I really need a laptop for a job interview, can't afford it and nobody can lend me one

[Terribleluck]

Would it be terrible of me to buy one to then return it,?

There are lots of suggestions here

Hire one
Buy a refurbished
Ask jsa if they can help
Ask the library if they have private rooms
Borrow one from a friend
Borrow one at a friend's house
Borrow from school
Send presentation in and use your phone
(Feel free to add if I have missed anything)
What is the relevance of sql skills?

The library authority I work for lend laptops with data, worth asking.

I’m a programmer and don't know anybody who doesn't have their own - but it's quite judgemental to think badly of people for this. There could be various reasons why someone doesn't have one. Broke just before the interview and can't afford to replace for example. Or there were other priorities.

Broke just before the interview, fine, you explain that. “Other priorities” really? For someone in IT? Only in extremis! IT isn’t exactly a minimum wage job. Given if you have a work laptop, it shouldn’t be used for personal use, an IT person not feeling a PC/laptop was necessary in their personal life would be very unusual.

The SqL skills is only in relationship to the type of role, and that I do think it's slightly weird to not have a laptop for someone in tech, even if you're the leasy techy of the lot. I'll check the library on Monday.

There have been some good ideas Op. another suggestion is to ask if you can attend the interview in person at their offices & present from your laptop to the room.

@BoredZelda

Any employer should be providing a laptop to their employees- you don't supply your own.

I don’t know a single person who works in IT who doesn’t have their own laptop or PC as well as an employer provided one.

My husband is an IT manager and I think he’d be wary of someone who works in tech not having their own laptop or PC

DH is the Senior Software architect in his software house and neither he nor I have personal laptops anymore.

Sorry to be blunt but I think the suggestions of going to a library are very naive. That's something people did in the early to mid- 2000s, not now.

Where are you in the country?

If you are on universal credit ask your work coach to use the flexible support fund to get you one.

I would ask if you can do the interview face to face or if you can come in to the office snd use their technology.

I was in a similar situation recently except that my laptop broke down 60 mins before my interview and i didn't have time to go and buy a new one, set it up etc.

I called the prospective employer's office and the reception staff were very kind. They said I could email it over. Luckily I had it on Onedrive so I was able to get it emailed via my phone. One of them logged in to the interview and were my 'assistant'. I logged into zoom from my phone and just said 'next slide please' while the reception staff shared their screen for the interviewer to see the presentation.

Call the employer and just be matter of fact. Unfortunately you don't have access to the technology needed for the interview, but you're able to suggest alternatives to enable you to participate.

Don't go and put yourself into debt for an interview. FYI, i recently bought the cheapest laptop from Curry's (HP for £220) for my mum to get online etc and it really struggles to do Zoom with any other app opened at the same time. You may end up wasting your money unless you buy something with better tech spec which could see you spending £350+.

Lots of great suggestions on this thread that wont get you into debt.

@blueghost

If you are on universal credit ask your work coach to use the flexible support fund to get you one.

I second this. The DWP have a discretionary fund they can use to assist people in all sorts of ways. It's not very well known about even amongst DWP staff.

Musicmagpie rent out tech (I think)

I work in IT transformation and don’t actually have a laptop of my own 🤷🏼‍♀️

But I did buy ds a chrome book last week. It’s still £125 but would do the job. Ordered it one evening and it arrived the next morning. It was this one

esupply.co.uk/lenovo-ideapad-3i-11-6-chromebook-intel-celeron-64-gb-emmc-black/

DH is the Senior Software architect in his software house and neither he nor I have personal laptops anymore.

Does your IT policy allow using work laptops for personal use?

Does your IT policy allow using work laptops for personal use?

I have never ever heard of anyone being sacked for using a work laptop to do an online shop or book a holiday.

Letter of the law mumsnetters are so tedious.

OP tell them honestly. From a diversity pov excluding the poor from job interviews isn’t on. We’d find a way round it for sure.

The amount of misinformation and lack of technical knowledge is staggering.

