Job interview question

well, you know, it's hard being me.

 

I think it's entirely inappropriate to expect an applicant to pay. The paper is willing to shell out, say, 20K to 25K in salary but won't spend $500 on airfare and hotel? That makes no sense. Applicants turning down openings kinda goes with the territory. But if you bring in two or three, the odds are one will take it.

 

If you want it bad enough, then pay. If you don't, tell them to pay.

 

One more thought: if you do go and pay some or all of your way, you can take it as "job search expenses" if you itemize your taxes. Keep your receipts!

 

I paid half the cost on airfare for my interview -- they paid for the hotel, meals, and more than compensated me for the two days I had to take off from my job.

Got the job, love it, and can say that splitting the cost on airfare is by no means indicative of other spending habits.

 

If you want the job, split it with them.

I paid for part of the plane ticket for my current job.  (They thought I was a regional candidate because I kept an old address on my resume).  They weren't looking to make a national search, but I paid for part of the plane ticket and they got hotel.

Anyway, it paid off.  I'm glad I did it.  With a lot of smaller papers, they just can't afford to fly 2 or 3 people in.  If they're offering to pay half, I think you have a great shot at it.

My $0.02

 

That's dirt cheap to ask a student right out of college to pay half the costs of flying in for a job interview....really no kind of a way to run a railroad.

 

I once drove from New Jersey to Georgia for my first "real" job interview. The paper, a small 10,000-circulation daily, never offered to pay my way and I didn't ask. I just figured it was part of the cost of doing business. Maybe I was a naive schmuck back then. But if they're offering to pay at least part of your way you've got to figure they're interested. If it's an area and a paper you think you might want to work for, I'd say suck it up, find the money somewhere and kick ass in the job interview to make it worthwhile.

 

my first job...interview...was about two months out of college at a small paper near a big city in florida. exchanged e-mails with the editor about three times, then did a phone interview. had sent my clips and was told, more or less, that i was pretty much a shoe-in, but they had to do an in-person interview first. i've got a little bit of extra money saved up, so i get the round trip plane ticket from st. louis to florida, spending about $350.

three days before my flight, the guy e-mails me and says that someone within the parent company wanted the job and they got preferential treatment. sorry, thanks for playing.

it takes a lot, a whole lot, to get me upset, but i was fuming for about a week after that. i honestly cannot remember the name of the paper, but i hope it closed down. or burned down. or something.

 

Thanks everyone.

I thought about it, talked with a whole bunch of people and e-mailed the SE to let him know I'm coming. Next step - badger my parents in to picking up part of my half of the tab.

God bless cheaptickets.com.

 

I'm also vaguely curious about how exactly they'd go about splitting the costs. Are they going to buy the ticket and have you pay your half? Or, and I suspect this is the case, is it going to be you buying the ticket and them reimbursing? Though most of us have credit cards, when you're 22, laying out $400 or $500 can be impossible, even if you're going to get it back. You'd obviously have to borrow from someone, because you can't spend cash you don't physically have in your hand.

 

i don't think i'd do it. i might accept those gadawful terms, on the condition they reimburse if they don't offer me the job. but i don't like the smell of that at all.

best wishes.