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Stéphane Graber has left Canonical

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Re: Stéphane Graber has left Canonical

#51

Post by smitty1110 »

lbhdc wrote: post #31
manifoldgeo wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I applied to two different Canonical jobs, and the process was so off-putting I dropped out of both at different stages. One position required me to take a psychoanalytical test where they judge your personality traits to A.) make sure you have the desired personality traits for the role and B.) that you're smart enough for the role. I looked at the terms of service for the company they outsourced this test to, and i…

> It also struck me as a red flag that Canonical is 100% BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), and they do not provide a work computer. You can apply for a _loan_ to buy a computer for work, but they will not pay for one. If a company is too cheap to provide a computer at a job where you work remotely and exclusively on a computer, I don't want to be a part of that company. That doesn't seem so bad to me. I have always prefe…

I work in Contracting, so YMMV.

For me, I have a separate laptop for every contract I work on, sometimes more than one for a given contract (for complicated compliance reasons). The reason for this is to a) prevent cross-contamination between projects, and b) because the laptops could get caught up in legal shenanigans. If one contract ends up in dispute, the laptop could end up getting subpoenaed, and if it was my only laptop I would be SOL. Or god forbid, code from two projects gets mixed by accident, and now I'm in violations of multiple NDAs. In one case, the customer paid for my hardware during development, and when we were done they took ownership of the laptops along with the code.

Your work computer is just like your work code: At the end of the day it's not really yours, don't get attached.

Re: Stéphane Graber has left Canonical

#52

Post by basisword »

arachnid92 wrote: post #7
ss1996 wrote: post #2

On a side note - has anyone applied to Canonical for a software job? Their first step is a written interview which requires as much, if not more, effort as a graduate college application.

I did. I passed all rounds and was extended an offer, but the pay was way below what I expected and so I declined. They also don’t sponsor visas or relocation, which was a dealbreaker for me as well.

Is it usual to go through all rounds of an interview process without getting a salary range and asking if they sponsor visas and pay for relocation? These are round one questions for me and I assumed everyone else.

Re: Stéphane Graber has left Canonical

#53

Post by ecshafer »

lisasays wrote: post #8
ss1996 wrote: post #2

On a side note - has anyone applied to Canonical for a software job? Their first step is a written interview which requires as much, if not more, effort as a graduate college application.

Yup, and a beauty that interview process is. They've even earned themselves a bit of fame for it: https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/thsrcp/this_was_the_... Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30735678

That's absurd. I am not answering questions about high school or college, especially to that degree. I am a decade into my career at this point. I would turn this into a "creative writing" exercise.

Re: Stéphane Graber has left Canonical

#55

Post by manifoldgeo »

HumblyTossed wrote: post #45
manifoldgeo wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know many other jobs that work this way. Imagine getting a construction job and having to supply your own jackhammer or take out a temporary loan to buy one. Doesn't the company have some they should supply you with? Gig-economy jobs work this way, e.g. Uber and Lyft, but those are problematic for the same reason (and a lot more reasons imho). As another commenter said, you're adding wear and tear to your own…

Mechanics tend to bring their own tools.

That's true. And for new mechanics that don't have their own tools yet, there are vendors like Snap-On that drive tool trucks to different garages will sell them tools on a payment plan. This creates a situation where a person in a new job starts out in the red, being indebted from the start simply because they need new tools.

At least it's not as bad as the gilded age where workers got paid in company-store scrip and lived in company housing in a company-run town. Still, I think it's a step in the wrong direction.

I'm not trying to be dramatic or imply that Canonical's device policy is some act of pure evil, but it was a contributing factor to my decision not to move forward. I have a computer that would serve the purpose just fine. It's more about principles. By itself, that policy wouldn't have been so bad, but combined with other red flags it was enough for me to stay away.

Re: Stéphane Graber has left Canonical

#56

Post by saghm »

gabereiser wrote: post #16
amelius wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1,000 words on why I love Canonical ChatGPT to the rescue?

There’s only so many ways to say kubernetes. I don’t think LLM can write a pager on Canonical without sounding repetitive.

I don't think a lot of humans could either; I doubt I could!

Re: Stéphane Graber has left Canonical

#57

Post by sdfghswe »

tedivm wrote: post #49
lbhdc wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It also struck me as a red flag that Canonical is 100% BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), and they do not provide a work computer. You can apply for a _loan_ to buy a computer for work, but they will not pay for one. If a company is too cheap to provide a computer at a job where you work remotely and exclusively on a computer, I don't want to be a part of that company. That doesn't seem so bad to me. I have always prefe…

The biggest reason I separate work and personal devices is that I do not want my personal devices subject to discovery if my employer is involved in a lawsuit. I can't stress this enough- if my employer is sued, I don't want the opposing law firm to get copies of my data. The second reason is that I don't want my personal devices subject to security monitoring, and most companies that at least pretend to care about s…

What industry is this?

Re: Stéphane Graber has left Canonical

#59

Post by manifoldgeo »

presbyterian wrote: post #47
manifoldgeo wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know many other jobs that work this way. Imagine getting a construction job and having to supply your own jackhammer or take out a temporary loan to buy one. Doesn't the company have some they should supply you with? Gig-economy jobs work this way, e.g. Uber and Lyft, but those are problematic for the same reason (and a lot more reasons imho). As another commenter said, you're adding wear and tear to your own…

Construction workers (and mechanics and most other jobs where you're using standard tools) do require you to provide your own tools, that's why you'll often see Snap-On trucks touring around garages. Obviously for bigger, specialized equipment like a jackhammer or an excavator, they provide them, but I think a laptop is much closer to a set of tools in this analogy.

That's a good point, a computer is probably more screwdriver and less jackhammer. I still dislike companies that externalize their costs to their employees, but I do agree my analogy was slightly off.

Funny, I actually mentioned Snap-On by name in one of my other replies, probably around the same time you were commenting. They've got good brand recognition, apparently!

Re: Stéphane Graber has left Canonical

#60

Post by FreshStart »

lbhdc wrote: post #31
manifoldgeo wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I applied to two different Canonical jobs, and the process was so off-putting I dropped out of both at different stages. One position required me to take a psychoanalytical test where they judge your personality traits to A.) make sure you have the desired personality traits for the role and B.) that you're smart enough for the role. I looked at the terms of service for the company they outsourced this test to, and i…

> It also struck me as a red flag that Canonical is 100% BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), and they do not provide a work computer. You can apply for a _loan_ to buy a computer for work, but they will not pay for one. If a company is too cheap to provide a computer at a job where you work remotely and exclusively on a computer, I don't want to be a part of that company. That doesn't seem so bad to me. I have always prefe…

Cause anything developed on your private device becomes company IPiif touched?
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