Walter S

I agree. It's been a few decades since an employer asked anything at all about my ability or mode of getting to work.

I-Like-To-Bike

As usual you cannot "see". This time what you yourself are posting on this thread. You keep pounding on the idea that the interviewer, or company spies, or somebody else from the nefarious automotivist conspiracy might see the applicant somewhere other than the interview room riding a bicycle and/or looking like a bicyclist presumably by their clothing and use this observation to reject the applicant.

How many times does anybody have to tell you and perhaps your buddy that your conjuring of this alleged problem is based on your own myth making?

It is the impression and information provided during the interview that is important, not how the applicant got there or what they wore or carried prior to walking into the interview location. If the applicant dresses appropriately for an interview, the mode of transport used for getting to the interview will never come up.

cooker

It looks like opinions are divided on that. Thanks everyone for your diverse comments.

cooker

What next?

I-Like-To-Bike

The "reliable transportation question" response may be thoughtful as well true but it is not relevant to the question you keep asking and not listening (or seeing) the answer.

Job interview questions about having reliable transportation and/or a driver's license in order to successfully perform a job function is a different issue than what your obsessive questioning/concern about the effect on the hiring process of riding a bicycle to a job interview.

cooker

This was part of that thoughtful response: Did you not see it?

wolfchild

Dressing appropriately for an interview and riding a bicycle for any length of distance isn't easy...An applicant can dress appropriately but how would they look after a 10-20 mile ride in a hot humid weather or what if they get caught in a thunderstorm ??..Their appropriate dress wouldn't look so good after that.

I-Like-To-Bike

If the applicant had no way of changing attire before walking into the interview, he/she should find another mode for getting to the interview. If the applicant cannot get to the interview not looking so good, perhaps this job in combination with living without any other transportation alternatives is not a good fit, which will be obvious to the interviewer, if not the applicant.

Rowan

The easiest way to overcome the issue is to catch a bus or taxi, or get a lift with a car-owning member of the family or friend. I have been to more than several job interviews as a car-free individual, but I was intelligent enough (and not fundamentalist enough) to realise that dressing in appropriate clothing for an interview might not be compatible with riding a bicycle over hills, a major bridge, and into the middle of a city. Oh, oh, and there is that helmet hair issue! (Helmets are legally compulsory in Australia).

cooker

I think we all agree that biking to an interview poses some pragmatic problems, that might be manageable, or might be best avoided by not biking. I was more interested in whether the knowledge that you biked there might put some employers off, and that's where I think we're seeing a range of opinions.

McBTC

I live the same way when at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas-- a Gallagher's Steakhouse is in the lobby and the Eiffel Tower is a short hoof down the strip...

Rowan

The opinions of employers are as diverse as in the broader community. Cycling or walking to a job interview for a job in the sport and recreation industry would be seen as appropriate; doing so for a job with a tobacco company much less so.

The issues that arise have been discussed in this forum before. The perceptions relate to a person's reliability in turning up to a job (yes, I know, having been there, that a bike commuter is more likely to be reliable in turning up on time); susceptibility to injury; how that person measures up in the eyes of, say, an overweight, unfit interviewer/manager; whether riding a bike means the person has a criminal record for DUI... the list goes on.

There are fairly sizeable populations in the world that are car free. Their non-reliance on motorised transport generally hasn't been a hindrance to their employment if there are sufficient options available (such as reliable public transport, short all-weather commute distance by foot or bicycle).

StarBiker

And I wrestle alligators before work, and I feel invigorated.

I just start to get a headache in this forum.

denis123

The bike sharing system in San Francisco Bay area is called Ford GoBike and is sponsored by Ford as the name indicate.

wolfchild

It all depends on what type of a job you're applying for and the mindset and attitude of the management who is doing an interview. Some employers are indifferent as to what form of transportation you use as long as you have the skills necessary to do the job and have references which prove that you're reliable and get to work on time. Then there are employers who may view bicycles as a form of transportation which is only used as a last resort by people who have a DUI, are mentally unfit to drive, or irresponsible. The problem is that when you go for an interview you just don't know who the person is that's doing the interview and what their attitude is towards bicycles...It's a fact that a car-free lifestyle limits your opportunities for employment and narrows your choices. As an individual you need to decide what's more important to you.. What is your priority ??.. is it maintaining a car-free status at all costs or have a decent paying job which you're enjoy ??

tandempower

This is a really important point to keep in mind, because it prevents you from falling into 2D thinking about everyone being in some kind of pro-automotive conspiracy to root out LCF from society. Still, I can think of a couple examples where you're still at a slight disadvantage in the mind of your employer if you ride a bike, even for employers who are cyclists themselves.

Example one is an employer I know of who bikes to work himself sometimes or much of the time. Most of his employees don't, though, so if you ride to work on your bike, others will notice and possibly view you as trying to kiss up to the boss because he also rides to work. What's more, if the boss thinks you are trying to kiss up to him by riding, he's not going to look favorably on that either. So if you're going to bike, it's better to be extremely nonchalant about it and the less people notice how you got there, the better really. This is kind of ridiculous if you think about it though, because if some people saw you pull up in a car, they wouldn't think twice about it, but people will notice when you come on a bike just because you're one of maybe two or three people that ever show up on a bike. Why are so many people focused on things that differ from the norms, either positively or negatively? Three words: cultural conformity mindset.

