I belong to the Recruiting Blogswap, not because I love the idea of reprinting the same articles you can find elsewhere, but because I like to keep up with what’s happening in the world of job recruiting as it pertains to telecommuting and finding telework. Today’s article, The Truth About Interview Travel Expenses, is quite interesting and super-short so I’m reprinting it here (along with some notes about Entervista, the company providing the content).
The Truth About Interview Travel Expenses
The force of globalization and increased movement of workers, coupled with the general lowering of travel costs would indicate a willingness of companies to incur in travel expenses to invite a candidate for an interview, when they are unable to fill a position locally and out-of-state or foreign applicants have the required skills, such as experience in a specific industry or company.
However, reality is different.
More often than not, companies remain silent on the issue of first interview travel costs. This leaves candidates confused about whether they should even ask about reimbursement, and worried that doing so might diminish his/her chances of landing the job.
This reality calls for the use of video job interviewing as an alternative to personal interviews. This system saves both sides the costs associated with arranging a meeting, travel, transportation and other expenses.
Recruitment professionals also know that the best candidates are not always those who can invest personal funds in traveling to take a chance at getting that job they are after. By using video interviewing as part of their recruitment process, they make sure that strong candidates are not left out of the selection process just because they might not meet the strict criteria established by companies for initial interviews.
Great article, really, and a good plug for video interviewing. The employer basically sets up an interview using their own questions, and a selection of Entervista’s quizzes if they like, and then sends it to selected candidates (or opens it up to the public). Entervista then makes money when the employer decides to watch the video response based on a corresponding resume and a quick preview of the video response.
It’s a bit like a job board combined with a video conferencing tool, and it’s definitely interesting. What I don’t like about Entervista is that the site seems really, really new (not quite ready for actual launch). There are 2 sections to the site, one for employers and one for candidates, but both seemingly show the same exact content. I’d like to see the price list and a demo video–but neither are available yet.
They also have a blog, which is always good, but I was surprised to see that it’s using the default WordPress theme. The site (Entervista.com) is nicely designed using shades of black, red, and gray with a link to the blog proudly featured in the top navigation beside the links to home and contact us. Clicking over to the blog, however, seeing the stark white and blue default WordPress theme makes you wonder if you’ve actually left the site. Since January of 2008 they’ve posted 9 entries but it bugs me that they’ve never taken the time to at least tweak a theme to mimic the colors of the parent site. The best feature of the blog is the YouTube call outs. I watched several of those this morning.
Entervista also has a lounge in Second Life. I was going to sign up and play there once, but when I’d initially tried it didn’t work with Vista. Now, I’m just too busy in my first life to give Second Life a whirl.
That’s that for today, I hope you gleaned an ounce of something useful, and now it’s time to roll the necessary credits…
The Entervista Team’s Truth About Interview Travel Expenses…
Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.