8 ms·

Then you should find a way around it. If an applicant can't even manage to get a laptop for a few hours I rather hire someone else. In extreme cases we can wor

by redox99 2mo ago

Then you should find a way around it. If an applicant can't even manage to get a laptop for a few hours I rather hire someone else. In extreme cases we can work it out but you should have something that makes up for the extra annoyance compared to 99% of applicants.

mock-possum 2mo ago
Wow your suggestion is “let them eat cake?” Do you actually believe what you’re saying, or have you not thought it through?
- CookieCrisp 2mo ago
  What reality are you living in?
- fsckboy 2mo ago
  there are people out there who don't want to hold your hand. stop advocating that we discriminate against them because you feel you need your hand held.
metalforever 2mo ago
I’m a lead engineer and have been Staff plus for more than 5 years. I’ve actually personally run into this problem (not having a working laptop for an interview). I don’t really do laptops well because it’s not a good environment to get work done in. I can see a large screen(s) desktop setup better and prefer that.
- fsckboy 2mo ago
  the mention of laptop was not adding a laptop requirement to the original question
- rootusrootus 2mo ago
  > I can see a large screen(s) desktop setup better and prefer that. I kinda assumed that most developers took a similar approach to me. Laptop because portable when you need it, hooked to large screens, nice keyboard, nice mouse/whatever. I don't know what having a desktop would really buy me. I do 99% of my work with the laptop docked but that remaining 1% it sure is handy to grab it and go.
  - 0cf8612b2e1e 2mo ago
    Desktop gives you a ton more oomph when you need it. Not that it is affordable today, but my personal desktop has 192GB of RAM, 24TB HDD, beefy GPU, and is basically never going to thermal throttle. If you are just making web apps, it does not matter, but I do data processing where having the headroom can make a big difference. I do have the cheapest used laptop I could find for those moments when I might require portability.
    - xmcp123 2mo ago
      I priced one out for my current job and honestly the savings just weren’t there. The ram, gpu, HD now take up a disproportionate share of the price.
      - rootusrootus 2mo ago
        I’m keeping applecare on my macbook paid up and planning to hunker down for a few years hoping prices relax a little.
        xmcp123 2mo ago
        I always do the same thing: work for a new company, get offered a MacBook, ask to choose my own non-MacBook for the same price. When we part ways, I offer to buy it (at used laptop prices). Never had someone say no.
    - rootusrootus 2mo ago
      That’s a fair point. The most I use my laptop for is some local LLM processing. I’d have more headroom on a desktop, for sure, but 96GB M2 max has plenty of oomph for my needs. Maybe I’m underestimating how many power users there are. For my day job I tend to offload most of my work onto a big server anyway so I could probably get by with a Neo at this point.
  - morkalork 2mo ago
    Yes, that's me too and why I mentioned it. Often it feels like I'm alone in that many of my peer developers have sweet gaming rigs with beaucoup RAM while I'm just chugging along with a laptop. In one instance for a data-oriented job interview I spun up a VM in the cloud because they linked a kaggle dataset for the at home test that was just a bit too big for my laptop to handle. But to have nothing, no desktop, no laptop at all, is _odd_ for a developer. How did you get through school? If not school, then how is it a hobby-turned-profession without something to develop on? The whole "no one should be denied access to a job" angle is weird too. What is the limit to accommodations?
- redox99 2mo ago
  I used laptop because that's what the parent said, but I really meant a computer of any kind at home. I assumed a remote interview. If its an interview in person at an office I'd definitely expect hardware to be provided.
nkrisc 2mo ago
In most work places you are provided a computer to work on. So you could very easily not have a personal computer during your career as you are always provided one to work on. Probably not common, but certainly plausible. Not everyone wants to bring work home or have hobbies that are the same as their work.
- redox99 2mo ago
  I wouldn't want to hire someone who literally never uses a computer outside work (to the point of not owning one).
  - shimman 2mo ago
    Would totally hire someone if they proved competence in software development while also not owning a computer. Tells you they are an extremely competent smart worker that could be surprisingly helpful in ways we don't understand. I'd love to learn from such a person.
  - nkrisc 2mo ago
    Why? Some people like to spend their free time doing things that aren’t what they do all day at work. I knew one software developer who basically spent all his free time outside hiking and camping and rarely did anything with a computer when not working. He was a good dev and very competent. Just after being cooped up inside on a computer all week he didn’t want to spend more time on one at home. It’s not much of a stretch beyond that to simply not owning one.
  - s_dev 2mo ago
    Like I said, you could own one and it's broken. Your 5 year old knocks over a glass wine the night before a morning interview. What do you do? The fact you can't work around it also might reflect badly on you as a potential employer.

by redox99 2mo ago

mock-possum 2mo ago

Wow your suggestion is “let them eat cake?” Do you actually believe what you’re saying, or have you not thought it through?

