to refuse to travel from London to Warrington for an first round interview?

[Fillybuster]

I run the risk of outing myself here....but I work in a sector that tends to be quite geographically spread across the UK (and beyond). I live in London but over the past 15 years have spent lots of time travelling abroad and within the UK. For several years (post dcs) I even managed a team based in Glasgow and Manchester, and spent 2-3 days every 2 weeks with them.

All this is just to explain that I don't have a problem with travel for work!

I was recently approached by a headhunter to apply for a role with a company based in Warrington with offices all over the UK. Apparently the role could be London based as long as I was willing to travel to Warrington 1-2 days/week. No problem.

I've just been called for a first round interview....in Warrington next week. I have refused to spend a whole day travelling (and invest the money required) for a first round....maybe I'd do it for a third round, but it seems barmy to expect candidates to invest that level of time and money this early in the process.

Apparently the other 2 candidates were quite happy to do so. The recruitment consultant clearly thinks I'm a nutter for suggesting we do it by videoconf or investigate whether the hiring manager is going to be in London any time soon.

AIBU?

Your suggestions sound eminently reasonable given that they head hunted you. It would be different if you had contacted them first.

They think you have the right qualifications and experience and you have a full time job. As you say you can't be expected to drop everything to come running.

On the other hand it depends what they will be paying. If the package involves a huge salary increase and a very interesting job then it would be worth going out of your way.

So I say YANBU, but don't look too disinterested if it could be a fab job.

PS I am amazed they won't cover travel expenses- for this reason alone you should insist on VC for the first interview

People assume you will get your interview expenses. That's not always the case any more.

YANBU. In this day and age we offer video and telephone interviewing, and are happy to offer this to any of our shortlisted candidates, as long as they understand that they may be slightly disadvantaged by a telephone interview.

I think they should pay travel costs, you should go. If they don't want to pay then it's probably not someone worth working for.

I think they are being VU to ask you to go to Warrington.

I've been there.

i've never paid any one travel expenses to come to an interview

never ever occurred to me....

but, in case of OP never head hunted via an agency - that sheds a different light on things

and I live there Nonno

Vicky

" This reminds me of clients who start interviews with headhunted candidates with "So, why are you looking to leave your current role?""

:o

Really? That's hilarious.

They headhunter may be reluctant to ask the company to pay the expenses.

There are lots of unemployed people ATM - and lots of underutilised headhunters. Wonder what they're even making for the search.

Average for headhunters in my industry is 3-4 months of starting salary - 50% upfront on the day the new person joins the company and 50% after they've been in-role for 3 months.

I agree though, that this is a recruitment consultant (from a reasonably well known agency) who doesn't want to ask about expenses - I got the impression he had decided they probably wouldn't want to pay them, rather than that he had asked the question.

Let's see where we get to on the VC proposal....

Thing to remember about expenses, while the headhunter might not have mentioned expenses, that might be because they have nothing to do with that, that's something their PA will sort with the candidate and the employer's PA and the headhunter and their contact at the employer never pay the slightest bit of attention to the 'how' the logistics happen. (perfectly normal practice, unfortunately).

Also, the company you would be working for haven't headhunted you, a recruitment consultant has found you and suggested you to their client - if someone from the employer HR had called you directly, then you could say you had been clearly headhunted (it's far less common for companies to contact headhunters and say "get me X" as it's easier for them to contact you directly these days if you're the one they want).

Personally, I'd ask if you're going that way and have to take a day off work, can you see more people straight away rather than having 1st round, 2nd round, 3rd round interviews on different days. Just because they say there's 3 rounds of interviews, doesn't mean there's a fixed structure of how they happen or on what days they have to happen, more that there's 3 'lots' of people you need to meet, it could be perfectly reasonable to ask to see a group of people on the day you go there rather than keep going up and down to Warrington.

Mind you, if you are taking a job where 1/3 of the week will be in one office and 2/3 of the week in another office, it looks a bit crap if you say you can't make it all the way to the office you'll be spending a 1/3 of your week in for interview because it's too far away. It just looks like you're going to have problems with the job when you get it.

"it looks a bit crap if you say you can't make it all the way to the office you'll be spending a 1/3 of your week in"

She's not saying she can't make it, she's saying she is not willing to make it for a first round interview.

