Interviewing for US job while not in USA
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Anyone has first- or second-hand experience? Is it hard to find a company that's okay with doing interview completely remotely? How willing are employers to foot/split a $1000 travel bill for a prospective candidate? What's a maximum acceptable time between an invitation and an on-site interview? Any general tips?
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@Gąska It varies. I don't seem to find anything willing to consider non-local (as in ~30 miles) candidates. On the other hand, my siblings have had employers willing to fly them to the other side of the country multiple times. In the one case, it was big tech giants (Microsoft, Amazon, etc) and the other it was regular companies. It might depend on where you were looking? Tech hubs like California and Texas may be more willing to accommodate than, say, Pennsylvania or Ohio.
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I'm not in the US myself, but I work for an international company. I know we offer significant support for existing employees who want to relocate to the US, but I'm not sure if this extends to prospective hires and it does involve getting hired in the first place. As I've heard this typically involves hearing nothing for 3 months after your last interview then suddenly getting an offer.
I have no experience with the last bit either because I came from an acquisition.
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@Gąska I've never had experience interviewing from outside the US, but from within the US, I agree with @Zenith that it's variable. Some companies will only consider local candidates, perhaps because they don't want to pay for relocation, or they are in an area with an unpleasant climate and don't want to hire someone who's going to pack up and go home when the temperature hits -40.
I've had companies fly me up and down the West Coast (800 miles, 1300 km) for an interview, but never (so far) cross-country. It certainly happens, though; I've interviewed candidates from the other side of the country.
In my experience, which may or may not be typical, remote interviews and remote hiring are more common for contract jobs. They have less invested in a contractor. It's easier to dump them if they're not a good fit, and they're not out any sunk cost for relocation (because that's always out of the contractor's own pocket), so they may be more willing to take a chance on someone they haven't seen. OTOH, they may insist on an on-site interview, because that doesn't cost them anything, either, beyond the time of the interviewers; that travel cost is also entirely out of the candidate's own pocket.
Of course, the more expensive the travel to an on-site interview, the more thorough the remote screening/interview is going to be, to make sure you're someone really worth the expense of bringing in. That may or may not be thorough enough to make a decision without an in-person interview. It has sometimes been for me, but only for temporary/contract jobs.
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@HardwareGeek said in Interviewing for US job while not in USA:
but never (so far) cross-country
I was flown from Chicago to the Bay area (back in 1995). Every other job I've applied for has been local (to where I was).
Edit: I should mention, it wasn't a very large company. I don't know, maybe 3-500 at the time (subsidiary of a much larger company, eventually sold off (after I left) to yet another)
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Yeah, I've only been flown somewhere once, and that was by Microsoft. Otherwise I've only interviewed for local-only positions.
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I'm actually in Europe, but the company I work for - a smallish tech startup - doesn't mind flying candidates in from foreign countries after a good video interview. But that's mostly because it's hard to find really good C++ programmers, so it's more necessity for us.
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@HardwareGeek said in Interviewing for US job while not in USA:
that travel cost is also entirely out of the candidate's own pocket
We pay reasonable travel costs for people coming to on-site interviews. (That was the only time that I dealt with the part of the university that pays cash out directly. I'd never seen a bunker that heavily armoured before.)
