It's always been my personal policy that if they don't pay for travel, I decline the interview. These recruiters are ever so slightly making me wonder if I'm being entitled, although I don't really think I am.
What's your position on it?
edit: additionally, by displaying that you are willing to foot the bill for travel, you are showing that you are desperate, which is something they can further leverage in your negotiations IF they ever even consider you.
And that raises the question whether you want to shell out that kind of money for only a small chance to get hired.
I would ask for more long distance interviews until they're certain enough they want you, that they're willing to pay for travel.
Source: hired dozens of engineers, interviewed hundreds of engineers
Let’s go down this hypothetical route where you accept to do something so ridiculous. You drive a ways or fly in, you get the hotel and you go back, all in your own dime. You’ve effectively just invested hundreds of dollars into this interview. They might already be planning to fill the position with an internal candidate, who knows? Maybe they’re just feeling it out. Or maybe they want you, and maybe they know they have a garbage offer. Well now that you’re emotionally committed to this on some level because of the money you spent, you’re more likely to commit more than you otherwise would have. In poker I think they call it “pot committed” when you have a weak hand but you’ve already put so much into the pot that you feel compelled to “win back” what you’ve already lost, so you bet more. Same principle. This is really, reallt shitty psychological manipulation.
I don’t think I need to say more. If that isn’t enough to convince you then I’m afraid you might need some coaching for how to stand up for yourself ;)
I mean, that’s just a lie.
Even before you consider whether they do it or not, everyone else in this industry does so they’re just lying.
If they company won’t do something as simple as cover your travel costs, and the recruiters are lying to your face, then unless you have no other option I would block these people and forget they exist.
That does not jibe with my experience at all. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it's more common for a company that expects you to fly, to buy the ticket for you up-front.
And as others have said: if a company expects you to pay for your own travel for a long distance interview, they're just outing themselves as a company that you don't want to work for anyway.
Personally, unless in an actual situation of pure desperation, I'd skip on pursuing any "opportunities" with companies that behave this way.
When I conduct interviews as an employer today - I do assessment on location because fit ends up being very important. Where a person is coming from, what social networks they have, interest in the climate and region play huge in long term retention and it is often much easier to take the time to hire locally if possible to increase quality of fit in the organization. in many cases this is not possible - and you have to import as you don't have excess talent (at your price point) in the region.
You're a smart guy. In my experience very few people consider this.
They can afford to invite you on a whim and then not hire you, and it costs them only the time of the interview, while you're paying the full cost as well as a full day or more of your time. A more equal division of those costs would be more reasonable.
I've literally never paid out of pocket to travel more than an hour for an interview.
Funny enough and sort of messed up, but, I went on a local interview earlier this year where I drove 30 mins to meet the person for coffee. I paid for coffee because the company credit card declined and that was his only form of payment. They offered me a 60 hour a week coding job for $30,000/year because they felt the work wasn't complicated and didn't require my c++ skills even thought their current code base was c++. They wanted to make no changes to the c++ code and start adding functionality using Python as "most college kids learn Python" and "would be happy to accept such a great job". I declined. I received a call from the CEO asking me why, they were really impressed. I said the salary was an insult and it was advertised as a $90,000/year job. He replied that he only takes $40,000 as a salary and the $90,000 figure was to attract interest, hoping to find someone who believed in the companies goals and would work for less money with the future hope of more. I suddenly had someone knocking at my door...
In general, I avoid situations where the other party has nothing to lose when/if they waste your time. Example: Online tests before you even talk to a manager.
The cheapskates that wouldn't pay for travel offered me a job but the salary was so low it wasn't even worth negotiating.
Plane travel? On my dime? For something where they can decide on a whim not to hire me? Absolutely not. Forget that noise. Ditto the hotel, and meals while I'm there.
I've flown out for job interviews a few times. I have never paid. If I had to, well, no thank you. I'll look for a different job.
That said, I've only ever interviewed for companies in the tech industry and the financial industry. It's possible that companies in other industries are different.
Of course, given I'm in a major capital city where all the jobs in this country are located (London), the only interview that would require traveling to a distant location would either be one in a foreign country that required a visa or be a bad choice to take up anyway. So yeah, unlikely it'd come up.
Those recruiters don't care about you, they only care about their commission.
Otherwise, that's just crazy. For a position that is offered to non-local candidates, the company should pay for travel and lodging at minimum. Food would be nice too.