[borplk]

I agree with pretty much everything you say but the reality for the majority of people is they can't afford to "just walk away" when those things are so widespread.

It was in another recent thread someone was insisting you should "just walk away" if the company doesn't have private offices.

It's not practical for most people.

[daly]

I agree. I'm just passing on some general life advice for interviews I got from Bob. If you're in a position to look around for other opportunities (as "the best and brightest" often are), it helps to see through the market hype. If you're actually in need of the job, do what they ask. I've been in both situations.

IBM often had "hiring freezes", nobody could hire anyone... well, except that I still did some interviews at IBM Research. There were people we would hire under any circumstance. In fact, one of the people I interviewed during a hiring freeze was offered a job and a whole new lab. She really was one of "the best and brightest". (She actually did walk away and went elsewhere.)

Do you really think that Geoff Hinton, Andrew Ng, and Yann LeCun got whiteboarded?