New employeer not providing equipment

Run Consider if you really want/need to join them. Working in a regulated space for a company that is asking this to a new hire seems dangerous

Oof. That's a bright red flag: Regulated industry and own laptop? Please tell me at least if they asked you to install a new harddrive and company VPN. If not, the company is probably compliance theater and has no business being in the business. God have mercy on their customers.

How to handle it? If you can afford it, leave and don't come back. If not, bring it up first thing you see your manager, latest on your first 1-1. This can't go on. If he brushes off, check if he intends to work you hard like 996. That usually means they are looking to use your work and find a reason to fire you asap afterwards.

Just out of curiosity: Did you oversell yourself during the interviews?

I'm surprised at the immediate leaps to conclusions here...

Why not text him back and ask him why directly? This could all be clarified in a few messages.

Red flag. Never work on company stuff on personal machine. They need to get their act together and provide equipment. You show up; you get paid--even if they are still provisioning your equipment.

In the meantime, shadow folks, attend standups, get to know your colleagues, the products, etc.

Using your personal laptop for work is unheard of for anything other than a startup that is still a couple dudes in their basement. (Where you are one of the original dudes)

Run away.

I think it just doesn’t occur to companies of a certain size. I was similarly flummoxed when my current job also assumed I was BYOPC, though they acquiesced to buy me a Mac when I asked. But, the rest of the team still uses their desktops and (!!) has trouble when traveling and being forced to use an alternate development environment.

No way they could ever pass an ITAR or SOC 2 audit with employees using their own machines. Data security is critical part of these governmental frameworks and having a set of controls in place that companies must comply with if they are to be certified. Keeping ITAR data on an employee's personal PC that is open to the internet is probably one of the biggest no-no's I can envision.

Buy a $50 used chromebook and take it in.

This happened to my wife at a small PR firm. She told them she doesn't have a laptop (she didn't really have a functional one) and they just bought her a personal one as a 'signing bonus' and they have her bring it in.

It's a bit unusual, it's a yellow flag for sure, but it depends on how desperate you are for a job.

I'd tell them "i don't have a laptop, just a desktop" and see what they say? If they seem like they're going to not hire you for that, I agree with what other folks said, buy a cheap chromebook.

Definitely a scam. Quit immediately then dive out the window.

Then mid air with glass falling all around you go

  FUCCK YOOOOOUU

just before hitting the ground exploding into a mist of blood and guts as your in tact brain slides across the asphalt only coming to a stop when hitting the Tesla supercharger your boss parks at when he bothers getting into work - the whole time your consciousness is still active, you know what’s happening, and in that moment, with DMT flooding your senses and pulsing through your neural capillaries like a row of steeds neck and neck at the end of the championship race — WHAM!

You wake up

God says

“MacBooks suck anyway! why didn’t you just expense a Linux box???”

And the lesson is that God uses Linux. Jesus uses Android because it’s like a Linux that’s always with you.

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 just be given docs to read through

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.

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.