Reimbursing Interview Expenses – Where Do You Stand?

Congratulations – you’ve got the interview lined up; problem is, now you’ve got to get there! With rail travel and petrol prices soaring, should companies be offering to reimburse your travel expenses?

Imagine the scene – after months of planning, preparing, and hard slog, you’ve finally been accepted for an interview for your dream job. The catch – you live in York and the interview is scheduled for 9am in London. The big question is how do you get there and most importantly, who pays? In this scenario, a typical return journey for a candidate to attend the interview on time would cost £245. That’s a huge sum of money to gamble on a journey where a happy outcome isn’t necessarily guaranteed. But if you don’t attend the interview, you’ll have absolutely no chance of bagging the job. It’s a catch-22 situation and one that is causing huge anxiety amongst job seekers.

Policies on reimbursing travel expenses for interview candidates vary from company to company. Usually the bigger organisations will be more open to honouring expense claims, especially when it comes to graduates – most graduates don’t have a spare couple of pounds, let alone hundreds of pounds, to spend attending interviews, while for the company, travel expenses could be a small price to pay if it means attracting the right calibre of candidate. Deloitte, for example, have a generous reimbursement scheme for graduates attending interviews, of up to £100 a time. The company says that interview times are flexible and candidates are given plenty of notice so they can arrange to have an interview when it’s a more convenient (read cheaper) time to travel.

But what about those of us whose university days are long gone? “The standard practice regarding interview costs is for the candidate to bear them and it is increasingly rare for a firm to pay them. However if you don’t ask, you don’t get!” says Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment.

This certainly seems to be the case if you look at some of Britain’s leading companies. UK high street favourite, Boots, says they will ‘take into consideration any significant travel costs of an interviewee with regards to reimbursement, if requested to do so’. The BBC says that ‘the hiring department should offer reasonable travel expenses (in line with the BBC Expenses Policy) to employees invited to attend a selection process. External candidates may also be eligible to claim reasonable travel expenses, depending on individual circumstances. Payment is at the discretion of the hiring department and must be approved in advance’. British supermarket giant, Waitrose states: ‘Our policy on travel reimbursement varies across our business and we will always look to consider the individual concerns of each candidate when inviting them to interview. Where candidates are invited to a second interview, we will normally reimburse their travel costs’.

Asking for your travel expenses to be reimbursed can be as daunting as going for an interview. You worry about how you might come across, when you should broach the subject, and what is a reasonable amount to claim. A sensible thing to do would be to telephone the HR department of the organisation you are interviewing at beforehand to ask about their policy. If this isn’t possible, try asking at the end of your interview; if nothing else, it’s a good way to see the kind of organisation you are potentially going to be working for. If they get sniffy about your request, you may think they are not the company for you; on the other hand, if they are sympathetic to your request then you know they’re a fair employer.

At the end of the day, you might just have to be prepared to take the gamble and fork out for your fare. After all, if you’re offered your dream job, you could be laughing all the way to the bank!

by
on
23/09/2011
article categories: Career advice, Talking point - job hunter and recruiter news
article tags: ,
  • http://www.ayeright.com/ Stephen O’Donnell

    In most cases, candidates have already taken time off work to attend an interview.  It’s only reasonable for the employer to make a point of offering to cover expenses, rather than wait to be asked.  Expenses of less than say £30 should be borne by the jobseeker, however.

    • Chris Withall

      expences of <=£30 Really !!    thats almost half my JSA.  Just to be dicked about by an employer whos making up the numbers so they can premote the internal person and make it look like theyve done the market. What about the single parent or even the fully working couple who in this day are so strapped for cash they cant go out very often any more ? 

    • James Brennan990

      Then you will not get people who live localy applying for jobs????????

    • Jr Herts

      S O Donnell – you should be unemployed for more than a year, then you will speak in different way, £30 is a lot of money when you need to contribute for travel every week and your income is only mentione somewhere here before – £67.5

  • http://www.ayeright.com/ Stephen O’Donnell

    In most cases, candidates have already taken time off work to attend an interview.  It’s only reasonable for the employer to make a point of offering to cover expenses, rather than wait to be asked.  Expenses of less than say £30 should be borne by the jobseeker, however.

  • 1965rb

    If companies are serious about interviewing the candidate, they should pay the candidate’s cost of travel – full stop. 

