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When I schedule callbacks, and the firm includes instructions on getting travel arrangements, should I wait until I get all callbacks to do travel?

On the one hand, it would make sense (considering 1 firm is being billed), but on the other I would imagine that flights are cheaper now rather than later...

Don't worry about the cost to firms. My concern would be getting the callbacks in sooner, rather than later - hiring is done on a rolling basis. If you are anticipating getting a bunch of callbacks in one market it might help a tiny bit to wait a few days, if that market is quick to offer callbacks (Say, NYC) so that you can avoid flying back and forth from that one market. Otherwise just schedule them as soon as you possibly can for as early as you possibly can. The absolutely last thing in the world you should worry about is the cost the law firm is paying for your travel (and they don't care about that either).

Randomnumbers wrote:Don't worry about the cost to firms. My concern would be getting the callbacks in sooner, rather than later - hiring is done on a rolling basis. If you are anticipating getting a bunch of callbacks in one market it might help a tiny bit to wait a few days, if that market is quick to offer callbacks (Say, NYC) so that you can avoid flying back and forth from that one market. Otherwise just schedule them as soon as you possibly can for as early as you possibly can. The absolutely last thing in the world you should worry about is the cost the law firm is paying for your travel (and they don't care about that either).

This.

Randomnumbers wrote:Don't worry about the cost to firms. My concern would be getting the callbacks in sooner, rather than later - hiring is done on a rolling basis. If you are anticipating getting a bunch of callbacks in one market it might help a tiny bit to wait a few days, if that market is quick to offer callbacks (Say, NYC) so that you can avoid flying back and forth from that one market. Otherwise just schedule them as soon as you possibly can for as early as you possibly can. The absolutely last thing in the world you should worry about is the cost the law firm is paying for your travel (and they don't care about that either).

Yup.

There's also a pretty good chance that you'll get callbacks between the time you schedule your travel and the time you actually get on the plane. So just tell them "I'll be in your city on X date for another interview, if you have any availability around then." They'll probably squeeze you in. Worst case scenario is they pay to fly you out again, which isn't great (for you), but whatever, jobs.

I think some of the above posters are confusing booking travel with scheduling callbacks. Obviously schedule the callbacks, ASAP, but I don't think there's any problem in waiting to book the flight until closer to the interview, as long as you aren't coming from a tiny market where choice flights might sell out quickly. I waited until I had a couple of callbacks clustered around the same days to book my flights, and it helped prevent me from having to rebook travel arrangements multiple times. In some cases I had to fly out just for 1 callback, in other cases I was able to group 3-4 together.

berkeleykel06 wrote:I think some of the above posters are confusing booking travel with scheduling callbacks. Obviously schedule the callbacks, ASAP, but I don't think there's any problem in waiting to book the flight until closer to the interview, as long as you aren't coming from a tiny market where choice flights might sell out quickly. I waited until I had a couple of callbacks clustered around the same days to book my flights, and it helped prevent me from having to rebook travel arrangements multiple times. In some cases I had to fly out just for 1 callback, in other cases I was able to group 3-4 together.

Oops. Yes, I definitely was - I think the title of the thread had me confused. You can definitely wait to schedule the travel, the firms don't care about the cost and you can do that pretty last minute. (There are drawbacks to this - I had a firm travel agent vent slightly about how the firms didn't apparently realize it was fashion week in NYC and hotel rooms were hard to find.) Schedule the callbacks ASAP, try to group them together, and then schedule the travel. The poster above is definitely TCR.