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2nd interview coming up, ok to ask about specific travel policies?

2nd interview coming up, ok to ask about specific travel policies?

Old Mar 1, 2018, 2:54 pm
  #31  
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[QUOTE=darthbimmer;29467328]A few thoughts from a person who's traveled and managed traveling teams the past 15 years:

3) Any would-be direct supervisor of a traveling employee who reacts negatively to the above is an immediate red flag to me as an interviewee. These are material components of the job situation,/[QUOTE]

As someone who's been hiring for 25 years, for a firm with one of the top 5 travel budgets in the world, in a profession that works where the clients are - if someone I was interviewing told me they consider travel a material part of the job, I'd move on to the next candidate. Travel is something we put up with to deliver solutions and significant change to our clients. That's our job. Not travel. We're on every "Top 20 Most Sought-After Employers" list, so I'm OK with our approach.

This is an "after I get an offer and need to decide" topic, not a "first time I meet who I'm reporting to" topic, IMHO. If you really think it's a deal breaker, then go ahead and ask and see if asking the question is a deal-breaker.
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Old Mar 1, 2018, 3:12 pm
  #32  
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Originally Posted by RichMSN
My company would reimburse this without a second thought. I'd approve this without a second thought.

Better question - why is this an unreasonable expense on a business trip?
The effort of asking for a receipt and then handing it to my secretary outweighs and reimbursement
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Old Mar 1, 2018, 4:59 pm
  #33  
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Originally Posted by LondonElite


The effort of asking for a receipt and then handing it to my secretary outweighs and reimbursement
No receipts under $25. I'd put it on the corp card and click the box.
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Old Mar 1, 2018, 6:05 pm
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Originally Posted by CPRich
if someone I was interviewing told me they consider travel a material part of the job, I'd move on to the next candidate. Travel is something we put up with to deliver solutions and significant change to our clients. That's our job. Not travel.
Travel conditions are certainly a material part of the "job situation" as the person you quoted said. Just like commute, office facilities, and culture are material parts of the "job situation." Driving to work isn't my job, but I don't think it's unreasonable to want to know whether I'm going to be driving 10 minutes or 2 hours every day. For a job that requires 100% travel, it's not unreasonable to want to know how arduous that travel will be, and the arduousness (arduosity?) is heavily influenced by travel policy. To me this isn't about "am I allowed to earn points in my favorite alliance," "can I stay at 5 star hotels," or "can I fly first class?" But it's about "do I have to fly at ridiculous hours or inconvenient itineraries to stay within the limit?" "Do I have to stay at a run-down Days Inn 30 miles from the job site to stay within the limit?" "Do I have to wait 2 months for expense reimbursements?" etc. Some companies have travel policies that make life much more tiring and stressful than it needs to be, and it's completely reasonable to want to know that before accepting a job.

That said, I do absolutely agree that the time to discuss it is when you have an offer, not during an interview.
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Old Mar 1, 2018, 6:07 pm
  #35  
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Originally Posted by Cardboard55
Travel conditions are certainly a material part of the "job situation" as the person you quoted said. Just like commute, office facilities, and culture are material parts of the "job situation." Driving to work isn't my job, but I don't think it's unreasonable to want to know whether I'm going to be driving 10 minutes or 2 hours every day. For a job that requires 100% travel, it's not unreasonable to want to know how arduous that travel will be, and the arduousness (arduosity?) is heavily influenced by travel policy. To me this isn't about "am I allowed to earn points in my favorite alliance," "can I stay at 5 star hotels," or "can I fly first class?" But it's about "do I have to fly at ridiculous hours or inconvenient itineraries to stay within the limit?" "Do I have to stay at a run-down Days Inn 30 miles from the job site to stay within the limit?" "Do I have to wait 2 months for expense reimbursements?" etc. Some companies have travel policies that make life much more tiring and stressful than it needs to be, and it's completely reasonable to want to know that before accepting a job.

That said, I do absolutely agree that the time to discuss it is when you have an offer, not during an interview.
Frankly, I don't think asking about it has much value. The hiring manager is going to downplay even the most draconian of policies. Those that have draconian policies typically think there's absolutely nothing wrong with them -- that employees are getting something for nothing.
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Old Mar 1, 2018, 8:56 pm
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Originally Posted by CPRich
As someone who's been hiring for 25 years, for a firm with one of the top 5 travel budgets in the world, in a profession that works where the clients are - if someone I was interviewing told me they consider travel a material part of the job, I'd move on to the next candidate. Travel is something we put up with to deliver solutions and significant change to our clients. That's our job. Not travel. We're on every "Top 20 Most Sought-After Employers" list, so I'm OK with our approach.