Another employer I know of is a very nice guy and would want to help you in any way. He cycles himself as a hobby, but he doesn't see it as a practical mode of transportation because of the sprawl. To me, a six-mile ride to go to work or go shopping is no big deal at all. I plan a half-hour or 45 minutes to give myself plenty of time and I hardly sweat during that ride. Still, he wouldn't judge you negatively for doing it, but he also doesn't really understand it as a practical, rational choice. He would want to help you get a car because he views the bike as sub-par compared to having a car. He worries that bikes are not as reliable as cars, even though I've told him that I've had flat tires where I was an hour late for an appointment because I had to walk my bike home and get a spare; and that was probably faster than someone who gets a flat tire in their car is able to get it fixed and get back on the road, assuming they don't just put on their own spare, which a cyclist can also do if you carry an extra tube and the right tools.

Both of these stories are about employers I personally know, so I know they are not negatively biased against LCF or bike riding in some way, but they just have concerns that it's not quite as reliable or desirable as driving, which I obviously disagree with. Now, on the other hand, I was at a bus stop some time ago and I overheard a woman talking on the phone about getting a job and she told her friend on the phone simply that she was told in the interview that she needed reliable transportation, so therefore she needed to get a car. There was no discussion about the bus being reliable or whether she should get a bike. It was just a given in her mind that if she was told she needed reliable transportation that she had to get a car, and that was it. "Reliable transportation" meant car in her mind, almost like a code word with no other possible interpretations. So as LCF people, we put a lot of thought into how other modes of transport are 'reliable transportation,' but I think we don't realize how basic an assumption it is in many people's minds that 'reliable transportation' assumes that you have to have your own car, and the only thing that's really a variable is the age and/or mechanical state of the car; i.e. if you have an older car that is prone to mechanical problems, that is considered unreliable so you're expected to trade it in for a more reliable, newer model.

So for many people, I think there's a thing of just inhabiting a car-only mental space so that when the issue of 'reliable transportation' comes up, there's no question of different modes or anything so complicated as that. It's just whether you have a car and whether your car runs reliably enough that you'll always get to work and get there on time. Is this active discrimination in favor of cars against other modes? No, but is it passive discrimination? It might ultimately have that effect, yes.

tandempower

My problem is I have a hard time respecting and validating an employer who discriminates against LCF. I used to think like you say, that I have to make sacrifices to get a better job, but as I get older I realize that whenever I sacrifice things that I know are right in order to work with people who are wrong, I end up stuck working with wrong-headed people and it disappoints me to have to be around such people. If I want to work with people who are decent and non-discriminatory, I have to show up on a bike and know that when they hire me anyway, I will be accepted for who I am; and if they don't, it's a blessing preventing me from having to deal with people that would disappoint me as colleagues anyway.

I-Like-To-Bike

Correct, it is your problem.

Your decision to inform any prospective employer upfront of "who I am" is probably viewed by those employers' hiring personnel as very helpful and a blessing for them also.

tandempower

I didn't say anything about informing them "who I am." I said that if you go to work for people who are discriminatory against something that you are or that you believe in, you're not going to ultimately be happy working with those people.

I-Like-To-Bike

OK, whatever you say,whatever that means.
A blessing for everybody concerned, including those who would not only have to work with you but accept you as you are.

tandempower

It means that if you show up on a bike and you don't get hired because of discrimination, it is a blessing in disguise because if you drove to the interview and then started riding your bike to work later, you'd have to deal with all the ignorant attitudes of a boss and colleagues that aren't mature enough to accept biking as just another transportation choice.

You seem to be one of those evil people who doesn't encourage people to just be themselves but instead ridicules them into changing who they are to suit other people. It's no wonder you're such a negative, hateful person if this is the way you've lived your own life, i.e. never respecting yourself and others for being honest about their true feelings and beliefs.

350htrr

Some people don't think "outside of the box", don't dream of things, don't seem to want other people to neither...

cooker

I wouldn't approach it that way. I'd go to the interview, and I probably wouldn't bike as it's inconvenient if you don't already have access to the facilities like a place to change; and if they didn't ask about transport I wouldn't volunteer information. Once I was hired I'd either drive or take public transit for a few days while I figured out where to park a bike, where to change, or where to shower if that were necessary, and then I'd start to bike. I wouldn't discuss it unless someone asked, or unless I saw another commuter cyclist, in which case I might ask about their experience.

So if anybody would have had some reservations about hiring me purely based on some bias against cycling, they didn't get a chance to influence the decision, and now that I'm hired, they'll see from my work and interpersonal interactions that they made a good selection, and that my choice of transport is not an issue.

tandempower

I've done that in the past when I still had a running car, up-to-date registration, insurance, etc. Now I couldn't drive to an interview without spending a couple hundred dollars or more on a car that would go right back to sitting unused once I started biking to work.

The way I would approach it, if you really didn't want to show up at the interview on your bike would be to figure out a place to change nearby, such as a convenient store or public bathroom, where I would lock my bike, change clothing, and then walk to the interview. People have to walk from where they park to the front door anyway, so walking from a nearby store or public park is not really any different than walking from your parked car, unless people are watching the parking lot to see you drive up (or not), but that seems unlikely.

350htrr

In my experience most bosses don't really CARE how you get there, they care whether you get there consistently, and on time, and ready and able to work and do the job right... So I think it's a Myth about bosses caring that your main form of transport is a bicycle, and not wanting to hire bicycling workers.