Job Discussion Forums

[Susie]

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=21407

So I was invited to attend an interview for teaching at a learning centre in Kowloon. The boss set the time and date and I was happy to go along with the arrangement.

Suddenly, I decided to tell the boss that I would require $200 travelling and time expenses to attend the interview. I explained that if I were hired and worked at the school for XX hours in the first month, then, I would repay the $200 on the first pay day.

The boss remembered that she had a partner who would have to be asked about the interview arrangement and on second thoughts she, herself, alone, could not confirm our interview on that date and at that time as first readily suggested. She would have to get back to me later....

Well, that eliminates one potential time-waster and saves me $200.

Or did I lose out on something bigger and better?

[Zero Hero]

If you are serious as regards what you have done then I think you are absolutely idiotic. What special skills do you have that make you think anyone will pay you simply to attend an interview? If anyone could get paid just for attracting and showing up for interviews, do you not think there would be people who did just that, going from interview to interview to earn their daily bread? If I had demanded interview expenses from the university here in HK that I work at they too would have declined. Does that mean they are "potential timewasters"? Even the full professors here who earn anywhere around $100,000 a month do not receive interview expenses � and some come from Korea and Japan for their interviews. If there was any employer who was prepared to financially compensate potential employees for interview related expenses, it would most certainly not be a small, private learning centre!

I think you quite obviously overvalue your worth, and underestimate the number of people that are able and willing to work here.

[Ladybug]

I don't think any employer will compensate you for travel time to an interview. If yu can't make it to the interview because it's too far away, maybe they should meet you halfway and be happy with a phone interview, or at least give you enough time to sort out a visa before you arrive here.

Before teaching here and in Korea, I tried to get jobs that happened to be out of state. That meant rental car fees, airline tickets, lodging charges, and I never asked them to reimburse me because I never expected them to. It's your responsibility anyways to find a way to work every morning anyhow. If the job's too far away to be an inconvenience to you, maybe you should either move here first then look for work, or look for something better closer to home.

[tassierose]

If it's too far to travel for the interview or the timing is inconvenient, then either re-schedule or don't apply for the position in the first place. I think you were really cheeky to even suggest you wanted re-imbursement from them for travel expenses....you want the job, you spend the money it takes you to get to that interview and guarantee yourself that position. It's that simple. They can pick and choose whoever they want. They certainly won't want you now since you've proved you won't even make the smallest effort to go to the interview. Due to your unreasonable expectations, you may have missed out on a really good job.

[hanuman]

ZH - "I think you are absolutely idiotic..."

What's with all the Vitriol ZH?
Is it necessary to be so condescending...
Go take a page out of Ladybug's book.

[Susie]

I did ask for interview expenses of $200 for travel costs and time. $200 is a small amount for any profit-making business to pay. Besides, the money would have been reimbursed if I were to have been hired and to have worked 10 hours in the first month. This is not much to ask.

I didn't ask for interview expenses because I am deluded into thinking that I have any special skills. I asked for interview expenses in order to save myself the time and expense of engaging in time-wasting activity with someone who may just want to practise his/her English for an hour or so. The potential employer is free to refuse my demand, I am free to make such a demand.

In principle too, I think that potential employees all over the world everywhere should ask for and expect potential employers to pay them interview expenses.

As for people going from interview to interview to make their daily bread, good luck to them if they can get away with it. However, I do think that employers would select applicants whom they are really interested in, rather than just calling people in for interviews willey nilley, (if they do), when the employers know, from all the applicants' information before them, that someone is over-qualified or under-qualified or the employers have some other motive for calling them in for an interview. Therefore, to eliminate career-interviewees, the responsibility would fall to the employer to do more preparation and background research on applicants before calling them for interviews, for example, telephone calls could be made, letters could be written, emails could be sent.

Yes, I understand that the current status quo is such that interviewees don't ask for interview expenses, don't expect potential employers to pay them, and thus end up paying out of their own pockets.

I understand that the rules of the interview game are made by employers not by employees - multi-dollar profit-earning enterprises and the small private entrepreneur alike - and I think that it would be a healthier job market place if interviewees took responsibility and played a part in setting the rules! Further, employers with a high turnover of staff because of internal company system/culture problems would probably change for the better (in British speak, pull their fingers out and get their acts together) if they had to pay interview costs.

I am also given to understanding that when revolutions come, it is usually the workers in the universities who are most resistent to change and the most likely to be purged first - believing that the world is flat and refusing to accept that it is round may have nothing to do with it!!

Please don't misunderstand me, I do not overvalue my worth, and I do not underestimate the numbers of people who are able and willing to work in HK or any other capitalist place in the world. I believe that if the workers were to unite in demanding and expecting interview expenses, then, employers would have to pay them and would be less willing to waste people's time.

[hanuman]

Now you really are being idiotic susie

[Ladybug]

Ummm....if they call you for an interview, you're being really naive to think that you are the only one they are interested in. Of course they will call others and interview them. And it just may be that someone else who was called turns out to be better qualified or a better fit with the school. Just because they call you, doesn't necessarily mean you have the job, and to say these people are using you to practice their English skills is plain silly.

To make an omelet you have to crack a few eggs, right? Same with job interviewing. You have to sacrifice your time and sometimes your money for something you want.