Quick update: the RC has just called me back to say they're not sure about whether they can do the VC thing. Apparently, they won't know if they have time until Monday/Tuesday (which seems a bit odd, since they were asking me to travel up there for Monday/Tuesday originally!), so will let me know if they can manage a VC next Friday.

In response to my offer to travel up the following week (because I genuinely cannot extricate myself for a whole day from existing work commitments this week), apparently that's too late....

Filly, as they are not reimbursing expenses I don't think you are being that unreasonable in refusing to go to Warrington. I would be pissed off to spend £100 on travel and not get the job. But you will have to accept that it will show you lack the commitment, particularly as the job involves a lot of travelling.

Oh bad luck Filly. FWIW I didn't think you were being unreasonable. If the company has the facilities for videoconferencing why can't they use them for first round interviews?

It's incredibly wasteful of time and money (whoever's paying) to drag someone to the other end of the country for an hour-long meeting when, let's face it, they're likely to decide within the first two minutes whether they'll want to see you again.

I hope you still manage to arrange something to suit you both. And that you get the job, if you want it.

If you want the job you should do it, often companies want the first round to take place in their main office, it also gives you a chance to see if you like the environment. I would expect them to pay for the train ticket however.

Well then I guess you now know that as far as the company were concerned - yes, YWBU!

I think you have been eminently reasonable: not many busy and successful people can drop a day's work that very week and travel up. You offered to do that the next week in person, or a VC if it was urgent. I think they are the unreasonable ones, unless they want to employ people already sitting on their arses.

It's funny, because I've been on the other side of the recruitment table on a reasonable number of occasions.

I have never assumed that prospective employees would be available at the drop of a hat, even within the same city....and have frequently held interviews outside of 'normal' working hours (for example, at 6.30pm) to take account of existing diary commitments (theirs, as well as mine!). Even when I've been in a hurry to fill a position...

I have also never assumed an applicant would or should spend lots of money on travelling to an interview, unless it was final round (and we would always offer to reimburse costs)

I find it genuinely surprising how many posters on here feel IABU not to rush up to Warrington at the drop of a hat. If I was unemployed, then I agree that this would be entirely about the economics of the problem, but as matters stand, I don't see how it can be reasonable for me to ditch existing commitments - and I don't believe that doing so would make me an attractive candidate, anyway.

Ah well...will let you know if this goes anywhere, but I suspect not. And for those of you who suggested that I may not be that enthusiastic about the role - you may well be right. I'm really not sure I want to work for a company that assumes that when they say 'jump', I saw 'how high?'....I would much prefer to work somewhere that says 'we pay you a lot of money - do you think jumping would be an adequate response to this problem?' and I could say 'do you know, I think jumping might be over-engineering the solution...let's try a little hop, and see'.

Oh dear, that analogy gave up the ghost and died half-way, didn't it? :)

Filly, we also interview candidates from abroad by VC on occasions if they can't leave the country on the specified date. It's not ideal, but you can't expect someone say in South Africa, with teaching and speaking commitments round the globe, to just drop everything and come two weeks later on a set date. They are usually booked up months in advance. I think this is about the seniority of the position and how reasonable it is to expect you to be free in a few days from now. Plenty of people in plenty of professions couldn't just clear their diaries for an entire day travelling iwithin the next few days (with no expenses, I've never heard of that), but they could make a VC for an hour or a face to face at a more convenient date.

"I'm really not sure I want to work for a company that assumes that when they say 'jump', I saw 'how high?'....I would much prefer to work somewhere that says 'we pay you a lot of money - do you think jumping would be an adequate response to this problem?' and I could say 'do you know, I think jumping might be over-engineering the solution...let's try a little hop, and see'."

:o

Love it.

I'm about ten minutes away from Bank Quay station - shall I put the kettle on?

I don't think YABU at all, especially as an agency approached you, and I am astonished so many thought YABU. But then again, I'm so tight and petty I even begrudge being sent application forms by pdf, so I have to use my own paper and ink to print them out, and having to post applications and incur the cost of an A4 envelope and stamp :).
The agency should have offered to pay your travel costs really. I think you have had a lucky escape, tbh.

They have a position to fill but they aren't sure if they have time to interview a candidate?

Good riddance.