  • Parthianshot

    This situation is invidious, any potential employer should pay reasonably expenses. Over a long career I’ve attended interviews for both permanent and interim roles and until recently it was normal to be reimbused for the cost of travel. Then the interim sector stopped paying, for reasons that are obscure, and now it seems that’s becoming the norm.
    Employers are taking the mickey, worse they are exploiting the job seekers, expecting them to contribute towards the cost of hiring, whether or not they succeed.
    Personally I now refuse the interview if they won’t pay, or suggest we do it over the phone.  Perhaps there should be a campaign to get more job seekers to stand their ground, then maybe we could shame these companies into a more reasonable stance.

  • Lindsay Cruickshank

    I just been at an interview, it lasted 10 minutes in dundee, 22 miles away…… not much but they said they’d let me know by 5pm today if I’d won a second interview.
    No word, but it cost me 5 litres of fuel. £6.50 out of £67.50 per week, its a lot!!

    • tony

      you can get it reimbursed from the jsa if you kept your tickets

      • Neil

        I believe the JSA reimbursement scheme has now closed. There is not replacement but there is a small fund that the JCP office can tap into in extreme cases – there are no guarantees though and it’s essentially dependant on how strong your relationship is with them

        • Mike

          you are correct the scheme has now ended making it more difficult for job seekers to get to some interviews as the £70 a fortnight only just pays for food and lodgings. For a government who wants to get people back to work they sre not trying very hard

    • David McGrath

      Lindsay – If its for those trainee surveyors posts, then I consider them a total scam!!
      Went for one recently in Edinburgh, was even told “congratulations” the night before when they told me about the interview.
      Interview consisted of a quick look over my CV, followed by a sales pitch of non-information!
      Got called back the next day for 12:15, made to wait for nearly an hour, then got called onto the landing of the stairwell to meet a guy who said that we should be finished around 20:00 as he donned a backpack – To me looked like the candidates were being used as cheap labour going door to door handing out leaflets.
      I followed the guy out, trying to get answers, and when he asked if I had bus fare, I told them that it wasn’t for me, and went to catch my train home.
      First interview expenses = 48 mile of fuel = £5 parking + £2 cost of call to get parked as I had no change.
      Second “interview” expenses = £8.50 return train fare.

      Seems to be a couple of companies at this over here, and its not on!
      JSA wont reimburse as its inside your job search area.

    • Ajtaylor022

      If you are on JSA you can request travel warrant which covers public transport for anywhere in the UK.  I was given one to travel by train to London.

      • John

        That’s great if the jobcentre can actually get their arse in gear to arrange transport costs, my jobcentre is so useles at things like this.

    • Saiqa

      iv been to couple of intervies and no lie the train tickets have come close to £40 each time due to the distance…how do i claim my money back… interviews seriously make me skint…..

    • mark

      22 miles, 5 litres of fuel at £6.50 i think you ought to ditch your car!

      • http://www.facebook.com/dave.berry.7796 Dave Berry

        I think that’s 22 miles each way actually…

  • ukathleticscoach

    Great way to talk your way out of the job!

  • Luc

    What of contractors? Surely this is a tax deductible expense.  If so, then it really ought to be for everyone else too.

    An what of the suit needed for the interview? If it were called a uniform, would it not also be a deductible expense?

    • Derek Clarke

      It’s all very well saying it’s tax deductible, but how do you fund it in the first place?

      From previously hard-earned money of course, if there’s any left…

    • Kev

      I’m a contractor and recently took an interview for a job in coventry which I didnt get. It cost me £130 travel, £70 for a hotel overnight to be able to get there in time AND a day’s lost pay.
      thats over £400 for one interview. Even if I deduct the expenses from my tax bill I’ve still lost the day’s pay.

  • Martin Mchugh

    Typical employers having their cake and eating it. In London, jobseekers will lose a days pay and pay £20 + to attend an interview. The employers simply could not care less – unless they were seeking work! As usual nothing will be done until legislation makes it happen.
    Office workers need to unionise – urgently!

  • Jsnbart

    Government has to put a law to reimburse the interview expense fron the company, so the employer will take the interview as serious.  Some companies they fixed a candidate already from their known source but calling many candidates for their record.

    • Ker Walker

      So True… Happens so often.

    • Wootanggang

       GOVERNMENT! Government doesn’t need to touch anything that people should take responsibility for themselves.  Stupid people who don’t understand that freedom comes from personal responsibility need not to post.

  • Deanpark

    No. Employers should absolutely not be required to pay expenses for candidates to attend interviews. This would most likely just reduce the number of interviews that will be offered at a time when jobs and interviews are very scarce, and the application process is already becoming ever more challenging anyway.

