normally if a list of 25 top candidates is selected, maybe 15 will get interviews. Me, if I get 25 names, I want to speak to all those top candidates. You learn more at that face to face than just reading a piece of paper. I want to ensure they have the enthusiasm and drive to take on these demanding positions. It can get pretty expensive paying travel for that many and I would rather use that money for something important over on someone travel for a person I didn't hire anyways. You want to work for me, pay your own way.
I think many are not reading correctly. I have no requirement to pay for anyone's travel when they are applying for an available position. If I headhunted you, such as approaching you to discuss working for us, I will pay travel expenses. But, when you are applying because you want to work for me, travel isn't a part of the process you should expect. I never have any issue probably because if you don't want to pay for travel to interview, stay where you are; who cares? There are many more equally qualified individuals. The beauty of a wide application net is you'll be surprised how many superbly qualified applicants are out there eager to be given a chance to show you how good they are.
Of course you don't have an obligation. And there will be cases where somebody really wants or needs a job and the interviewee might want to pay.
My point is that if your potential employer's attitude is "if you don't want to pay for travel for the interview, stay where you are" is a very low yield kind of job searching. If I applied to work somewhere that wasn't in my home city, even if I had applied and wasn't recruited, that they were not likely to hire me if a phone interview wasn't sufficient to interest them enough in my to pay for a plane ticket and such.
Spending $600 to $1,000 bucks to have a 1/25 shot at a job is the kind of thing that people who aren't desperate for work (that is, people with skills an experience) don't do because they don't have to.
And they are under no obligation to pay for your travel if you're coming to them asking for a job!
As a business owner, if I offer travel expense for an interview, that's my decision. I can also decide I'm not going to pay any travel expenses. I'm under no obligation to do it any way but how I choose to do it. How many post have we had where people had where non reimbursed travel expense was a whinny complaint? Obviously there is no standard and it's a company by company decision as they see fit. At some point the message has to be told that there is no absolutes when it comes to who pays. All we have is general rules that generally apply. Heck even you used the term "Most" which means it's a company by company decision.
There are way too many posters that are to eager to make have others throw away opportunities because the actions of a company doesn't make them all warm and fuzzy inside. My message was that you should have been prepared to pay for the travel if you are applying to them and you want that job! Those who say forget the company are just windbags with no skin in the game so they can be all bravado when it comes to other peoples lives.
(and people wonder why we need H1B workers)
A lot of places might interview 10+ applicants or may interview people just for the heck of it without really being interested in hiring that person. I can't tell you how many interviews I've gone to where I get there and it's a 15-minute nothing where it's clear the interviewer has already selected someone else before I ever set foot through that door. Why on earth would I want to spend $500+ on an interview if I'm not even sure that the interviewer is going to be serious about me.
The reality is that many positions may get hundreds or even thousands of applicants, but simply going on who might be willing to pay to fly out may not yield the best or even acceptable applicants. Who has to spend $600 on an interview to have skin in the game? Interviewing is not a one-way street. It's as much about the applicant interviewing the company as it is about the company interviewing the applicant. Chances are the best applicants are going to realize they are worth more than being forced to pay $600+ to have the "opportunity" to interview for a company that might interview 9 or more other applicants. They figure that $600 in their pocket is worth turning down the interview.
Way too many companies interview when they are not very serious about hiring and have no respect for the money, time and efforts of candidates. Paying for an interview which may well be an EEOC horse and poney show is nuts. If they aren't paying they aren't that serious about you. Also it is the company that wants an in person interview. I'd be fine with a skype interview. If they want an interview they can pay. Otherwise just use skype.
In the pharma industry, we always paid for candidates travels, meals and hotel, if required. If they drove, we rembursed for mileage.
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