Asking to telecommute 2 days a week in an interview... (Pleasanton: home, living in)

[joyinthejourney]

my husband is being flown to SV for a job interview. we know we can't afford to live in the heart of SV so we would probably live in a suburb about 30 miles away (maybe pleasonton, livermore, castro valley). can he ask off the bat if he can work 2 days from home? is this common in SV w/ the insane traffic and ridiculous home prices?

[teoreticar]

Depends from company/manager/position/type of job etc

[joyinthejourney]

but is it a no-no to ask this during the interview process? if so, when is a good time to ask about it?

[ccm123]

I would ask after I get an offer, when you are negotiating. You have some leverage that way.

[ccm123]

It definitely depends on the type of job also. Some jobs (sales, customer support over the phone, marketing, software engineer, etc) can be done 100% from a remote location, while some cannot (hardware related, or management positions, as an example).

[Ottawa2BayArea]

i'd wait for the offer. impress them first before making demands.

[jk88cal]

Very weird to ask this question on this forum. If your husband doesn't know the answer (or don't even know if he should ask), then I suspect he will not be a good fit for the company.

As other posters responded, it depends highly on the job function, and only your husband knows that. And it depends on the company. He should have contacts in the industry to ask what it is like at this company or find it online elsewhere (glassdoor).

If he is flown in for interview, he will talk to various people: HR, hiring manager(s), peer(s). I would simply ask HR what is company's telecommute policy. And he can ask the peers on the work culture. Instead of "ask off the bat if he can work 2 days from home".

[joyinthejourney]

Originally Posted by jk88cal

Very weird to ask this question on this forum.

i find it very weird when posters reply in this way. if you think this, move on.

[ybnormal]

I don't know if it's common to have 2 day telecommute a week, but it's common that people living in Pleasanton, Dublin, Tracy etc. commute to south bay every day. Some drive avoiding the time the traffic is really bad, and some use ACE(train) if free shuttle is available between the station and the office.

[dburbs1975]

I can tell you that the traffic on 101 in SV is much much less on Mondays and Fridays, as a rule. I know a large number of people telecommute on Mondays and Fridays.