  • G J Jamieson

    I live in Edinburgh.  A recruitment agency contacted me this afternoon.  Could I be in North Yorkshire tomorrow morning?  Yes – if I start walking now and continue through the night!!

    I have had to turn away from several job opportunities, some very nice ones, because I did not have the necessary funds to travel several hundred miles, possibly stay overnight, eat, etc.

    We hear of employers bemoaning a “skills shortage” but when it comes to encouraging the “skills” they require to come (relocate) to them there is a notable reluctance on their part to at least cover the cost of transport.

  • Disgruntled

    I fell out with the HR officer at the Clinical Research Organisation in Leeds, where I had a recent interview. She sent me an expenses claim form with the letter inviting me to interview, but when I enquired about my travel expenses after the interview (I was also asking for feedback after the rejection letter) she claimed that I was sent the form in error – apparently their Harrogate office still reimburse candidates but the Leeds office do not! It was very odd as she actually took our bank account details at the interview - presumably to pay expenses direct. This is a multimillion turnover, international company, so £60 is nothing to them but a lot to me (currently unemployed). I was livid and said I had never been treated like this before and that she should honour the expenses claim as sending a form to me was their error, she reluctantly agreed to pay up but never did.
    I now feel that I may have scuppered my chances of ever getting a job at this company as she will probably put any application she sees from me in the bin… Not sure I would want to work for them now anyway, but others should think hard before alienating HR people.. Still job hunting…

  • Partingshot

    This i laughable, as a self employed builder/electrician struggling through tough times myself. This just stinks of that graduate “world owes me a living” attitude which leads to no work getting done by people crafting industry into a Grad packs feed fest instead of a viable profitable ventures.

    This said how an employer wants to tout their job is upto them. And i think as has been mentioned if they want to draw the best they will pay for it. Subtext being if the market is such they won’t.

    Get real peeps. No bees, no honey, no work, no money.

    By the way your example could have hit the job for £50 that night national express. Or if he could have found his way to Leed £9 each way on a megabus. 

    Wake up smell the roses, we can’t all be kings and dream sellers.

    • Bilesy

      try living on £65 a week and paying to go for interviews. maybe then you can say things like that. you are on £60 an hour  so you would not know about it

    • George

      Mate, you are absolutely oblivious! Maybe it’s due to you not actually having an employeer or employing anyone but reimbursing traveling expenses for an interview that you actually got invited for should be the absolute standard (but I wouldn’t go so far as claiming that a law is needed). Here’s what you seem to not know, most white collar jobs today and a lot of other ones, go through a telephone screening process before you are invited to an interview. We are not talking about contract work, for that you should not expect any expenses to be covered. So what happens, is that the hiring manager has a brief or not so brief phone call with you in order to determine if you really are a likely addition to the team. Only then are you actually invited for an interview with a maximum of 10 people interviewing for the same position. Time costs money and the time of a hiring manager is actually very expensive. Almost all white collar jobs are also being advertised through recruitment agencies. Well here’s something that you don’t know, a recruitment agency which does get you an employee gets paid anywhere between 5 and 10k for a entry to mid level job and considerably more for senior positions. Now that you know all this, as yourself how much of a difference do £50-100 traveling expenses make to the company considering everything else that they have spent money on? 

      Oh and FYI, if you take the nighttime Megabus and you show up to my office with a wrinkled up suit and looking like you slept in your clothes you are most definitely not getting the job even if you are the smartest person I have ever met. There are certain basic things that you just don’t do! 

      Anyway, as to the traveling expenses, here’s a general rule (for all jobs), think of the job you are applying for, contract type, salary, responsibilities and then think of the traveling distance from your home. If you are not applying for a permanent job, don’t bother asking for expenses, at best the manager will just brush it off, at worst you won’t get the job just because you asked for money before you even got offered a job.

      If you traveled within the same city or you didn’t spend more than £10-15 on transportation, I’d really think twice before asking. I know i might be the difference between having food for a day and not, but technically if you are looking for a job in London and you live in London, it’s kind of cheeky to ask for traveling expenses. 

