I’m going to pile on here and say I think this is a pretty big red flag that shouldn’t be ignored. He has no idea how many other candidates are being asked to fly in on their own dime so there’s no way of knowing how much they’ve narrowed it down, and what do they have to lose doing it this way? It doesn’t smell right. to me.
Our S interviewed for engineering positions. When the venue was far (DC when he lives in LA) employer covered costs to fly out and I believe lodging—or in pretty sure S would have complained to us). They also were happy to coordinate dates of interviews for when he happened to be in the area and interviewed at Starbucks.
Don’t believe he was reimbursed when he just drove to an interview but it’s wasn’t s big deal to him and he decided not to pursue the job or accept it if offered.
I’m surprised they’re not offering your child more options or at least reimbursing for some of travel. My nephew was treated very well when interviewing for financial jobs and since being hired as well. In fact they’ve just flown him and workmates to Chicago for additional training.
It really depends. It could be a position where they do not anticipate paying for relocation for this mid point/entry level position. They may not offer travel or accommodations during the interview process. However if hired he can certainly negotiate that cost into his initial sign on or pay. There just may be too many qualified candidates to consider fly in interviews.
But don’t over judge the firm just yet. If it is a JPM BOA or Fidelity level firm, there will paid travel for the rest of your time and extensive training and educational stipends, matching charitable grants and 4 month paternity leave type benefits.
However I would reach out to the recruiter, share his enthusiasm for the position but outline the cost concerns to level set the stage within the hiring process. If this is late stage exploratory, it’s a difficult decision. If they are making a final decision it could be well worth the cost.
We pay a lot more to visit schools that will be taking our money. It may be money well spent for a chance at a paying professional job.
How did he find out about the job opening?
It isn’t uncommon for more entry level/lower level jobs to be easily filled locally and therefore companies won’t expend much to fill those spots, doing a nationwide search and paying for candidates to fly in, etc. and won’t offer relocation expenses if hired. For positions requiring a more experienced hire, companies will cover all that stuff.
I’d also look at websites like glassdoor and see if he can glean any info off them re: interview protocols for this company.
Something not right here. If this is a nationwide company in financial services, not a local bucket shop, this would be pretty unusual. My old firm always paid for the final screening interview, as well as all of our competitors. I wonder if your S is making a wrong assumption. I see no downside in politely asking for clarification. Heck, D got her travel and lodging paid for when interviewing for an entry level position at a non-profit research institute.
I work In financial services. I’ve been at various major employers and this is not normal. I would not be paying the money, especially at that junior level. That’s not normal for an experienced hire.
Unless your child just graduated?
He’s 25 and it sounds entry level plus. I didn’t catch it was a national search. It sounded more like this is where the job resides and he inquired, and they like him. Perhaps most candidates are local or at least drive in regional.
That’s how I read it.
When my son was in the job hunt, the organizations that didn’t pay for travel costs said so up front in the job notice. If they didn’t tell your son early in the process, that would concern me. But, things are just so different now, it’s hard to know what is normal.
The job my son accepted did pay for his interview expenses and they also paid relocation costs.
I agree with @privatebanker and @doschicos. Way back when I was involved in the hiring process in the tech industry, there were two types of jobs: manager/exec and entry/grunt.
All executive applicants were flown out at the company’s expense. Most of the higher-level manager applicants were initially interviewed via phone, then if necessary flown out often at company expense. But most of our managers were local. Half the exec hires were long distance.
No one interviewing for the entry level or grunt jobs had travel expenses for interviews covered by the company. There were simply too many competent applicants who were local to begin with. Hiring a basic IT security employee or a bug finder was like hiring a secretary or an event coordinator. Why would a company pay to interview that sort of position?
Yes for sales engineers or something like that.
Second cousin is visiting. He just flew at his expense from a Southern state to a Northern state for a job interview in the Library Sciences. He paid for his flight and all expenses. The day after he returned home they called and had offered the position to another candidate. He is pretty bummed about the entire thing.
Neither my D or my DIL had any help from academia when interviewing all over the country for their Medical residences. I think this is an awful situation for students with huge loans to begin with as well the expectation that they have proper suits. Between the two of them there were over 20 interviews. Thank goodness for Mom’s and MIL’s regarding the dark dress suits…
I would expect employer to pay travel expenses for interview.
Looking at it from an economics point of view, burdening the non-local applicant with the travel costs may be expected if it is a buyer’s (employer’s) market for that type of job. But that suggests that the chance of actually getting the job is small.
I think if it is a state, government, or university job they may not have the funds to pay for the interview. But, usually they offer a FaceTime or phone interview.
I think I agree with @doschicos and @privatebanker , too. He found the job through indeed, it’s Austin which is booming. I’m sure they can find qualified candidates locally, but he gets the feeling they really liked him. He is just entry level plus. He is between a rock and a hard place, and is willing to cough up the money for this job. I mentioned to him about asking what his chances are upfront and he feels it would be off putting to do that now. He’d feel more comfortable asking it then.
He’s going out there with his GF to live. She’s already got a great job. His lease is up here in July, so I think he’s nervous as this is his only job prospect. He doesn’t want to ruin this chance. If he doesn’t like it, at least if he’s there it would be easier to find something else.
I’ll let you know the outcome, but now I know this isn’t necessarily the current norm.
Some jobs specify that there is no relocation and they are targeting local candidates. If that’s the case, and if he has thrown his hat in the ring from afar, this isn’t as strange as it sounds.
But normally, time, companies pay for travel for interviews. I would ask the company what the process is for submitting expenses and if they have any guidelines, corporate rates with local hotels, etc., he should know about.
The only time I’ve heard of this is when a company says they are looking for local candidates only and a non local candidate raises their hand and offers to pay their way for interviews. Your son should ask how his expenses will be handled and if they say they aren’t prepared to pay he should bow out. That’s not the kind of company anyone should want to work for.
There are two possibilities and neither bodes well:
- The company is looking to fill the position locally because there are plenty of qualified local applicants. Or
- The company is too cheap. And it’s in financial services? It’s abnormal for firms looking for candidates nationwide, at least in financial services or tech, not to cover interview travel expenses, even for summer internships. My S, a college freshman, has been flown across the country for all-expenses-paid interviews.
Remember that the OP’s son plans to be local so may have represented himself to be in that local pool. Companies prefer not to have to persuade candidates that they want to relocate to wherever they are (especially after having gone through an exhaustive search.). I disagree that it absolutely bodes poorly for the company. My employer has positions for which it does national searches and others, generally entry level or close to it, for which only local candidates are considered. For those, there is no trouble getting enough good applicants.
I would agree that if the company interviewed on campus, it would be wrong for them to drop the ball on expenses, but if he applied directly through their website or from a job posting, not so much.
@thumper1 Not medical school, but when my D was applying for grad school, they all covered her expenses, flights, lodging and treated her to meals. Hotels they put her up were all posh.
No. My kids all got job travel paid for out of college jobs.
A time you have to pay such expenses is if you are looking at jobs that are cast in the local context. If you happen upon them, they are not set up to repay such expenses because they are only looking locally and it’s rare for anyone out of area to come across the listing.