Interview expenses, paid by interviewee
Discussion
Typically you'd expect to pay your own expenses - it's a speculative investment. If the cost is too much then don't apply. However, my OH once incurred significant cost traveling to an interview only to be told that her application wasn't being progressed because she hadn't worked in a certain sector. She argued that as they'd neglected to indicate this requirement on the job advert, or at any stage prior to inviting her to interview, they should reimburse her travel costs. After a bit of an argument they agreed to reimburse half, though due to an admin error two separate departments reimbursed her so she got all of it back!
PorkInsider said:
How did it go, OP?
Ok, well, interview went ok, there were a few assumptions on either side that have caused delays in deciding, as it stands currently I don't have a written offer, but I do have an indication that I am right for the job, they are looking into putting together an ex pat package for me temporarily, I married my USA partner yesterday and we want for her to be able to get a British citizenship before moving to Denmark (with her current via status she can apply in February). So I head off on my honeymoon without having handed in notice on current position, and waiting for a contract to be offered so I can decide if the numbers make sense. Will post again here when find out.JamesyBoy75 said:
Where do people stand on the whole idea of an interviewee paying for their own out of pocket expenses.
In the past I've had no problem paying for my own interview expenses (one time a flight to/from Dubai) with the unspoken understanding that those costs would be met by the company requesting an interview. My reimbursement had never been in question until a few years ago, a very urgent request from a recruitment consultant for a next day interview with Rolls Royce, I took a day off work and paid for the fast train to Derby (more than £100) and after the interview was told this cost would not be reimbursed (never got offered the job either).
I am currently being offered an interview for a position I'm interested in, in Copenhagen, again I have to pay the costs myself, this is either £250 in a return flight (same day), OR slightly cheaper flights plus a night in a hotel. Company policy for this new prospective is again interviewee pays costs.
Do people feel that this is a little unfair, or just resigned to a new 'way of the world'?
Might also be of interest, the job offer is not in the £100k's - although I expect once you get into upper echelon's those guys never pay a penny for their travels...
IMO an interviewee should NOT be out of pocket for an interview, either the company or agency suck up costs.In the past I've had no problem paying for my own interview expenses (one time a flight to/from Dubai) with the unspoken understanding that those costs would be met by the company requesting an interview. My reimbursement had never been in question until a few years ago, a very urgent request from a recruitment consultant for a next day interview with Rolls Royce, I took a day off work and paid for the fast train to Derby (more than £100) and after the interview was told this cost would not be reimbursed (never got offered the job either).
I am currently being offered an interview for a position I'm interested in, in Copenhagen, again I have to pay the costs myself, this is either £250 in a return flight (same day), OR slightly cheaper flights plus a night in a hotel. Company policy for this new prospective is again interviewee pays costs.
Do people feel that this is a little unfair, or just resigned to a new 'way of the world'?
Might also be of interest, the job offer is not in the £100k's - although I expect once you get into upper echelon's those guys never pay a penny for their travels...
simple as.
ericmcn said:
IMO an interviewee should NOT be out of pocket for an interview, either the company or agency suck up costs.
simple as.
May I ask, why?simple as.
In a typical scenario an employer advertises (one way or another) a position and prospective candidates put themselves forward. They choose to do so perhaps because the advertised job is perceived better in some respect than the one they have, or they don't have one at all. In each case they put themselves forward for some level of personal gain.
For the company's part, they have never met the candidates and, in the interview process at least, they'll receive no tangible benefit from meeting a prospective employees, other than the opportunity to see if they ought to become actual ones.
It's merely a personal opinion, however I'm not convinced employers should foot the cost of prospective employees speculating over potential career moves, other than if the employer approaches them in the first place.
If the cost of face to face interviewing is substantial, then the risks can be mitigated by a robust process filtering out unlikely candidates prior to that stage. Those remaining are likely to have the required skill set and, if they're willing to put their own hand in their pocket, there's an element of commitment from the get-go. You can always reimburse the successful one(s) post-hire.
Wow... you guys better never be contractors then, as the cost of interviews is eye watering.
Imagine being on say 1000 a day and then going to an interview... actually, its not one interview its 5 interviews and they cant take place after work, they need to be in work hours and can be 2-3 hours long.
So to attend those 5 interviews would cost in the region of 2500 in lost wages.
Thats the cost of a week away for the OH somewhere nice.
Lets just say all my interviews take place after work hours and not during.
Imagine being on say 1000 a day and then going to an interview... actually, its not one interview its 5 interviews and they cant take place after work, they need to be in work hours and can be 2-3 hours long.
So to attend those 5 interviews would cost in the region of 2500 in lost wages.
Thats the cost of a week away for the OH somewhere nice.
Lets just say all my interviews take place after work hours and not during.
Du1point8 said:
Wow... you guys better never be contractors then, as the cost of interviews is eye watering.
