I have not seen company yet that would not reimburse travel expenses for a job interview. It just does not make sense. Interviewing (and hiring) a candidate is the cost of running a business, and every company is well aware of it.
Same goes for employees when traveling on business. Would you to couchsurfing.org to find accommodation, so that your employer doesn't pay hotel costs? I don't think so.
No professional company would even think of not paying you travel expenses for a job interview. There may be policies (i.e. no business class airfare, meal can't be more than 30 EUR, hotel can't be more than 150 EUR/night, etc..) but they simply have to pay. This is the cost of running a business (one of many).
The same way you are not expected to bring your own chair and laptop when you start to work.
In addition - I think you as a candidate look unprofessional if you:
- don't ask for travel compensation. (either on the spot or later)
- don't follow up in a correct way
...because if you are not prudent and efficient with money company has to pay you (defending your own financial interest), you may not be a prudent professional when you start working and have company's business interest to defend.
Martin
1. To whoever said HR doesn't have a say in the hiring decision, absolutely wrong. WRONG. WRONG. I can even give a specific example of my most recent interview. It was very clear in the whole process that the HR Director had a very strong say in the decision. The recruiter even told me in the past that said director has over-ruled the hiring manager.
2. You cannot compare air travel to a different country to train travel within CH. It's all about psychology. Train travel within CH is almost considered local travel. Why risk anything and ask for reimbursement. Companies that routinely do so will offer right off the bat, especially the big ones like UBS. For others, it's not worth the risk. Just by reading the contradictory responses here, you can see it would be a risk.
I would recommend asking a recruiter, an HR person, RAV, etc, rather than casual observers here for this sort of advice People here think they understand the world so simply, but it isn't so. One has to invest time and money into finding a job. Don't jeopardise that.
I had a strong impression I was a great match for many companies, but I didn't get any offer from them. If they prefer to conduct an endless search for a perfect employee pulling countless people through the country, I say they have to pay.
Once I managed to procure a "bonus" though. I went for two interviews located close to each other. Both promised to compensate. One didn't want me to send them the ticket original. So I got reimbursement twice, from both companies for single itinerary. I earned around 200 EUR. Since none of them hired me, I didn't feel bad about it. It was a rather unique opportunity though. Otherwise one could make it to a full-time job.
In education (at least below university level), you can forget it. Even if you have to fly to the interview, they won't cough up a penny.
I guess it depends how much you want to work, really.
have to agree, even it the biggest companies I have worked in HR have a huge say, if for whatever reason they don't like you your screwed
if you really want the job then I wouldn't be asking for expenses.
Equally I would not walk into an interview and slip an envelope of receipts to the interview panel as I shook hands!
Please note I have no experience of dealing with local-based companies in this regard and do not know what a Swiss-domiciled business would consider normal.
Perhaps an HR person might enlighten us as to whether certain corporates (wouldn't put it past them) might actually deliberately neglect to mention this on the basis of testing the inititative/confidence of the interview subject.
I know someone who just got a job at the other side of the world. Initially the company offered to pay for a return economy class flight to the interview (and to put him up in hotels etc.) He challenged this and said that in order to make a proper judgement of his skills straight after a 24 hour flight they'd better stump up for business class. They agreed, they naturally then valued the interview all the more highly, and he got the job.
My experience is that if you live in Switzerland and the interview is in Switzerland the travel is not normally paid. If you cannot afford the cost find out before you accept the interview what the deal is, because you can bank on annoying the HR/Interviewer if you make this an issue at interview.
Please also remember that you should respect all the people within the interview process, as someone has already said they all talk to eachother and swap opinions.
At the moment jobs don't grow on trees. You might think that the company love you and you can make demands on them, but you will quite possibly find that there is another candidate waiting in the wings to take the opportunity you are expecting to be offered who is willing to make compromises. Weigh up your demands carefully, know exactly what you are prepared to accept bearing in mind that the company can and might say no.