To think they should at least pay travel expenses?

[Fairyliz]

My daughter is in her second year of a four year degrees course with the third year being a year in industry.

She is currently applying for placement and the procedure usually goes - complete application form and online test, have a video interview follwed by a full day assesment at the company. As you can imagine this takes a long time but fair enough thats what she wil need to do when applying for jobs.
The problem is if you get to the assessment stage you have to visit the company which could be anywhere in the UK at very short notice meaning rail fares are expensive.
She has just phoned me in tears because she hasn't got the latest job she applied for and after paying out several hundred pounds in travel expenses (for several interviews)she has no money for food.

So do you think these companies should pay travel expenses?

One mean company even had her there for 5 hours and didn't offer a cup of tea!

Unfortunately companies are really reducing expense-related items. Including expenses for employees actually working for the company.

I have had several job interviews recently. I estimate that I've spent about £150 on travel expenses in attending these interviews. I've had to chalk it up to a necessary expense if I want to work.

Is it a requirement of her course? If so, she should speak to her personal tutor or programme administrator to see if there is a fund in place to support. In my experience though, this fund is linked to family income.

It may be that she has a couple of weeks of eating cheaply, not going out etc and maybe look at ways to boost her bank balance if possible - selling unwanted items, babysitting etc.

My dd has whole day interview on Friday for placement year. The day starts at 9am....within M25.... she's a student in Manchester so is having to travel down night before and stay in premier inn( as can't rely on train getting her there on time on the day!)...they will only reimburse her first £50 travel expenses, which I realise is better than many but it's costing the best part of £200 for the day

Hi OP,

I've interviewed with a few companies and they've all paid for expenses, so as to not disadvtange those who can't afford transport. To be fair, the companies I interviewed with were big companies.

Can she take out an overdraft? There's no interest for a year after you graduate (atleast that's the case with halifax).

Can she get a loan from family?

Can she ask the company if they can arrange the interview to be in her home town? Supposing they have local offices

She can't afford food or travel and you are not offering to help her?

Big companies reimburse expenses, if she says not I would query this. Is it that she didn't keep her tickets & as such can't submit them to claim the money back?

Our daughter had the same thing whilst at uni. It just seems companies expect the student to fund themselves. She was lucky and got a paid post, but a number on her course had to take unpaid internships, for a year, living away from home! Ridiculous. The graduate premium also seems to have diminished considerably. I'm very glad to be at the other end of my working life

Mrs Guy of gisbo please read my last post.
I don't mind if people disagree with me but it is annoying to be criticised because someone can't be bothered to read everything

This is the problem with the whole internship lark: it completely cuts off chances for those who come from poorer families, and people who do have money can't see a problem because they can't imagine what life would be like if you simply did not have spare cash.

" Meffy

As her parent would you not just help her out?"
While I personally certainly would this is an example of where opportunities and chances are simply more available to young people from well off families. There are plenty of people where this would simply not be an option. This is the sort of reason why inequalities exist.

evensmiling not all.

Is it possible that other students from her University are going for the interviews as well? If one of them drives could they car share or share the costs of a rented car?
If your daughter is struggling to pay for transport for the placement interviews how is she going to be able to fund herself if she gets offered a place?
I'm assuming that the placements on offer are a long way from where she is currently based, if the train fares are so expensive.

For example how is she going to manage relocation costs and rent and living expenses at least for the first month, I'm assuming she will be getting a wage she can live on?
Is she just panicking and going for anything without thinking about the longer term issues?
Are there any placements up for grabs in towns where you have family or friends that she could stay with?

I've certainly never been offered expenses for attending an interview, and when I was hiring I would probably reject a candidate if they asked, simply because it would have suggested they felt entitled to expenses or were desperate.

As a recruiter, a candidate who is either "entitled" or "desperate" is seldom favoured over someone who just would like the job, certainly if they were more or less equal in terms of experience and qualifications.

