[xtracto]

People interviewing have to stand for themselves more. Several years ago, I was living in Germany looking to go back home later that year. I got into the interview process for a nice Silicon Valley startup (called Ooyala). After 3 phone interviews (2 technical) the recruiter was super excited and told me they would fly me from Germany to their offices.. A 10 hour flight.

I respectfully declined, telling her that because I was going to do the same long trip about 2 months later, I didn't want to fly. I told her that I would understand if they decided to pass, and no hard feelings.

Instead, she got one of the founders to interview me (Bel!!) And after that they decided to give me an offer. Everything resulted great for all of us, and I had a job waiting for me later that year.

I understand we may be desperate when looking for a job. But trust me that hiring managers are also generally in a hurry to fill positions. I know this bc I've hired plenty of people (both tech, HR, and g&a) in my career.

[tsak]

Fully agree with that. I had a similar experience when I was asked to complete yet another take home exercise and I simply told them to look at the last two I had done (for other companies). After a first bit of reluctance by the company's recruiter, they budged and accepted.

When hiring people, I ended up making similar concessions for the right candidate.