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points by fusslo 4 days ago | 0 comments

as a candidate it's pretty tough scheduling interviews past 5pm or on the weekends

What’s preventing you from using a personal laptop ?

Being an engineer I am surprised, but for normal staff its very common to not have a personal laptop. The most common request from layoffs or firings in my company has been a request to keep their company laptop

[–] stevekemp 3 days ago

I've worked at a few companies where they'd offer to sell, for a nominal amount, the work-laptops to ex-staff.

I know the last time I left my job I was given the opportunity to buy an M1 mac with 16Gb of RAM for €100, so of course I did.

(Though I also paid €500 to keep the phone they'd bought for me, which was perhaps not such a good deal, it was convienent and I do like the phone, but I'd have been happy to have a random cheap android phone, I have no specific requirements beyond "small enough to fit inside a sporran"!)

[–] varispeed 3 days ago

You would think that tech job will pay enough to buy a laptop.

[–] yieldcrv 3 days ago

pervasive assumption that the consumer choice is based on ability to make the consumer choice

they're not interested, they view it as a work tool and they always have one as they avoid gaps in their resume

no different than say, a work badge. you can buy an NFC enabled badge from ebay but you never will

[–] rvba 3 days ago

You would think that those in tech jobs are interested in tech and have a full box of various computers.

[–] potatototoo99 3 days ago

I am interested in tech, and have multiple desktop computers. I have a single laptop with a good camera that I-d use for interviewing.

[–] yieldcrv 3 days ago

a lot of people have what they consider to be a healthier separation of their living spaces now

and you don't need all of that to do anything the professional world wants or requires

[–] watwut 3 days ago

If you spend a lot of time in work working on laptop, you might just plain not need one at home. It is not necessary for entertainment, sport, cooking, whatever. You do not need it to learn new things. Plus, some people have desktops or console for gaming.

And if you are coding full time, it is better to not do coding in your free time if you want to maximize learning anyway.

[–] dylan604 4 days ago

Hi Bob, why are you using your personal laptop at your desk instead of the company's laptop?

[–] paxy 4 days ago

If you are openly interviewing for other jobs from your desk I don't think which laptop you use is going to be anyone's concern.

[–] steelframe 3 days ago

I have never hidden the fact from any of my management in any of my companies that I interview with other companies on a semi-regular basis.

It reminds them that while I am a replaceable cog in their machine, I am also a cog that other machines would like to install given the right opportunity. And I am always aware of my current market value.

[–] duderific 3 days ago

Sure, but that's different from straight up taking interviews during working hours.

[–] dkdbejwi383 4 days ago

Their current job, presumably

[–] marssaxman 4 days ago

How does that prevent you from using your personal laptop for a job interview?

It would never occur to me to use an employer's hardware for such a purpose. It seems absurdly lazy, but I know that not everyone's life works like mine, so I would like to understand why this would be a real problem for people.

[–] dylan604 4 days ago

I had a really bad meeting one day that became the straw that broke the camel's back. When I went back to my desk, I saw an interesting job posting. I immediately fired up the company's copy of Word to draft up a resume, and used the company computer to send the email from my personal account. Less than a month later, I was working for the new company. It was done intentionally. I almost sent the resume via company email, but I really wanted to ensure I could access any response.

[–] alyeska2 3 days ago

> It would never occur to me to use an employer's hardware for such a purpose

That's a very uncommon mindset and worldview.

For 99% of people, the default would be "I'm going to join this Zoom meeting from the laptop I use all day long to join Zoom meetings, and I'm going to code using the laptop I use all day long to code".

Lots of people have their work tools setup on their work computer, but not on their personal computer. Their personal laptop might be relatively underpowered and struggle to run all the required software efficiently during an interview. The issue becomes even more significant as more of the tools used require an account - you don't want your interview performance to suffer because you're using an unfamiliar tool or service, so you just use the ones you're used to using every day.

[–] kakacik 3 days ago

Common or uncommon, its extremely unprofessional. You know when you are dealing with a kid or with professional who actually wants to get hired and has some manners.

Sharing other's company secrets by mistake, using other company's resources in ways that are definitely forbidden - is this a person you really want to hire since they will behave the same in your company? Is this a person you want to give trust with some internals?

In market with 100s or applicants thats enough to disqualify anybody who actually needs an interview or two to get hired.

[–] alyeska2 3 days ago

Maybe this is just an agree to disagree moment, but literally no one I know would consider this unprofessional at all.

I've been in management for the past decade and interviewed a few hundred candidates in that time. Never once did I ask or care who owned the laptop they were using.

And similarly, if someone on my team used their work laptop for an interview, I wouldn't care at all.

[–] JsonDemWitOster 3 days ago

What I'm seeing here is that Binance has the IT culture of a SV start-up when it should have the IT culture of a bank. Sounds to me like a thug with a $10 wrench could've been just as effective.

> Lots of people have their work tools setup on their work computer, but not on their personal computer...you don't want your interview performance to suffer because you're using an unfamiliar tool or service...

I struggle to come up of even the most absurd interview scenario where the tool makes the difference especially in our field where if a FOSS tool is not standard, then there's a sufficiently powerful free tier (eg., Sublime, IntelliJ). Heck most remote interviews, they take you out of your tools completely and ask you to code on some shared browser-based editor.

> That's a very uncommon mindset and worldview.

I'm calling HN SV start-up bias. Outside of the startup software eng'g industry, a lot of people exercise very good separation between work tools and personal tools. I know a lawyer, _who's the head of his own law firm,_ bring his personal laptop to the office just so he could purchase tickets during office hours.

I think this is also down to a few factors:

- SWEs are typically issued high-end machines in contrast to other professions whose standard issue is still 4GB (or 8GB, if you're lucky) RAM. For those professions buying a better personal laptop is a low bar to clear.

