Remote job but employer asking for face to face interview?

[Seawitchandgarden]

I just wondered what are people's thoughts/experience with this.

Due to health issues/a disability I have been applying only for remote roles or local roles that don't require the use of public transport. I made it clear in my job applications/the equal opportunities that I am disabled.

I was offered an interview for a role advertised as remote with a charity yesterday but this is a face to face interview.

The interview is in a random location which I assume was hired for the day and it would take me almost two hours each ways of travel, be costly and they are not offering any support with transport costs.

I am a bit baffled by this. What is the point of a face to face interview when you are not even inviting the candidate to your offices to meet the team or see your work environment and when the role is fully remote?

I have replied to point out my disability and request a Zoom interview instead.

So far crickets...

I think a face to face interview is fair enough even for a remote working position. The company need to see you are who you say you are and people can pick up a lot more through a face to face interview. Such as body language etc.
Perhaps they can suggest somewhere more convenient for you to get to or pay expense

Do you have friends or family that could help you get to the interview? I completely understand why a company would want to meet you face to face for the interview, even if day to day it's a remote role. It's very hard to get to know people without meeting them in the flesh.

I wonder if you could suggest meeting at a easier location for you?

Me too.

The job market is dire at the moment.

What is the point of a face to face interview - trust. There is risk due to AI and other ways to “cheat” during an interview from home.

If you tell them your concerns and issues with transport they may make an accommodation and allow the interview to be remote. (I wouldn’t ask for reimbursement of transport costs)

Public transport etc isn't an issue for a lot of people even with disabilities. Perhaps you need to frame to them exactly why your specific disability causes issues with the travel requirement here.

Is it that you can get there, but it takes a while so a later slot would be better? Or a different day, so you can get a lift? Or a different location if neither option is feasible? How do you get about day to day when/if you leave the house?

There are lots of reasons why wanting an in-person interview is perfectly fair and reasonable regardless of your needs, but making suggestions on how to work together to solve the issue is a good idea.

As pp's have said its very reasonable to have a F2F interview for many reasons.

Is there an alternative location you can get to? As a hiring manager I’d be open to meeting at a location that works for you as a reasonable adjustment

This is not 'rigidity'.

It is simply being realistic and honest about what I can and can do at this stage in my life and therefore not wasting my time or an employer's time early on.

I am 56 with over 30 years of employment and I know exactly what I can and can't do when it comes to work and what has caused me to have to leave a role in the past/made my health worse.

Ok then good luck

It is a not unreasonable at all for an employer to expect to me a prospective employee in person. It sounds like they are doing a mass recruitment centre. The organisation I work for does it a lot - we would however be open to discussion of an F2F interview locally. Have you contacted them to explain the difficulties you’d have travelling 2hrs? Do they have an office local to you? I wouldn’t mention the cost, as they won’t be paying the cost for anyone.

I imagine it's to make sure you don't use AI to do your interview which is increasingly common.
Hopefully with your explanation they will be able to sort something else out.

I am recruiting right now. First interview is online, any final interview is face to face, regardless of location of the job. I wouldn't hire someone without meeting them in person as people present completely different.

Do you have a disability that prevents you from travelling at all? Like no way no how, can't be a passenger in a car?

This

They clearly have their reasons. If you have a disability you could ask for a reasonable adjustment of it being via zoom etc? Or just ask that anyway.

I don’t understand that, how can you use AI without it being completely obvious in an interview in which case you’d ask them if that’s what they’re doing.

You would be REALLY surprised.

People are using AI assistants to answer the questions. It isn't as obvious as you would think.

They can have ai listening to the interview and feeding them answers to read back on their screen near the camera.
They could have a friend do the interview and use AI to deep fake their own face onto them.
They can use it to translate in real time if they are not as proficient in the interview language as they have said they are.
For technical interviews they can use it for coding etc (they can hide it even if screen sharing).

Wow ok. No one said that,

but face to face is the norm for interview and it doesn’t mean it will change to office work. And I don’t think you’re saying you can’t get there, I think you’re saying it would be difficult,

it really depends on do you wish the job or not, most jobs will require a face to face interview. I think you will find it very hard to gain employment if you can’t go to interviews.

She’s done that, it was in the very short op

I echo other posters - it's perfectly reasonable for employers to require a face to face interview for all the reasons already given.

Are you able to say any more about the nature of your disability and where you're travelling to and from where, and we can try and help you come up with a workable solution? Many of us have disabilities or experience of supporting family and friends who are disabled, and may be able to suggest something.

And If I was looking for a job, was disabled, had been offered a job that was fully remote but wanted a face to face interview, I'd move heaven and earth to get to that interview.

Even more so if I was 56.

However I agree that it is not unreasonable to ask whether it can be at a more suitable location.

We are remote but do face to face final interview (which we pay expenses for)

we do this because even through we are remote we require people to come together for in person staff meetings 3 times per year plus some attendance at conferences

in person final interview elicits whether candidates are going to have a problem with this

In fairness I have been to dozens of interviews and have never been offered anything towards travel costs- why would you think that would be feasible?
An interview judges many different things about you, which cannot be gauged by a Zoom interview.
I would be astonished if any business would be happy to recruit that way, I certainly wouldn't be happy recruiting someone I had never met.

And most likely they jusk skip your application and move on to the next...

Completely agree.
I wfh and have for years. I changed jobs last year and had many interviews.
I'm a wheelchair user and just made it work, sucked up the pain, anxiety,inconvenience etc as working is very important to me, I made sure I had no more than 1 f-2-f a week and rested in between.