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Comment by donatj | Hacker News Reader

At my first employer circa 2005 we had a simple 1-2 hour interview and a 90 day probationary period. Respected people's time, gave everyone a fair chance to prove themselves. I don't know why it's not more common in the industry.

Part of what lead to it I think is we hired largely straight out of college and doing a 9-hour interview with someone with little experience is a waste of time.

It worked great. In my five years there we only had a couple people not make it past the probationary period.

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Well, historically, taking a new job often meant relocating which is a big expense for the employer (who typically paid relo for engineering jobs) and is hugely disruptive for the employee. Definitely not just a shrug for everyone concerned if things don't work out after a bit.

Less true in hotbeds for a given industry. But I've had relocation paid twice in my career and it was just a given.

Never in my 25 years has an employer made good on their offer to help with relocating. Often they expect you to be there already.

They’ll say they will help. Even have you fill out a form. Then when it comes time to cover the expense, they come up with excuses on why they won’t.

> They’ll say they will help. Even have you fill out a form.

Have they not formed a verbal contract in saying they'll help with relocation expenses?

It's been a long while but, especially as a young employee (presumably) expecting to have relocation handled, I'd be WTF; the relocation would probably have been a huge chunk of my salary at the time. Of course, at that point, you're probably just screwed and you're probably not going to get a lawyer over it.

I'm talking about somewhat longer ago but it used to just be part of the deal along with living expenses for a month or so in my experience for professional jobs.

Been working professionally since ‘97, still haven’t ever gotten a payment for moving expenses.

The way it's worked for me is I've been given a small relocation bonus and then I'm responsible for figuring the details out.

So assistance really just means punt

Having to relocate a long distance would have been a huge barrier for me both for cost and other reasons at the time. Obviously remote is a bigger option these days but far from universal. Glad it wasn't a problem both times I did even if the cost and other obstacles weren't as great at the time.

Would you really want anything else? I can't really imagine how you're expecting that to work.

In my experience the employer (2x) took care of arrangements for both the moving and the temporary hotel arrangements.

The one time I had an employer involved that closely they completely dropped the ball and I had to crash on a friend's couch. Again I don't think having corporate administration so closely involved in your life is a great idea just because of the dumb things they occasionally do.

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