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Comment by rualca | Hacker News Reader

> That's not to say salary should be secret (dear god, no), but how cool a company is IS an important metric in and of itself.

If only I had $1 for each time I saw a company showing off foosball tables, game consoles in the hallway, picnics, team get-togethers, people laughing and being cheerful.... And in the end it's the same cubic hellhole where people are no better than anonymous cogs in the machine.

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If the company describes itself as "cool" because they have pool tables, that's a great thing. It's signal that thats what "cool" is to them. Sounds like a job description that talked about not working in a cubicle hellhole would resonate with you more.

> If the company describes itself as "cool" because they have pool tables, that's a great thing. It's signal that thats what "cool" is to them.

No, not really. It just means that HR had a PR budget to sell themselves as cool, and they bought a game as a prop.

My point is that this blend of signaling is pure bait-and-switch. The mods operandi is that they sell this false idea that they are all about fun and games but in the end it's just a low-paying cubicle hellhole with crunch time as the baseline.

Well, yes, they think they're saying something which reveals a lot more to you and you know to avoid this company. I also like to ask myself - who would be attracted by such a job posting and would I want to work with them?

And actually playing foosball/games are frowned upon Fakecool, all a part of the signalling that companies do to attract talent.

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