      In either case, if you plan on asking for traveling expenses, it is best if you use a train or other public transportation and make sure you keep all receipts. All companies that reimburse expenses end up claiming them back from their taxes (at least partially). So they’ll ask you for receipts. Oh and do make an effort to save money on travel even if you know you’ll get it back. The last thing you want to do is take a 1st class train just because you know you are not paying for it. It honestly looks like you are very poor at managing finances and you are also taking advantage of the company.
      It is also possible to reimburse petrol/diesel (£0.41 per mile) but the company would have to be one that does operate a scheme like that for the existing employees and if your job description does not say anything about you traveling you are not really on solid ground there.
      Also, from experience, some companies would cover the cost of a taxi from the train station to the office but that’s only for places with poor public transport. They will also cover the cost of you renting a car in such locations as it might add up to less than a train journey + taxi. 

      Regardless of what you do, just be nice about asking about expenses. Ask about the company policy and not if you can get your money back and try to ask HR and not the hiring manager (if you can get to HR). Sometime, the recruitment agency might also know, especially if they are good at what they do. Anyway asking them is always a safe option so go for it.   

  • Partingshot

    This i laughable, as a self employed builder/electrician struggling through tough times myself. This just stinks of that graduate “world owes me a living” attitude which leads to no work getting done by people crafting industry into a Grad packs feed fest instead of a viable profitable ventures.

    This said how an employer wants to tout their job is upto them. And i think as has been mentioned if they want to draw the best they will pay for it. Subtext being if the market is such they won’t.

    Get real peeps. No bees, no honey, no work, no money.

    By the way your example could have hit the job for £50 that night national express. Or if he could have found his way to Leed £9 each way on a megabus. 

    Wake up smell the roses, we can’t all be kings and dream sellers.

  • tony

    jsa pay for interview travel expenses to job interviews

    • Chris Withall

      yes in theory but you have to get the interviewer to fill out thier form (it doesnt cover petrol, only bus and train, not taxi so if they are on an industrial estate without a bus service then it tough) and then they get a phone call from a JC+  – Do you want to have that discussion at the interview ? when your hoping for a 2nd one especally if your going for any position above grunt,  I think not ?

      • JonWadey

        I’ve claimed mileage with JCP, for an interview I’ve attended, with no problems.
        The problems  whole Expenses for interview scheme with the JCP, the fact your only allowed to claim 5 times maximum is ridiculas.  It really doesn’t help especially in the current climate.  I’ve had over 10 interviews in the 8 months I’ve been unemployed and have a further 3 this coming week, being paid out of a rather empty pocket!

  • Corinna

    Never mind travel expences, what about childcare? I’m going on my third interview for one job today, and each interview I’m paying for a days childcare. Fine if I get the job, but if I don’t I’m wondering how many more times I’ll have to do this?

  • Corinna

    Never mind travel expences, what about childcare? I’m going on my third interview for one job today, and each interview I’m paying for a days childcare. Fine if I get the job, but if I don’t I’m wondering how many more times I’ll have to do this?

  • Neil

    Agree with the theory but the practice is entirely different. As a job seeker who normally holds senior roles within organisations, I have already attended numerous interviews which have been quite far from where I live (i’m even considering relocating now to get a job) and I’ve supported the costs for myself. However as someone else has commented, when you’re only getting £67.50/week it becomes increasingly difficult as time passes and other financial pressures impose.

    If you’re applying for a job which is to be based at the same location as the interview, I don’t think there’s a fair claim for expenses from the employer, except in cases where you have been headhunted specifically for that role. Clearly if you’re being expected to go somewhere else, the argument changes.

    However, I do believe that if you’re claiming Job Seekers Allowance, you should be offered as much support as possible to get you to the interview, including travel expenses. Up until August, this was the case, but job seekers now only have the option of discretionary support based on a very limited fund pot.

  • http://twitter.com/NatalieJayW Natalie Jay Weaving

    It my come across naive but I have never thought to ask to be reimbursed for interviews. Saying that I haven’t had a interview where I have had to travel too far.

    I agree with a number of the comments already made, that if you are expected to travel fruther than the place of work then expenses should be reimbursed, or even the travel tickets already paid for in advance.

    Some very interesting thought provoking points and commments!

  • Guest

    I have horror stories of previous experiences
    1. I was sent to a long distance interview by error which cost me £100 return train fare
      – I requested/and I got a refund
    2.The hiring director interviewed me for the wrong role/had the wrong CV for me
    travelled up for 8am morning interview on one of UK’s worst winter day- 4 hrs travel time 
     - I requested/and I got a refund
    The moral here is : if you dont ask you dont get.. always discuss travel expense
    up front.
    Otherwise dont take up several long distance interview opportunities at once..Or you can end up in debt and end up without a job offer to show for/or clear
    the mounting debt. Just stick to local jobs and hope you get lucky soon.
    Train fares cost a fortune these days ! Manage your limited travel fund wisely. 

