If you run a hiring process in tech, go read your standard interview travel language from the perspective of someone who has never received anything free in their life and is terrified of owing anyone anything, and rewrite to avoid an unintended class competence check.
Message I got a couple days ago:
— Austen Allred (@Austen) April 19, 2018
“Hey Austen, I have three companies wanting to interview me in New York; I arranged them so they’re back to back, I’m just trying to scrape the funds together to buy a flight and hotel...”
People that are new to tech aren’t used to comped travel
Very candidate-friendly language could look like: We're happy to arrange your travel for you at our expense or have you book and reimburse you, whichever is more convenient. Some people feel the need to put a dollar figure in this email; I think probably pennywise poundfoolish.
So help me I know people who interviewed at AppAmaGooFaceSoft in zombie mode because they were told to shoot for a $300 ticket and the most convenient option was $330 so they instead booked a redeye and didn't sleep prior to the interview because Rules are Rules.
Incidentally, if you're on the candidate side of things (and tell your friends): if a company tells you to book travel and you can't front the money, reply "It would be more convenient if you could book for me; could you?" No reason required.
