3 ms·

What signal is that? That you're the kind of person who takes vacation? How is that "in bad taste"? This is the opening stage of a negotiation leading to a lega

What signal is that? That you're the kind of person who takes vacation? How is that "in bad taste"? This is the opening stage of a negotiation leading to a legally binding contract; to not ask about vacation seems odd. It's a significant part of the deal. I'm not here to beg them to please please grant me the privilege of working for them. I wouldn't want to work for an employer who wouldn't hire someone because they like to take vacation, so if this question will act as a filter for me to weed out the bad employers, I'll always ask it (and indeed, I do always ask, and for the last few jobs I've also asked about their policy on additional unpaid vacation; my current employer gave me an extra two weeks unpaid each year).

mrfusion 13y ago
One company I interviewed at had a whiteboard where everyone wrote down the days they were taking vacation. It was titled "slackers". I know they thought it was a funny joke, but I think even jokes can send a message.
ScottWhigham 13y ago
So much of this is subjective - there's no right/wrong. I would agree that it's in poor taste to ask during the first interview but that's my opinion and it's totally biased based on my life experience. Why? Because that's third or fourth-level information. I'm choosing the job based on whether I want to do this specific work with this specific group of people who are aligned towards these specific goals - that's first level. Second level would be whether the salary is inline with what I need/want. After that, let's consider PTO/policies/drive time/etc. A "correct" candidate IMO is most concerned with solving the first-level problem during the first interview. It's a massively complex problem - lots of moving parts. 1-5 questions won't answer that completely - I'd need hours to figure that out. The last question of the interview might be, "And by the way, what is the salary range for this position?" We all know that 2nd and 3rd-level stuff is so negotiable that it doesn't really do much point to ask pointed questions about it during a first interview. So for someone to think that the first interview is the time to dig down to 3rd/4th level information - that's just showing me that their priorities are skewed. That said, I can think of two situations in which it would be appropriate: 1) when, during the first interview, it becomes clear that the employer is ready to hire you right now ("Can you start today?"). Obviously the long game goes out the window here! 2) During an interview that has cost either party something significant. For example, if the candidate flew you out and you spent the entire day, I think it's a fair question for the HR person at the very end of the day.
- mgkimsal 13y ago
  Correct - there is no right/wrong exactly, and I learned a while back to not work to those 'rules' too closely. There's an etiquette that always seemed 'common sense' to me, and now, it's generally easier to learn a lot more about a company, even a small one, before even getting to an interview stage. I've asked about vacation and such during a 'first interview' a couple of times, mostly because in my view I was already satisfied about some of the other more 'important' stuff. Some of that came from the interview time itself, other info came from doing research on the company, staff, work, etc before the first interview. And by the same token, I've had to shut down a couple of interview dances short because the company would not disclose salary range at all until I'd flown out to their HQ and met the team. "We don't discuss that this early in the process" was the standard response. Well... I wasn't about to reshuffle multiple days (affecting 2-3 weeks of existing stuff) without any idea if this would be worth my time 4 weeks later.
mcguire 13y ago
Note: pmiller wrote "a first interview". If your first question amounts to, "How much will I get paid for not working?", something is wrong somewhere. For one thing, it's not exactly the most important issue on the table; how much vacation vs. work time do you have per year? For another, it is fairly likely to leave a bad taste in an employer's...ears, I guess.

mrfusion 13y ago

One company I interviewed at had a whiteboard where everyone wrote down the days they were taking vacation. It was titled "slackers". I know they thought it was a funny joke, but I think even jokes can send a message.

ScottWhigham 13y ago

So much of this is subjective - there's no right/wrong. I would agree that it's in poor taste to ask during the first interview but that's my opinion and it's totally biased based on my life experience. Why? Because that's third or fourth-level information. I'm choosing the job based on whether I want to do this specific work with this specific group of people who are aligned towards these specific goals - that's first level. Second level would be whether the salary is inline with what I need/want. After that, let's consider PTO/policies/drive time/etc. A "correct" candidate IMO is most concerned with solving the first-level problem during the first interview. It's a massively complex problem - lots of moving parts. 1-5 questions won't answer that completely - I'd need hours to figure that out. The last question of the interview might be, "And by the way, what is the salary range for this position?" We all know that 2nd and 3rd-level stuff is so negotiable that it doesn't really do much point to ask pointed questions about it during a first interview. So for someone to think that the first interview is the time to dig down to 3rd/4th level information - that's just showing me that their priorities are skewed. That said, I can think of two situations in which it would be appropriate: 1) when, during the first interview, it becomes clear that the employer is ready to hire you right now ("Can you start today?"). Obviously the long game goes out the window here! 2) During an interview that has cost either party something significant. For example, if the candidate flew you out and you spent the entire day, I think it's a fair question for the HR person at the very end of the day.

mgkimsal 13y ago
Correct - there is no right/wrong exactly, and I learned a while back to not work to those 'rules' too closely. There's an etiquette that always seemed 'common sense' to me, and now, it's generally easier to learn a lot more about a company, even a small one, before even getting to an interview stage. I've asked about vacation and such during a 'first interview' a couple of times, mostly because in my view I was already satisfied about some of the other more 'important' stuff. Some of that came from the interview time itself, other info came from doing research on the company, staff, work, etc before the first interview. And by the same token, I've had to shut down a couple of interview dances short because the company would not disclose salary range at all until I'd flown out to their HQ and met the team. "We don't discuss that this early in the process" was the standard response. Well... I wasn't about to reshuffle multiple days (affecting 2-3 weeks of existing stuff) without any idea if this would be worth my time 4 weeks later.

mcguire 13y ago

Note: pmiller wrote "a first interview". If your first question amounts to, "How much will I get paid for not working?", something is wrong somewhere. For one thing, it's not exactly the most important issue on the table; how much vacation vs. work time do you have per year? For another, it is fairly likely to leave a bad taste in an employer's...ears, I guess.