  • Deltamartyn

    According to reports coming through “the media” this week those of us seeking work should now be obliged to travel up to 90 minutes each way to get to and from work. So much for work/life balance – especially when one considers all the “free” overtime which now seems the norm. This, of course, applies to those in work and getting paid to be there.

    Those who are in work and seeking another position are doing so either of their own volition or because they have other reasons/fears driving them.

    Those who are unemployed have no choice in the matter – they are obliged actively to seek work and are now apparently required to travel up to 90 minutes each way in each attempt at securing employment. 90 minutes, of course is determined by where you live (general transport infrastructure) and modes of transport available. As a person with disabilities I have two modes of transport – my car and my wheelchair (I can do 10 yards or so on sticks). Last week I travelled 140 mile on a round trip to and from an interview for a job which wasn’t offered to me. There is no cheap day return price for fuel. Neither is there discounted depreciation on the use of my vehicle.

    For those of us who have the misfortune actively to be seeking work there must be in place a formal system for ensuring that legitimate interview assessments are met and that such system in no way penalizes the applicant (e.g. by assuming that the applicant is dishonest and making a formal approach to a prospective employer before or after the fact) because s/he is currently unemployed.

    My experience of the “Work Programme” has been one which illustrates all that is unsavoury in our society such that I now feel very much like a third class citizen where my integrity is challenged at every opportunity and the State to which I have contributed with all due diligence for four decades apparently cares not one iota about my welfare.

  • daveswildcamping

    Travel expense on jsa, have an interview in suffolk travel is around 260 miles each way.
    The rules have changed since the last time I claimed expenses.
    No longer 25p per mile but a decision is made on your vehicle and engine size, at the 25p per mile I would have received £150 total now they have only gave me £70 take or leave it told I would have to put any other money in myself it works out at 12.5p per mile for me. They even checked up to make sure the interview was for a job I usually apply for and asked me to ask employer for a reimbursement, I said why the hell would I travel half way down the country for a job am not suitable for, I was asked to the interview if I wasn’t suitable why would they ask me.
    I said this will put people off trying for work outside there area, she replied put a complaint in.

  • PeeQuay

    There are, as always, [at least] two sides to any argument.

    As an ex-employer, I would prefer not to pay expenses, but if asked would do so, given documentary evidence of the expenses incurred [receipts, etc].

    As a present JSA claimant, I feel that expenses are part of the hiring-process, and think them rightful for interviewees.  Having said that, I would never ask for expenses from a potential employer – as this would, I feel, be a poor reflection on myself.

    I was told by my Job Centre advisor that JSA is paid ‘for the purposes of securing employment’, and not for ‘general living expenses’, i.e survival… 

    JSA related travel expenses are now a priviledge, not an entitlement.  The distance is, I think, at least 25 miles, or something similar.

    Without legislation, this will not improve.  With legislation, the cost of selecting, and employing, someone will increase.

    Maybe some overpaid, under-utilised lawyer could argued that having to pay interview travel/expenses is a restriction on personal development, and socially exclusive – under the Human Rights Legislation…

    I await the howls of response…

  • People’s Champion!

    If you are unemployed the Job Centre will reimburse your travel expenses, but you need to ask about this before the interview and bring proof with you that you have an interview. The Job Centre will check with the organisation and interviewer that you attended the interview.

    Since the economic crisis there has been a significant decline in the number of organisations offering to cover expenses and being up front about this in the job ad. If you are working already then you should be able to cover your expenses. If you cannot afford to pay yourself then have a serious think about it first: do you really want to work for a firm that’s so mean they won’t cover this cost? If that’s the way it is, you can bet you won’t get any paid training or other expense!  

  • Bob Simonds

    I recently went for an interview. Had to travel to London from Manchester for a 9.30am interview. Didn’t get the job and when I asked about traveling expenses they said it was not their policy. I think it’s all part of the economic situation and the fact that so many people are looking for work.

  • EnglishNomad

    I once travelled by bus from Dartmouth to Totnes (both in South Devon) by bus, then train to Alton (Hants) for an interview with a well known travel company.  I arrived at the company offices to find the interviewer was off ill, and no other member of staff was available to stand in.  I can’t tell you how livid I was travelling all the way back home!