Imagine being on say 1000 a day and then going to an interview... actually, its not one interview its 5 interviews and they cant take place after work, they need to be in work hours and can be 2-3 hours long.
So to attend those 5 interviews would cost in the region of 2500 in lost wages.
Thats the cost of a week away for the OH somewhere nice.
Lets just say all my interviews take place after work hours and not during.
If you're commanding £1k a day then £2.5k should be just a drop in the ocean/considered part of doing (new) business surely? It all comes down to how desperate the interviewee is to move to something new, or how keen a company are to get you in the door. When I was working in O&G we would routinely provide expenses to those with niche skills who we really wanted, but not to run of the mill positions.Imagine being on say 1000 a day and then going to an interview... actually, its not one interview its 5 interviews and they cant take place after work, they need to be in work hours and can be 2-3 hours long.
So to attend those 5 interviews would cost in the region of 2500 in lost wages.
Thats the cost of a week away for the OH somewhere nice.
Lets just say all my interviews take place after work hours and not during.
We once had the son of a well-paid contractor, who was just out of uni, tell us that he charged £25ph to be interviewed, as he could be missing out on valuable opportunities by taking the time to talk to us about a position. This was for an entry-level perm IT position; even his dad was taken aback when he found out why he declined our interview.
JamesyBoy75 said:
Where do people stand on the whole idea of an interviewee paying for their own out of pocket expenses.
In the past I've had no problem paying for my own interview expenses (one time a flight to/from Dubai) with the unspoken understanding that those costs would be met by the company requesting an interview. My reimbursement had never been in question until a few years ago, a very urgent request from a recruitment consultant for a next day interview with Rolls Royce, I took a day off work and paid for the fast train to Derby (more than £100) and after the interview was told this cost would not be reimbursed (never got offered the job either).
I am currently being offered an interview for a position I'm interested in, in Copenhagen, again I have to pay the costs myself, this is either £250 in a return flight (same day), OR slightly cheaper flights plus a night in a hotel. Company policy for this new prospective is again interviewee pays costs.
Do people feel that this is a little unfair, or just resigned to a new 'way of the world'?
Might also be of interest, the job offer is not in the £100k's - although I expect once you get into upper echelon's those guys never pay a penny for their travels...
I work at RR in Derby, and we do reimburse job interviewee's, even apprentices.......In the past I've had no problem paying for my own interview expenses (one time a flight to/from Dubai) with the unspoken understanding that those costs would be met by the company requesting an interview. My reimbursement had never been in question until a few years ago, a very urgent request from a recruitment consultant for a next day interview with Rolls Royce, I took a day off work and paid for the fast train to Derby (more than £100) and after the interview was told this cost would not be reimbursed (never got offered the job either).
I am currently being offered an interview for a position I'm interested in, in Copenhagen, again I have to pay the costs myself, this is either £250 in a return flight (same day), OR slightly cheaper flights plus a night in a hotel. Company policy for this new prospective is again interviewee pays costs.
Do people feel that this is a little unfair, or just resigned to a new 'way of the world'?
Might also be of interest, the job offer is not in the £100k's - although I expect once you get into upper echelon's those guys never pay a penny for their travels...
hyphen said:
Du1point8 said:
Thats the cost of a week away for the OH somewhere nice.
But your cost of the week away would be double, £2500 for the travel and another £2500 for the lost wages. Perhaps you should keep it to weekend trips only 
Most companies, in my experience, don't reimburse.
In 2010/11 I was interviewing for a role in London, when based in Jersey. I had an informal chat in Jersey and this was followed by 9 interviews over 7 sessions, plus 2 that were cancelled when I was travelling or already in London.
Given these all involved flights booked at shortish (under a week's) notice, plus airport parking, trains and days of bought holiday, I dread to think what the real cost of this was to me...but if you want the job, you wear the expense.
That I was offered the job in the final interview (and agreed package) and that it was never papered (called 2 weeks later to be told that they were re-structuring so the role was no longer there and, "I hope this isn't too inconvenient,") is one of those things that one just takes on the chin.
In 2010/11 I was interviewing for a role in London, when based in Jersey. I had an informal chat in Jersey and this was followed by 9 interviews over 7 sessions, plus 2 that were cancelled when I was travelling or already in London.
Given these all involved flights booked at shortish (under a week's) notice, plus airport parking, trains and days of bought holiday, I dread to think what the real cost of this was to me...but if you want the job, you wear the expense.
That I was offered the job in the final interview (and agreed package) and that it was never papered (called 2 weeks later to be told that they were re-structuring so the role was no longer there and, "I hope this isn't too inconvenient,") is one of those things that one just takes on the chin.
So... after a very long time and lots of back and forth, I was last week offered a contract with the company I interviewed with in May! The current plan is that I work as a contractor for the next few months before heading to Denmark next Spring to start a new life over there. so conclusion could be, in my case at least, paying your way to interview (even on in another country) worked out.
Thanks for all the anecdote and advice.
Thanks for all the anecdote and advice.
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