Ask HN: Would you accept a distant interview with no travel reimbursement?

No

No reimbursement, no deal.

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.

I've been flown to interviews at least a half dozen times over the years, mix of startups and big companies, every time travel (flight+hotel+meals) was covered as a matter of course. I would absolutely turn down an interview where they weren't paying for travel, it suggests they are not serious about the process.

No; maybe if I was a junior who was really desperate and could afford the expense, but not at this stage.

If they want to pay you a decent salary, travel reimbursement is within the single digits percentage range of that. If they are not willing to pay <10%, what shows you they are willing to pay 100% of a decent salary?

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.

No. If a company does not think you are worth paying for travel then they do not think you are worth it at all.

> I've spoken to a couple recruiters today who say it's uncommon for companies to reimburse applicants for travel

I've literally never paid out of pocket to travel more than an hour for an interview.

Those recruiters are incorrect - if a company doesn't want to pay for travel, they will/should do a hirevue/skype interview remotely instead. If they want you to be there in person, they'll pay for you to be there.

> I've spoken to a couple recruiters today who say it's uncommon for companies to reimburse applicants for travel

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.

Nope.

Remember recruiters work for the employer. That said, do you live in a place where you are likely to find a job? I ask because there is possibly some nuance here. In general I would interpret this signal as others here are saying and agree with their reasoning. Well not 100% as I would think it would be a stupid company that spends excessively traveling candidates they haven’t interviewed via video conference first. But say I chose to live in the sticks several states away, I would not then expect every employer to cover travel for my interviews.

I wouldn't accept a distant interview I had to pay for at all, much less one I wouldn't be reimbursed for. That's the interviewing company's responsibility, open and shut.

I've never had to pay for transportation to an interview - even rideshare/cabs are typically paid for. I would outright reject any company that tried to make me pay for my own airfare and lodging for an onsite interview.

Here in town, I'll drive, and I won't charge for the gas. Ditto for the next town over (40 miles).

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.

Not unless I had plans to go to that area that week and somehow felt like doing an interview in the middle of my holiday (not likely).

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.

I don't expect reimbursement, I expect the company to buy the tickets and pay for the hotel room upfront. Ground transportation and meals are negotiable, I suppose.

I paid for my own travel for an interview once. I wasn't happy about it but I thought it would be a good excuse to visit a new city for the weekend. I'll never do that again.

The cheapskates that wouldn't pay for travel offered me a job but the salary was so low it wasn't even worth negotiating.

Also, find better recruiters.

Even fresh out of college with very little to offer (in a different industry than tech) I was not asked to do this. It sounds like you're dealing with some shady recruiters, and that's a shame because there are some good ones out there. I only got my start in tech because a recruiter advocated for me to get an entry level gig. That gig was several states away and a series of online interviews plus several code examples sufficed.

Self respect. Why spend hundreds of dollars for a company you shouldn't wanna work in?

Those recruiters are actually telling you “this is a company you don’t want to work for”. I had this happen once after grad school. Guy wanted me to drive 10 hours one way, pay for a hotel (“isn’t there someone you can stay with?” There wasn’t), and drive back all in my dime. It’s not normal, it’s not reasonable, and you should just end the conversation right there. It will only get worse.

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 ;)

Over 10 years ago I had a similar offer - I was one state away (~500 miles) and the company did not want to pay for travel. They were interested, and I was interested, and I had other travel taking me to the region, so about a month later I showed up and we did the interview. Several months later I was given an offer and accepted - but I had exactly your reaction, "if you (employer) can't pony up $120 for a plane ticket....". in the end it worked for me, but I still take that as a major red flag, if the employer will not pay for travel to interview, then they have not properly vetted and phone screened you to determine they want to take any time to seriously consider you.

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.

I'm happy to pay if I have an offer in hand and it's up to me to decide whether to finalize the paperwork (e.g. onboarding interview), but not for something that isn't guaranteed. If they aren't satisfied with a video or phone interview, they had better pay to have me come out.

I had a company try to hire me internationally. This was on the strength of a close friend's internal reference and persistence over months. I wasn't looking. After some phone calls with their senior management I finally agreed to travel to an interview and they agree verbally to pay travel expenses. When I was half-way there - having put substantial money down to fly internationally with a family of three - they cancelled the interview and backed out. No apology. Killed the friendship.