Interviewing for a job you don't want?

Bottom line: Would you fly cross-country (all expenses paid) to an interview....purely for the experience?

When it comes to job opportunities, I never turn down a conversation. It never hurts to talk things over and worst case you've made a few new connections during the process. The company in question here is one of the largest in the tech industry. I would love to have the experience and meet the hiring team, but it would require several vacation days from work and a brutal interview process....all for a job I have no interest in taking. Would you put forth the effort in preparation and travel, just for the experience? I've done it from time to time, but never to this extreme.

If you're wondering, I made it to this point based on an employee referral. I work for another large tech vendor and one of my teammates recently left and went over there. Now he's trying to recruit me as well. It's a great company and a great position, but I've only been in my current spot for 10 months and would burn several bridges if I were to jump ship right now.

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Comments

networker050184

I wouldn't waste their time if you aren't interested. You wouldn't want them wasting your time for "the experience."

cyberguypr

I concur. My time is as valuable as the employer's. If I have no interest, I wouldn't engage them other than to say "no thanks".

User2097

Unless you just have money to burn and it's all you got? But I would not.

koz24

If it was me, I wouldn't care that I've only been there 10 months. This new company is flying you out to meet them so they obviously don't care either. And that's the beauty of employment at will, do they care about burning bridges when they lay people off? Look after yourself first and foremost. If the gig is really good, and the offer is really good, you can take it and always explain why you were at your current employer for only 10 months later-- just don't do it too often.

I also think it would be wrong to fly out there for kicks and giggles with a zero % chance of taking any offer. If you are flying out there looking for a dream offer, that's another story.

xenodamus

Thanks, you guys are reinforcing the feelings I've had about it. I've had 2 phone interviews thus far and feel like I accomplished my goal of learning more about the team and the company. I feel like I would be misrepresenting myself to allow them to front the cost of an on-site, when I really don't have a desire to move further.

In a couple of years...who knows. So I don't want to piss anyone off and blacklist my name at this prospective company either.

pinkydapimp

How do you know you dont want the job without fully interviewing? Maybe its the role of a lifetime. What if they are paying 25k more than you make now? What if you will gain way more skills? I actually found the role that made my career take off in this fashion. Had only been at my job 6 months. Decided to hear them out and they made an offer i couldn't refuse. It was the best move i ever made.

So you never know. But if you are sure no matter what you will not be moving from your current position, then maybe bow out now, or ask them if you can skype meet.

iBrokeIT

Would you be OK with taking time off work to interview for a job you really want but have no chance at because a company already had a candidate selected and just needed to interview a few other people as formality or "for practice"?

I don't enjoy having my time wasted so I don't waste other people's time.

koz24

iBrokeIT wrote: »

Would you be OK with taking time off work to interview for a job you really want but have no chance at because a company already had a candidate selected and just needed to interview a few other people as formality or "for practice"?

I don't enjoy having my time wasted so I don't waste other people's time.

Great point. I bet this happens a lot more than we think.

cyberguypr

Tried repping iBrokeIT but I gotta spread it around. Hope someone gets you for me.

Danielm7

cyberguypr wrote: »

Tried repping iBrokeIT but I gotta spread it around. Hope someone gets you for me.

Done! And very good point. I always try to put myself in the other person's shoes in situations like this.

No_Nerd

I did this last week. I told them I would only go back to Afghanistan and do it woek for 300k. I didn't think they would ever double their offer. They did and I tured it down. Crazy I know but I gotta keep the wife happy

Kinet1c

I value my time so I personally wouldn't do it. When you take in to consideration that you'd need to take annual leave to attend, no way.

gorebrush

If I knew it wasn't for me I wouldn't waste my time either.

pinkydapimp

No_Nerd wrote: »

I did this last week. I told them I would only go back to Afghanistan and do it woek for 300k. I didn't think they would ever double their offer. They did and I tured it down. Crazy I know but I gotta keep the wife happy

This brings up another benefit.
This helps to gauge your worth or how much money you should/could be making.

And hey, if they dont throw enough at you, maybe they like you enough to create a position for you. Or maybe they keep you in mind when something pops up a year later....
All of these things you will not know unless you take the interview and go through the process.

TechGromit

cyberguypr wrote: »

I concur. My time is as valuable as the employer's. If I have no interest, I wouldn't engage them other than to say "no thanks".

I agree, wouldn't it make your former teammate much less likely to recommend you for another position in the future if you don't take the job if offered? Sounds more like burning bridges to me than establishing new network connections.

fmitawaps

Yes, if you don't go to the interview, than the person who recommended you will look bad.

