2nd interview coming up, ok to ask about specific travel policies?
#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.
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.
#32
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The effort of asking for a receipt and then handing it to my secretary outweighs and reimbursement
#33
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#34
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That said, I do absolutely agree that the time to discuss it is when you have an offer, not during an interview.
#35
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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.
That said, I do absolutely agree that the time to discuss it is when you have an offer, not during an interview.
#36
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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.
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.
#37
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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?
#38
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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?
#39
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#40
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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.....
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.....
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
#41
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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.
#42
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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.
#43
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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
#44
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#45
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