This is an "after I get an offer and need to decide" topic, not a "first time I meet who I'm reporting to" topic, IMHO. If you really think it's a deal breaker, then go ahead and ask and see if asking the question is a deal-breaker.
A hiring manager who misrepresents two statements I made clearly and beats his chest about how wise and sought-after he is, is a deal-breaker for me. If we were interviewing now, you wouldn't be the first such person I walked away from.
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Old Mar 2, 2018, 5:27 am
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Originally Posted by RichMSN
My company would reimburse this without a second thought. I'd approve this without a second thought.

Better question - why is this an unreasonable expense on a business trip?
It seems petty to me to even bother. And why should a bottle of water be expensed when on a business trip if it's not expensed on a normal day in the office (unless one of the benefits the company provides is free bottled water in the office.) I mean, would you expense a box of TicTacs with the argument that the client expects fresh breath?
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Old Mar 2, 2018, 6:00 am
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Originally Posted by LondonElite
It seems petty to me to even bother. And why should a bottle of water be expensed when on a business trip if it's not expensed on a normal day in the office (unless one of the benefits the company provides is free bottled water in the office.) I mean, would you expense a box of TicTacs with the argument that the client expects fresh breath?
At the office one can easily bring water from home, plus many offices have water coolers. What if the city the office is in has drinkable tap water the location travelled to doesn't? Many reasons.... I wouldn't bother expensing it though
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Old Mar 2, 2018, 6:08 am
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Originally Posted by darthbimmer
A hiring manager who misrepresents two statements I made clearly and beats his chest about how wise and sought-after he is, is a deal-breaker for me. If we were interviewing now, you wouldn't be the first such person I walked away from.
^
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Old Mar 2, 2018, 6:19 am
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Originally Posted by CPRich
Having conducted hundreds of interviews and hired dozens of staff over the year, this would certainly be a big negative mark for me.

You're going to be working directly for me and this is our first meeting. I'm trying to decide whether you have the skills to do the work that my job will depend on, in about 30 minutes. And to want to spend part of our very limited time asking what kind of hotel you need to stay in and what FF program you can use? Next.....
I think it really depends on the job. I recently interviewed for an American company that is a vendor to the Formula 1 series and in the job posting said "This is 35 week of travel" and "Must want to travel."

We talked about travel at length in the interview and their lack of knowledge on a range of topics from what back-to-back races may require intercontinental forced red-eyes to are they using a 3rd party company to organize Azerbaijan, Chinese, Russian and other complex work visas was so stunning that I pulled my application. Weeks later I found out that "Because of unforeseen complexities related to F1 series travel they were outsourcing the work to a European company." It wasn't unforeseen by me
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Old Mar 2, 2018, 6:35 am
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There are some visa service agencies that provide outstanding service and charge high prices. Using such an outfit, with which the potential employer has an ongoing relationship, rather than having visa issues handled internally by some nonexpert support staff member or on a DIY basis would be far worse. In fact, there can also be privacy issues involved in handling visa applications internally as some visa application questions can cover sensitive topics that the employer isn't entitled to ask.
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Old Mar 2, 2018, 10:08 am
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Finished the final round today. This guy proactively brought up travel and we had some good back and forth about it, but all positive on both sides. Very encouraged by how all of the calls have been.
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Old Mar 2, 2018, 3:07 pm
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Originally Posted by COSPILOT
Finished the final round today. This guy proactively brought up travel and we had some good back and forth about it, but all positive on both sides. Very encouraged by how all of the calls have been.
Good luck. You sound like the type of person I would want to be working with or for me.

Last edited by rbwpi; Mar 2, 2018 at 3:30 pm
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Old Mar 2, 2018, 3:46 pm
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Originally Posted by rbwpi
Good luck. You sound like the type of person I would want to be working with or for me.
Moving quickly, HR is staying late this evening (East Coast time) to get the official paperwork to me. Incredibly nice people that I have dealt with, I cannot wait to get started!
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Old Mar 2, 2018, 3:58 pm
  #45  
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Originally Posted by COSPILOT
Moving quickly, HR is staying late this evening (East Coast time) to get the official paperwork to me. Incredibly nice people that I have dealt with, I cannot wait to get started!
It sounds like you accepted before seeing all the details in the final offer?
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