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As somebody who has sadly had to make hundreds of candidates write on a whiteboard, here are problems I’ve run into getting the candidate a laptop: * IT just f
by choppaface 6y ago
As somebody who has sadly had to make hundreds of candidates write on a whiteboard, here are problems I’ve run into getting the candidate a laptop:
* IT just fails: they’re unwilling to supply it, there aren’t enough, the current laptops on hand are junk, or the default password is wrong. These all happen with HR buy-in and funding.
* Recruiting just fails: they “have to move the candidate fast because of a competing offer,” they tried to work with IT but IT blocked them, they got laptops themself using their own budget but then ran out.
* I failed: I didn’t make time to prepare a non-whiteboard question, I didn’t tell my manager in each and every 1:1 that candidate experience sucks, I had three laptops and I forgot to bring my personal spare to the interview.
In general the core problem is there is zero incentive for hiring managers to do anything but shotgun candidate pools like they do today. There’s also no feedback loop to evaluators to help them improve. False negatives are completely tolerated despite there being a huge gap between CS jobs demand and CS graduate supply.
- bit_logic 6y agoThese are not good reasons and again shows that the company really doesn't care. IT gives a bad laptop? That's fine it doesn't have to be good, it just needs a text editor open. Get a USB drive with a linux distro and boot to it and open nano. Or bring your laptop and stick the USB drive linux distro in there and let them use it. Again there is zero excuse for a company to not have a laptop ready for an onsite interview. All these companies expect you to write code using a site like hackerrank during the phone screen. And yet they can't have a chromebook open to the exact same site during the onsite? If that's too much, they can't even get a cheap laptop, stick in a USB drive linux distro, open nano and give that during the onsite?
- choppaface 6y agoI totally agree: the excuses are poor and companies don’t care. There isn’t much candidates can do. Hiring managers need to fundamentally change how they approach hiring.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Apocryphon 6y agoWhiteboarding can fail. The pens might be dry. The room might be double-booked. The interviewer might be late or unavailable. Any interview setup can fail.