Firstly, no good employer will just at all if an employee doesn't have a suitable laptop for this interview.

I have interviewed plenty oh people throughout the pandemic. The only thing I'd expect is the candidate to be honest with me & we would do everything we could to find a solution.

Secondly, I agree with asking for help from your work coach.

In relation to joining from your phone, the interview itself from your phone would be fine. The presenting, less so. It will be too small on screen & hard to really deliver a quality presentation that way - technically it's possible; in practice you are likely to be insufficiently confident & that will affect your performance.

You do need a suitable device, but I would be confident that a good employer would help you. I know I would.

In terms of purchasing & returning, don't do this - even if it's allowed, you would need to purchase the software too, and once that's installed, as it needs to be, returning will be harder.

Going forward, it would be great to put in place a plan so that you can in time buy a laptop. I know that's not possible at the moment.

Best of luck with the interview 💐

Agree fully with @Teateaandmoretea

@tulips27

Sorry to be blunt but I think the suggestions of going to a library are very naive. That's something people did in the early to mid- 2000s, not now.

I'm not sure about the UK but that's not true in Ireland - libraries provide exactly this type of access to tech. However, with Covid restrictions, there often aren't private rooms available to use, and therefore it is not suitable for interviews.

@BoredZelda

I’m a programmer and don't know anybody who doesn't have their own - but it's quite judgemental to think badly of people for this. There could be various reasons why someone doesn't have one. Broke just before the interview and can't afford to replace for example. Or there were other priorities.

Broke just before the interview, fine, you explain that. “Other priorities” really? For someone in IT? Only in extremis! IT isn’t exactly a minimum wage job. Given if you have a work laptop, it shouldn’t be used for personal use, an IT person not feeling a PC/laptop was necessary in their personal life would be very unusual.

'Personal use' involves things like checking email, watching videos etc all of which you can do on your phone/iPad. Anything techy (even if not directly related to work) can reasonably be done on a work laptop - of course depending on how strict the security controls are. If you're entry level, ambitious, looking to move and have lots of projects on GitHub yes you need a personal laptop. But not if you're a seasoned dev who doesn't need to prove themselves. Companies don't generally police what exactly people are doing on their laptops by insisting that it has to match X project as people try new things all the time, maybe for a future idea etc.

It's not about people's wages (which by the way is also presumptuous to assume - you don't know people's expenses and being through redunancies, layoffs etc can take its toll).

Why not just judge people's capabilities at the interview - instead of unrelated things?

@Terribleluck

I'm unemployed in receipt of JSA. I might have to do it for another job interview, so I might just have to bite the bullet.

Asked the job centre for help

@Teateaandmoretea

Does your IT policy allow using work laptops for personal use?

I have never ever heard of anyone being sacked for using a work laptop to do an online shop or book a holiday.

Letter of the law mumsnetters are so tedious.

OP tell them honestly. From a diversity pov excluding the poor from job interviews isn’t on. We’d find a way round it for sure.

I don't think the poster was referring to things like this (because these aren't restricted to tech people!) - but doing 'techy' things on your own time.

Even then it's dubious because a lot of 'tech' jobs don't need fiddling with a computer at all. And even for techy jobs once you've passed a certain point you don't need to build things to prove yourself - on your personal machine.

Fat llama.com hire out laptops for around £5-10 per day.

Other companies are also available

It's surprisingly common not to have a personal laptop. I spend 8 hours plus a day on the bloody work laptop! Last thing I want to do when I'm done for the day is spend even more time on a laptop.

Use phone for most things and a 10 year laptop ru
ing Linux where phone doesn't cut it.

If you work in a highly regulated industry or where your laptop is ridiculously locked down then a personal laptop would be a necessity.

I work for a software house so have no need but keep old Linux laptop for rare occasions I need it

OP if you have an old laptop and an old-ish iPad have you looked at how much you could get for them? Could you sell them and get a half decent laptop, or at least money towards one?

Does your DH have a work laptop?