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Ask HN: New employeer not providing equipment

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31–40 of 44 posts

Re: Ask HN: New employeer not providing equipment

#31
post #30

Well, you should send this ‘yeah, I can bring my personal laptop while my machine gets set up - when will my company issued device be available?’ Oh and yeah, bring a comically old laptop running an obscure Linux distro. DSL would be best.

I agree with this. Gotta bring Red Star linux for maximum comedic effect given the regulated nature of the job.

fyi Amazon has toy laptops for kids for pretty cheap....

Re: Ask HN: New employeer not providing equipment

#34
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with this. Gotta bring Red Star linux for maximum comedic effect given the regulated nature of the job.

fyi Amazon has toy laptops for kids for pretty cheap....

If I am just going to wait for a laptop and read documentation in the meantime, I am not gonna subject myself to that.

PS: I like using your app!

Re: Ask HN: New employeer not providing equipment

#35
post #26
post #21

As a counterpoint to all the negative comments here, it’s entirely possible the CTO knows it’s gonna take x time to get your company laptop, which precisely because it’s a regulated industry might mean days/weeks of you waiting around with nothing to do In that situation it makes sense for you to bring a personal laptop which you can use to access non confidential stuff, you might not write any code in it and might j…

I like this take. And I have been in that position before, get my self familiarized with whatever frameworks they are using. But actual code, that's gonna need a work issued machine. They had over a week now since I accepted the offer and they have an MSP, so it's a bit odd for it to take that long.

why not just ask the CTO and company directly if that's the case?

Re: Ask HN: New employeer not providing equipment

#36
post #21

As a counterpoint to all the negative comments here, it’s entirely possible the CTO knows it’s gonna take x time to get your company laptop, which precisely because it’s a regulated industry might mean days/weeks of you waiting around with nothing to do In that situation it makes sense for you to bring a personal laptop which you can use to access non confidential stuff, you might not write any code in it and might j…

but honestly it's still a bad look for the company that:

1. did not communicate that X timeline in advance 2. did not pre-order when they offered the offer letter or when OP signed the letter

Re: Ask HN: New employeer not providing equipment

#38
post #27

Buy a new laptop. I didn’t get a work laptop when I was at a mega corp and the pay was absurdly good. I ended up remote desktoping into a secured pc anyway. Don’t put your personal stuff on the laptop for any reason. If money is a concern buy a laptop from Costco. 90 day return policy in case the first check bounces or something.

If the pay was absurdly good, I will gladly do whatever is needed. But it's not.

Ok.

Your options are still.

Show up on your first day with a laptop.

Show up on your first day without a laptop.

My suggestion stands.

Odds are you can get your job done with a 500$ laptop if push comes to shove.

Now of course you can show up without a laptop and get into a nasty argument about them needing to provide you equipment. You’d be right, but they’d have the option to fire you on the spot. Even if this isn’t technically legal, you don’t have much recourse.

It’s up to you.

Everyone else here is going to keep downvoting me, and not a single one of them will help you find a new job.

Re: Ask HN: New employeer not providing equipment

#39
Happened to me before too, it happens, it’s not a redflag, it’s more of the company is small and they don’t have enough established policies regarding those stuff, to be fair, I like it that way, too much policies make feel like suffocating. For you, you can grab a good thinkpad for $200 and use it solely for work, it won’t break the bank.

Re: Ask HN: New employeer not providing equipment

#40
It's not uncommon. You're probably not going to work on anything serious until they get you one, but until then it'll be much more useful than a phone, when it comes to looking things up or viewing pertinent web pages or videos. Avoid putting any sensitive data on your laptop, as it likely won't be as secure as the one they set up for you. Even if it's a small startup, in California there's a bunch of bureaucracy around onboarding new hires. I joke that there's a small-business-industrial-complex that makes its income bleeding small businesses dry offering compliance services.

Fun fact: When you're new employer makes you read a bunch policy, or watch videos about them, it's called indoctrination. It literally means learning, but outside of business context it has a much harsher connotation.

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