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Comment by enumjorge | Hacker News Reader

As someone who works at a not-small tech company, I try to practice the whole "people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones". After all, most tech companies exhibit some behavior that is objectionable. But Facebook... I honestly don't know how their employees are comfortable working there.

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> I honestly don't know how their employees are comfortable working there.

Probably most of the people who don’t feel comfortable with facebook’s role in society have already selected themselves out of the employee pool. If you’re the sort of engineer Facebook wants to hire, and you have a strong sense of ethics, there’s no shortage of well paid work you could do instead.

The people who end up at FB are the people who don’t see a problem or don’t care.

This is why resumes with recent FB history should be thrown in the trash.

I understand the sentiment but don’t think that’s fair. Not everyone gets to choose from their pick of job offers, and some people have serious financial commitments and dependents. If FB is the only job offer you have that pays the bills, is it really wrong to take it?

I have FB on my resume. I make hiring decisions. I will delete any applicant who was at FB over the past three years without a moment's hesitation. You do not take an FB offer to 'pay the bills', you take it because you want to acquire a big pile of money.

There was a point pre-IPO where you could think that you were actually trying to do something cool, interesting, and overall were helping people stay connected with each other. Then there was a point where you could tell yourself that you were working on some big and interesting problems and if you didn't do your job well or nail some very tricky problems then it would have a negative impact on people's lives (or even get people killed if you messed up security/privacy and revealed info about some people.)

Then one day you wake up and realize you are a prostitute working in Zuck's brothel, but unlike a real sex worker your actions are ending up fucking millions of people a day. If you don't leave at this point you are as unethical as the people around you.

Wow. So do you have a list of objective criteria you use to decide which list of companies is morally acceptable for your candidates to have worked at, or are you just coming up with an arbitrary list based on your emotions and limited personal experience? Isn’t this also incredibly hypocritical given that you admit to working at FB yourself in the past? Shouldn’t you technically fire yourself, or do you of course consider your circumstances an exception?

> do you have a list of objective criteria you use to decide which list of companies is morally acceptable for your candidates to have worked at

As a matter of fact I do.

> Isn’t this also incredibly hypocritical given that you admit to working at FB yourself in the past

It is. I excuse myself by saying that it was creepy but not overtly evil at the point where I left. To be honest, I think I got out at just the right time to have a small shred of morality left, but of course I would say that and others may differ. I am sure lots of people do not care, and the fact that my work at FB in its early days gets me interviews shows this to be a widespread opinion, but I have been inside the factory and have seen how the sausage is made. I have a date I keep in my head, and if you were at FB after that point you would be a 'no hire' for me.

Yeah. So you worked at FB, made your dirty money, got your new role, and are now demonizing others who made the same decision as you. But it’s different for you, or course, and easy to do now that you’ve made your cash. You are just as immoral as the candidates you are rejecting, if not more.

Your childish belief that companies are static entities and that the moral calculus of a job doesn't change over time makes this entire conversation a fools errand. Searching for simple black and white answers for complex problems never seems to work well. Sorry you were never good enough to make the cut and will never face these kinds of questions, but the simple fact is that at one point it was different and the company grew into something else entirely.

> If FB is the only job offer you have that pays the bills, is it really wrong to take it?

At least on the engineering, product management, etc. side of things, if you can get an offer at FB, it's highly unlikely you can't get offers elsewhere.

Of course, there are only so many companies that can offer FB level compensation. Which, if we're being honest, is why FB continues to be an employer of choice for so many people despite its atrocious ethics track record.

By the same logic, should people with criminal history also not be considered for any jobs?

People with criminal histories have paid their debt to society and absolutely should be givem jobs.

People with a history of unethical behavior for which they are unapologetic and never faced other consequences should face additional scrutiny.

People with with criminal histories show remorse.

Everyone I know that has taken a big bag of money from FB is still in denial about what they've done to the world.

Everything feels horrible until RSUs get air-dropped, which numb the pain enough to continue working there.

Easy ... money

They pay extremely well. I have a friend who moved to Facebook and complained all the time the first couple of months, but the third month or so he was like even with London living expenses the money is really great.

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