- SWEs are more efficient when they have admin access to their own machines. Though it begs the question that maybe some inefficiency would've been an acceptable tradeoff to $6.3B.

- SWE is one of the professions on the poster for the "Get paid good while working from Bali" lifestyle, wherein BYOD is implied, especially if you are freelancing.

[–] alyeska2 3 days ago

> I struggle to come up of even the most absurd interview scenario where the tool makes the difference

I had an interview recently where I'd initially planned to use my own machine, then gave up and just used my work computer.

I'm used to the whiteboarding/UML/flowchart software I use at work, so I either needed to pay for a personal subscription so I could use it in the interview or be forced to use some other software I'm not familiar with. I also didn't have a personal paid AI code tool, so again either pay for a personal one or just use the work Claude account. Also the webcam on my work laptop is substantially nicer than my personal laptop.

Also, critically, it doesn't matter. If IT or my manager had pinged me to ask "Did you do an interview at noon yesterday?" I would have said yes and then the only follow-up would have been them asking if it was a random thing or if I was actively looking.

I think IT (and I guess, lawyers) are probably the only people who care much about separating work and personal devices, just because they're prone to being aware of how much surveillance of the device can be happening. People in marketing/sales/whatever back office stuff will be logged into their personal Facebook, Netflix, iMessages, Email and bank and never consider that their keystrokes are being logged and screenshots are being taken.

[–] fc417fc802 3 days ago

> I think IT (and I guess, lawyers)

IT is aware of surveillance. Lawyers have a legal responsibility to take all reasonable steps to safeguard confidential client information. A lawyer misusing a work device is probably roughly equivalent to a healthcare worker doing the same.

[–] pcthrowaway 3 days ago

If you work from the office, and they have tight security, they might frown upon bringing personal devices to connect to the internal network.

Also, some people might not have dev environments set up on their personal devices. Heck, a lot of people only use the internet through their smartphone, when they're not at work.

[–] gorbachev 3 days ago

My employer allows personal computing equipment at work, but has a separate, completely isolated network they connect to. You're never allowed to connect them to the company network.

[–] firstplacelast 3 days ago

It's not that hard if they're actually interested in you. It's a good way to weed out a lot of the performative, pipeline filler interviews.

[–] illiac786 3 days ago

Sorry but that’s very entitled. Not everyone has the luxury of being chased by head hunters after hours…

[–] appreciatorBus 3 days ago

If you’re interviewing, why wouldn’t you book the time off? Take a half-day so you can prep, and of course, do it on your personal equipment.

[–] paganel 3 days ago

> If you’re interviewing, why wouldn’t you book the time off?

Because those half-days soon add up, in this market you don't apply just to one company.

[–] gorbachev 3 days ago

Fake interviews also use social engineering tricking people to accept interview requests at short notice, so that they maximize the chances they'll be connected from work.

[–] ponector 3 days ago

There are multiple companies and 5 rounds of interview each. Your suggestion will wipe a huge chunk of vacation balance.

[–] pjmlp 3 days ago

Which is why time off exists, at least on countries with civilised labour laws.

[–] paxy 3 days ago

No need to take the day off. It's pretty common to be "sick" when you have an interview.

[–] pjmlp 3 days ago

Yeah, or that.

[–] alexfoo 3 days ago

For my most recent job (Staff/Principal SWE) I interviewed at four companies, each with four rounds of interviews (usual variations on 30m recruiter screen, 45m-60m tech discussion or coding exercise, 60m-90m tech deep dive, 30m-45m final wrap up with hiring manager). All over the course of about 3 weeks. It was about 16 hours in total.

No chance you can do that on "sick days", fake doctor/dentist appointments, or other such scheming. Taking many half days of personal leave just isn't workable either. You're not in full control of the scheduling to make different companies interview you one after each other on the same day, or take the same time between rounds. Some could have been scheduled in lunch breaks but not all of it.

Most people I've worked with would just schedule some "focus time" and were either WFH or headed off to a quiet part of the office or a nearby co-working space. Personal laptops are easier to use offsite obviously.

[–] kakacik 3 days ago

> Taking many half days of personal leave just isn't workable either.

Why it isn't? A genuine question, I presume this is more typical US culture or dare I say workaholism and various self-pressures to maintain some public office image?

I recently took quite a few half days off to manage workers doing bigger reconstruction in our apartment. Sometimes full day. Then smashed a week of vacation in Sardinia in between. Everybody understood whats happening, nobody cared since many went through similar exercise before.

Your time is your time, if you actually let it happen. Or you can spend your life living with servile attitude, nobody will thank you though.

[–] alexfoo 3 days ago

> Why it isn't? A genuine question,

Because my personal leave is time I want to spend with my family. I would have had to have taken about 4 days worth of leave (8 half days) to cover these interviews and that's 4 days a year less I get to spend with my wife and kids.

(UK based so not US culture, and not workaholism or image.)

[–] pjmlp 3 days ago

I usually refuse such Silicon Valey interview style, unless I am desperate for a new position.

For the ones I usually take, a few hours out from overtime budget is enough, or WFH days.

With 30 days holidays + overtime budget, taking a day off for an site interview, is manageable.

[–] mrheosuper 3 days ago

Having to work for only 11 months per year is a luxury.

[–] pjmlp 3 days ago

Depends on where one lives on the planet, yes some countries have better labour laws than others, even unions for IT workers.

[–] wolvesechoes 3 days ago

> I interviewed at four companies, each with four rounds of interviews (usual variations on 30m recruiter screen, 45m-60m tech discussion or coding exercise, 60m-90m tech deep dive, 30m-45m final wrap up with hiring manager). All over the course of about 3 weeks. It was about 16 hours in total.

Programmers don't have any self-respect.