Besides, how sure are you that your present job is secure? Maybe you'll be downsized or laid off next week? Maybe the company will outsource what you do?

I'd go to the interview. And if you get it and still aren't sure you want to go, ask for more money than they offer, as a way out of it. If they agree, you get more money and you win. If they say no, you keep your present job and you kind of win.

bpenn

No_Nerd wrote: »

I did this last week. I told them I would only go back to Afghanistan and do it woek for 300k. I didn't think they would ever double their offer. They did and I tured it down. Crazy I know but I gotta keep the wife happy

Wow, that is crazy! 300k? They must have REALLY wanted you out there.

apr911

Some different schools of thought here...

It is a bit disingenuous to have the company pay to fly you out to meet with the team and interview if you have no intention of taking the position but Im of the opinion that nothing is decided until its been decided and even then both parties could still change their minds...

There have been people who have gone through the entire process, gotten hired only to have the offer or position rescinded for some reason or another. Similarly, there are people who get hired, accept and then receive a counter or find some other reason to have to recant on the acceptance; is doing so a black mark? Well, it's certainly not going to help you if you decide to apply for that company in the future but most companies wont count it against you (too much) and chances are, the hiring manager wont remember you well enough later on down the road anyway.

As others have said, maybe you get out there and interview and find out that the position is the opportunity of a lifetime or maybe they have a different opportunity that would better suit you or maybe they create a position for you. I've been on in-person interviews both as the interviewee and interviewer where a different team was brought as a cross check and that other team decided they really wanted the candidate (regardless of any decision from the original team) or they decided to create a new position specifically for the candidate or something...

Its still experience to interview... You are likely to "waste" your time and that of the interviewer but you MIGHT just come away with something unexpected. Same goes for salary; even if they're off by a wide margin, I'll still entertain the conversation until I am able to sell myself to them. When I first started talking with recruiting at my last employer, they quoted me a salary 10% lower than what they ended up offering me and I still was able to talk them up another 15%. So yeah, I could have dismissed the opportunity out of hand; after all, they were offering me less than I was making at the time and in a city with a much higher cost of living but I still continued the conversation and managed a salary that was 25% higher than initially discussed. That 25% only made up the change in cost of living but while I made a lateral move for cost-of-living, the quality of life, room for growth and advancement and the position itself were both a step up in my opinion.

Here's a recent example for you from a friend of mine... Its not perfect, for one she worked for the same company she applied to but in a different role, for two it was in the same city so she didnt have to take time off and for three it was a position she was actually interested in but it is still a prime example of how going on the interview can still be worth it...

My friend recently saw a posting at her work for a Temporary Contract position with potential extension; it was for a job she really wanted in a department she really wanted to work for and she was miserable in her current role. She was debating whether to apply for it and so I asked her why she wouldnt... "Its temporary, its contract, my managers wouldnt guarantee my current position and in fact indicated I'd likely have to take a demotion to come back, etc, etc, etc"

I said that's all well and good and those are probably valid reasons not to take the job but the job hasn't been offered to you yet, it might never be offered to you and at the end of the day those aren't reasons not to apply and interview. So here's why you HAVE to apply; you need the interview experience with the department (she's inexperienced for the role, it'd be a career change for her), you might make a contact with a hiring manager in the department who might not hire you for this position but can work the back channels to get you a non-contract gig and if you are hired, you might be able to convince them to change the role to a non-contract or contract-to-hire.

So my friend emailed the hiring manager the hiring manager came back with all the reasons she shouldn't apply for it... "you'll lose seniority, you'll lose benefits, you'll be paid less, you'll have to reapply like any other external candidate because you'd have to quit working for us to work for the contract, etc." So again we had a conversation about why she should still go forward; I convinced her to put her name in the hat and go for it.

So she went on the interview and nailed it. The hiring manager loved her and said she'd if not this position (the manager still had reservations about it being a contract vs fte and was looking out for my friends interests), she'd definitely be the next hire.

My friend found out early this week (only 2 weeks after applying and less than a week after interviewing) that the hiring manager went to bat for her and got the contract position converted over to a Temp-Employee position with the same pay she's currently getting. Though the position is still technically a "temp" position, the expectation is that my friend will either get an extension, the position will be converted to perm or she'll otherwise embed and ingratiate herself within the department such that she's able to move into one of the FTE positions the department has come available over the next few months.

Long story short, amazing things can happen from the inside and as Randy Pausch would say, brick walls are there to see how badly we want it.