  • Anonymous

    If on JSA, ask for travel to interview assistance. If you cannot make the interview by public transport and have to go by private car, they pay 25p per mile.

  • Robertsalways

    Job centre have replaced travel to interview scheme which used to pay travel expenses

    They now have the Flexible Support Scheme which is anything but flexible as it puts a £70 cap per claimant (ie will pay no more than £70 in total for all interviews – when you go over they wont pay) and it is means tested.

    in theory the flexible support scheme seeks to redress barriers in getting back to work and claims to offer other assistance (but again with the same £70 cap in total – so in theory if you could get a train fare for 1p that would leave 69.99 availalbe to claim on other things like i dont know what maybe clothes but frankly i think the whole thing is half baked and devised by out of touch politicians from eton who have never had to struggle)

    More sensible advice would be to put eton etc on the cv and find some names of people who were there the same year and try and linkedin with them. them you can say you went to eton with whoever. you would amazed how eton opens doors.

    • Noelwatt

      not sure what you are on about? I live in Northern Ireland and job seekers travel to interview scheme is still very active. They recently paid for a flight to Glasgow for me on an interview from Belfast Of course they pay the cheapest form of transport, but the £72 I received helped towards the £120 I was out of pocket. On local interviews they will pay you mileage to cover some of the petrol cost incurred.

  • Elaine Wills

    It is not only the long distance expenses that count. Just going from where I live to Central London cost me over £6 yesterday and I did not get the job. So £6 from £67.50. Agencies will find your CV on line and call you for an interview when they havent got a job just to look at you. Then age discrimination comes in and you never hear from them again but have spent money that is not refunded by anyone.

    Elaine Wills 

  • daveswildcamping

    Travel expense on jsa, have an interview in suffolk travel is around 260 miles each way.
    The rules have changed since the last time I claimed expenses.
    No longer 25p per mile but a decision is made on your vehicle and engine size, at the 25p per mile I would have received £150 total now they have only gave me £70 take or leave it told I would have to put any other money in myself it works out at 12.5p per mile for me this insane going by petrol prices today. They even checked up to make sure the interview was for a job I usually apply for and asked me to ask employer for a reimbursement, I said why the hell would I travel half way down the country for a job am not suitable for, I was asked to the interview if I wasn’t suitable why would they ask me.
    I said this will put people off trying for work outside there area, she replied put a complaint in.

  • daveswildcamping

    Read my comment below they no longer offer you a straight 25p per mile they look for the cheaper option, they ask your car and engine size “new rules” at my job centre anyway, if your car mpg is good they will make sure they calculate accordingly, i received around 12.5p per mile.

  • Nigel Tungate

    I don’t know how you arrived at £245 cost from York to London
    National Express is £30.40 return or £45 premium ticket. Coach departs at 8am
    Ok si it takes 6 hours, arrange your interview for late afternoon, the interview time has neve been an issue to agree on for me. So it’s a long day – what else are you going to be doing.

  • Simon Alford

    Good comments here I must say. I lean towards they should pay interview expenses. Required ? not sure. Jobcentre can help but they may often refuse. I’m not even getting JSA. A London Travelcard I can manage. Just had a request to go to South Wales. This is circa 100gbp and completely unaffordable at the moment. I also have some suspicion that this could be making the numbers up. I’ve suggested the Client or Agency might like to pay. I’ve offered to Skype or Phone. Sure as a candidate you wish to be eager and pliant. Equally though why should someone on benefits (and very inadequate ones) be subsidising an organisation with a budget of 160m ???

  • Kjkjkj

    Perhaps the employer should also put potential employees in a 5* hotel over-night, with first class train travel and a 3-piece suit tailored for the interview. 

    Get real folks – go for jobs near you if you don’t want to put your hand in your pocket – you could look to cut out some of the so-called necessities of modern UK life that are really luxuries.  If you want the jobs further afield, then either ask for ‘what you will get’ in advance (and have a think how that looks) or do what business is all about – take a punt.

  • RJ

    I have on a few occasions, paid for a train ticket to London and by the time I got to the local station on one occasion and after I had arrived in London on another occasion, I received a call advising that the client could not interview now and would I be prepared to attend the interview at 09:00 on another day to be advised soon. It meant having to travel during rush hour (therefore more expensive) in addition to fares already paid (and now wasted). Naturally, I asked for reimbursement from those firms. They did reimburse after a period of two weeks going through their respective company’s protocol but I didn’t get the interviews. I am not too worried though – if they do that to candidates, they are probably not the right places for me.