[dominotw]

I recently had nightmare of a interview experience with AirBnb. They asked me take 2 days off from work and fly all the way to SFO after I wasted couple of hours doing their online coding puzzle. The first interviewer asked me a string matching question, and insisted that I code up his brute force solution with terrible insert complicity and second interviewer asked me to code up a binary search tree( he had no clue if what a symetric binary tree was when i asked him if it has to be symmetric). After which the recruiter asked me leave saying the interview was not going well. I am yet to hear back from them about the $1200 i spent on the whole ordeal.

Only interview there if you are ready to waste 3 days of your life and ~$1400 and think Justin Biber jokes are funny ( really? ).

Edit: Anyone know what I can do about recouping the money I spent, I sent all the receipts and filled out their candidate reimbursement form. They wont respond to my email.

[epoxyhockey]

From my own experience, I have concluded that start-ups located in the FiDi and SOMA have no idea what they are doing when it comes to interviewing and hiring. When they aren't interviewing for sport or to gather intel, they generally don't know what questions to ask to determine if someone is a good fit. EDIT: I've been asked several illegal interview questions, as well.. maybe I should start capitalizing on that.

A lot of people bash Human Resources departments, but they do inject a great deal of sanity into the process when your time is on the line.

[geebee]

I do think companies need to be more careful about managing the interview process. I have full respect for a company's right to decide how they'll interview candidates - if I object, I am free to terminate the interview as well. However, I have had the experience of doing an 8 hour "assignment" (after a couple of phone interviews), only to hear crickets chirping and finally getting a call from a recruiter with no knowledge of the evaluation other than to say that they had decided not to pursue my application further. No review, no feedback.

I understand that when you give a reason for the no hire decision, you open yourself to lawsuits and other types of trouble. But I also see a problem with asking for a substantial investment of time from the applicant (with no corresponding investment of time from the company) and responding to the applicant with a three second brush-off. It is a small community, and of course this will influence my impression of this company.

[Breefield]

Did you speak about reimbursement before flying there?

[dominotw]

Yes I did. I was also sent the policy document which stated they will reimburse me for the flights/accommodation/food. I also have the email communication with their recruiters which said that they will reimburse me. Do I have to get a lawyer?.

[justjimmy]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I've always had the interviewing companies pay for the tickets on their end and they (or their travel agents) would send me the confirmation email/tickets.

Didn't know some companies are asking to pay for it yourself upfront first - definitely makes it more risky…

[tocomment]

Perhaps look into small claims court? You shouldn't need a lawyer for that.