CookieCrisp 2mo ago
What reality are you living in?
fsckboy 2mo ago
there are people out there who don't want to hold your hand. stop advocating that we discriminate against them because you feel you need your hand held.

metalforever 2mo ago

I’m a lead engineer and have been Staff plus for more than 5 years. I’ve actually personally run into this problem (not having a working laptop for an interview). I don’t really do laptops well because it’s not a good environment to get work done in. I can see a large screen(s) desktop setup better and prefer that.

fsckboy 2mo ago
the mention of laptop was not adding a laptop requirement to the original question
rootusrootus 2mo ago
> I can see a large screen(s) desktop setup better and prefer that. I kinda assumed that most developers took a similar approach to me. Laptop because portable when you need it, hooked to large screens, nice keyboard, nice mouse/whatever. I don't know what having a desktop would really buy me. I do 99% of my work with the laptop docked but that remaining 1% it sure is handy to grab it and go.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 2mo ago
  Desktop gives you a ton more oomph when you need it. Not that it is affordable today, but my personal desktop has 192GB of RAM, 24TB HDD, beefy GPU, and is basically never going to thermal throttle. If you are just making web apps, it does not matter, but I do data processing where having the headroom can make a big difference. I do have the cheapest used laptop I could find for those moments when I might require portability.
  - xmcp123 2mo ago
    I priced one out for my current job and honestly the savings just weren’t there. The ram, gpu, HD now take up a disproportionate share of the price.
    - rootusrootus 2mo ago
      I’m keeping applecare on my macbook paid up and planning to hunker down for a few years hoping prices relax a little.
      - xmcp123 2mo ago
        I always do the same thing: work for a new company, get offered a MacBook, ask to choose my own non-MacBook for the same price. When we part ways, I offer to buy it (at used laptop prices). Never had someone say no.
  - rootusrootus 2mo ago
    That’s a fair point. The most I use my laptop for is some local LLM processing. I’d have more headroom on a desktop, for sure, but 96GB M2 max has plenty of oomph for my needs. Maybe I’m underestimating how many power users there are. For my day job I tend to offload most of my work onto a big server anyway so I could probably get by with a Neo at this point.
- morkalork 2mo ago
  Yes, that's me too and why I mentioned it. Often it feels like I'm alone in that many of my peer developers have sweet gaming rigs with beaucoup RAM while I'm just chugging along with a laptop. In one instance for a data-oriented job interview I spun up a VM in the cloud because they linked a kaggle dataset for the at home test that was just a bit too big for my laptop to handle. But to have nothing, no desktop, no laptop at all, is _odd_ for a developer. How did you get through school? If not school, then how is it a hobby-turned-profession without something to develop on? The whole "no one should be denied access to a job" angle is weird too. What is the limit to accommodations?
redox99 2mo ago
I used laptop because that's what the parent said, but I really meant a computer of any kind at home. I assumed a remote interview. If its an interview in person at an office I'd definitely expect hardware to be provided.

nkrisc 2mo ago

In most work places you are provided a computer to work on. So you could very easily not have a personal computer during your career as you are always provided one to work on. Probably not common, but certainly plausible. Not everyone wants to bring work home or have hobbies that are the same as their work.

redox99 2mo ago
I wouldn't want to hire someone who literally never uses a computer outside work (to the point of not owning one).
- shimman 2mo ago
  Would totally hire someone if they proved competence in software development while also not owning a computer. Tells you they are an extremely competent smart worker that could be surprisingly helpful in ways we don't understand. I'd love to learn from such a person.
- nkrisc 2mo ago
  Why? Some people like to spend their free time doing things that aren’t what they do all day at work. I knew one software developer who basically spent all his free time outside hiking and camping and rarely did anything with a computer when not working. He was a good dev and very competent. Just after being cooped up inside on a computer all week he didn’t want to spend more time on one at home. It’s not much of a stretch beyond that to simply not owning one.
- s_dev 2mo ago
  Like I said, you could own one and it's broken. Your 5 year old knocks over a glass wine the night before a morning interview. What do you do? The fact you can't work around it also might reflect badly on you as a potential employer.