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Comment by 5trokerac3 | Hacker News Reader

Facebook's brand is tainted enough now that smart engineers don't want any of the bleedover into their personal brand that would come from working there.

How many engineers, in hiring positions, do you know that have a positive opinion of FB?

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Ok but how many engineers use React, yarn, or graphql? Facebook is still leading the way in front end development and it’s still a net positive to have that name on your resume. Their brand isn’t any more tainted than Google, Microsoft, or Amazon.

Open source libraries like React should not be attributed to companies. It just so happened that Jordan Walke worked for FB when he wrote the library.

Its not like any of these companies specifically target creation of such tools as part of their business goals.

Those companies have teams that maintain them and they get tons of work done internally before they’re released. Microsoft has been great for Typescript just because of the brand that’s behind it and the teams that get paid to maintain it. React is the same way.

I've got good news for you. You can contribute to these projects (and put your contributions on your résumé) without having the Facebook taint. e.g.:

* https://github.com/facebook/react/pulls

It’s a lot easier when you’re getting paid for your time and are surrounded by other people working on the project.

There's still much more chances that you will end up working on some Ad-Tech at Facebook and not cutting edge open-source development. As for the brand not being any more tainted than the other tech giants, I think the article shows the exact opposite

That is a fair point. But, that's not what the topic is about. Just because they contributed to front-end development doesn't make them any less questionable. Not saying I wouldn't want to work there myself. They do some good work there i'm sure.

I will happily profit from the work FB has poured into all three of those technologies and smile knowing they won't make a single cent from me.

Facebook is not lacking on the problem in their web tech either. Like how terrible it's maintaining (or the lack of) flow. It's buggy as hell and I wish I didn't choose it couple years ago in my projects

And for React, the head of React left FB because of the hostile working environment earlier this year. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/17/facebook-manager-quits-after...

Facebook led the way in frontend. But for future candidate, the important question is, if they have faith that FB will continue to lead that way.

Sure but no company is going to be perfect and I’d say their track record of maintaining tech is better than Google’s right now.

They're definitely more "tainted" than those brands. I'd say public perception of ethics in tech brands, from most to least ethical, is:

Apple Microsoft Google Amazon Facebook

(whether or not those perceptions are well founded is another matter)

I think your point about the personal aspect of work is most relevant. I personally would be mortified to work at a company that was always in the news for various scandals and generally being full of shit. Not that I'd assume anyone who works there to be full of shit - just that I wouldn't want my friends making fun of me for working for the Zuck. Facebook just isn't cool anymore in my neck of the woods and there's no social capital in using it or working there as far as I can see.

I would hire an engineer from Facebook any day of the week. For the most part the devs are excellent. I would not let my personal opinion of a product stop me from hiring a great candidate.

Yes, I actually have an overall positive opinion of Facebook in terms of engineering talent. Facebook has made some questionable decisions, but I would not automatically assume that everyone who works there is so immoral that you shouldn't hire them.

Facebook AI research also has some of the top AI researchers.

I know lots of engineers, in hiring positions, that have a positive opinion of FB.

They still do great engineering and someone working there will learn a lot and take those skills to their next job.

There are engineers who were already working at Facebook when all the negative press started piling up.

Then there are the engineers who went to work for them in spite of that bad press.

Given the revelations that have come to light, that is a distinction worth considering.

At the same time I don't see people having too much bad opinion about people working in defense industry. Ethics is not an issue with hiring.

It’s not easy to build an app at the scale of FB. If I saw FB experience on a candidate’s resume, I would view that as a positive.

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