It's not very good for your daughter of course, but that's the way life often is. Jobseekers are not usually entitled to free travel (sometimes there is a promotion on, but it's not standard) so they either have to apply for something close by or make sacrifices with other things to pay for it.

At the risk of sounding flippant (because I am being, and this is a terrible piece of advice), presumably as a student she'll be saddled with £40k or more of debt after university life, so why not get a credit card and stick it on that? If she gets a good job out of this, isn't it worth gambling with a little more debt? She sounds more than capable of getting a good job, but she needs to continue applying, continue travelling to interviews, and not get disheartened by these setbacks.

when I was hiring I would probably reject a candidate if they asked, simply because it would have suggested they felt entitled to expenses or were desperate.

That is entirely fucking ridiculous

I disagree with comments about students from poorer homes being disadvantaged. That may be the case with the unpaid internships but it isn't the case with the situation the OP's daughter finds herself in. In that case, it's usually students from 'middle income' homes that struggle the most - the ones who don't qualify for maximum student loan or grants but whose parents also can't afford to spare a couple hundred quid for train fares. Students from poorer homes get given about £3.5k more (plus more £ks if their uni offers additional grants !) - so if they can't afford to get train fare, that's down to poor money management as opposed to lack of funds.

Not sure where your daughter falls OP but I do feel for her. Hopefully she'll sort it out somehow..

when I was hiring I would probably reject a candidate if they asked, simply because it would have suggested they felt entitled to expenses or were desperate.

Beyond ridiculous. Wouldn't want to work for such a person/company anyway !

Has the op said why she can't help?
Could the dd get a oart time job many students work

All very strange. Agree on your DD getting a part time job if things are so tight and you can't sub her a train fare for what could be a wonderful opportunity.

I know quite a few who were taken on after their year in industry and degree finished.

Does your local authority have any secret money stashed away for this kind of thing? When my son was having to travel for part of his degree course his old secondary school put him on to a foundation administered by the local council. It had been a bequest by a local worthy to help students who needed extra funding for travel or equipment. It was a simple application form, the money was given was a grant, and therefore not repayable and all they asked him to do was to write a short piece for our local paper, extolling the virtues of this scheme. They are keen to make use of this funding but as it is not widely publicised not many people know about it. Might be worth a try.
I realise I have used the word "local" three times in one short paragraph. I need funding for a thesaurus.

The expectation is bank of mum and dad will help. Which isgreat if they can but if they can't presumably students just don't get the placements.

I actually think it's really poor for a company taking part in a student placement scheme to expect students to foot the bill for multiple stage interviews with little notice. They should've planned this as part of their student programme - it's not comparable to going to a normal interview

My friend had been through this and I am currently too - usually they allow you to claim back expenses whether you got the job or not - tell her to email the company and ask - it's usually up to £250 for travel, hotels needed etc

@katy07 ... don't be a dick, clearly you have no idea. It's is so hard to even get to interview stage now and if I have to go to 10 interviews incurring £100 a time that's £1000 for just applying. Would you rather she didn't bother trying to get a job and got on benefits? Or went to uni with no aspiration to get a job? You sound like a spoiled idiot who thinks everyone else is below them. GOYS

Barinatxe you seem to have mixed up OPs daughter with a normal job interview candidate. This is a student placement

And OPs daughter might already have credit cards, or may not be able to afford the minimum repayments for one (they're not like student loans where the company just wait until you can afford to repay them )

My postgrad uni would pay a set amount of travel expenses during placements because they found the placement for you and they wouldn't/couldn't guarantee you one near your home.

Any other graduate scheme or internship scheme I've paid my own way as I have chosen to apply for them, with the ability to research the company and finding out where such days are held. One time it meant flying from Scotland to London, 2 overnights in a Premier Inn and a flight back as the trains cost more and the timings were too neat. It suck, however it seems to be the way some of the job markets work. I always knew that the assessment centres would require travel, even before I knew I had been successful/applied, as most companies state it on their application process faq pages.