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Comment by rch | Hacker News Reader

If they can't pay more, try asking for a 4 day work week.

For smaller companies/startups I also prefer to receive fresh hardware (macbook,mini,etc.) at signing.

Fresh hardware? Are you kidding? If you make a decent salary you can buy your own hardware whenever you feel like it. A $2K MacBook Pro is a drop in the bucket compared to paying a 6 digit salary.

Nah - I buy other stuff too, and go places.

For me, starting off with a brand new MBP with all the trimmings (incidentally, ~4-5K) translates directly into productivity.

Besides, if I was paying it'd probably be running Plan 9 and have an FPGA duct taped to the back...

If they pay you and let you buy the MacBook, it's after tax.

$3k is still a drop in the bucket

Great! e-mail me for my address..

In Australia at least, if you pay for hardware, software or education which you use directly for work purposes or for self-education directly related to your current occupation, it is tax-deductible.

Fresh hardware is a test. It should be a drop in the bucket and a no-brainer but its very often not. When it goes bad, its a huge red flag. If you get even the slightest bit of "well we can't really approve something like that without this or that managers sign-off and then the 30 day procurement process from an approved vendor..." head for the door.

I've seen companies burn 100 hours of $150/hour employee labor in order to save $50 on a mouse. You don't want to work there.

I worked for a very large enterprise software company for a while. They gave everyone their stock computers with stock keyboards and mice (the basic ones that came with the HP systems). I spent about a month trying to get them to buy me a new keyboard which I felt was necessary for ergonomics and because I had (informally) demonstrated a higher typing speed on it.

Eventually I just bought one for myself. It was $50. Managers made all sorts of excuses, then IT said they wouldn't buy non-standard hardware, and there were particularly a lot of excuses in the vein of, "but then we'd have to buy keyboards for everyone." That they wouldn't consider buying their $100k/yr employees a $50 keyboard every few years was just another symptom of their dysfunctional environment.

You were allowed to bring in your own hardware and use it. Lucky.

Hardware, and other expenses such as conference trips, is indeed a very small expense compared to salaries. It's a cheap way of showing employees that you care.

Just as a recent example, it took an email to my manager and 10 minutes later a keyboard for $150 was approved. Say it lasts for 5 years - the feeling of appreciation by easily getting what I need approved and bought is worth so much more, compared to what $150 spread out over 5 years of salary would buy them (disregarding that the raise would also cost a more considering taxes and such).

Good points all around.

I'd be interested to know going in what a startup's policy on conferences would be.

While I expect most trips to be ultimately grounded in business development (and with good reason), is the company purely focused on talking up a product, or will they accommodate my technical/social interests as well?

Giving a pitch can be fun, as long as I have Plenty of time to chat with other programmers, attend panels, learn something, etc.

That's what I do. I work at most 2 months a year. But draw salary for the rest of the year. The company doesn't mind too. They are happy to keep me on board as insurance against sinking projects.

If you are serious then can I be your apprentice? :)

But I want to work more than that, and they want me to work more than that too. This is a win-win situation if the compensation is right.

Oh sure, I expect to work nearly all the time. I just want less time that I have to answer the phone. It is still win-win.

Try for something like Google's 20% time? You work for four days a week on what they say, then work the other day on whatever you want. Or three and two. It works out well for everyone if they want you to do interesting things, and if they don't you still get to do what you think is most important or fun some of the time.

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