Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

‘I Don’t Really Want to Work for Facebook.’ Say Some Computer Science Students

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 560 posts

Re: ‘I Don’t Really Want to Work for Facebook.’ Say Some Computer Science Students

#161

Post by aglavine »

eksemplar wrote: post #117

I get that we don’t like Facebook, but isn’t this a bit much? Are they worse than google or amazon? What about people who work for Coca-Cola? What about the people who make mobile games and loot boxes for Blizzard? Where is it ethical to work? I mean, I’ve been in public service for decades, so I know a thing or two about choosing idealism over money, but that’s not for everyone and I frankly don’t think Facebook is…

I still like Facebook, but I get all the hate. It is an annoying product and can be addictive. And it used to be less annoying, more about persons and not products, and they don't care about not being addictive. They seems to be trying to cope with thinks like fake news, though. It is part of being a totally new product.

But yes, the reaction is exaggerated.

Re: ‘I Don’t Really Want to Work for Facebook.’ Say Some Computer Science Students

#162

Post by amelius »

yaacov wrote: post #9

> Ms. Brown said a lot of students criticize Facebook and talk about how they would not work there, but ultimately join. “Everyone cares about ethics in tech before they get a contract,” she said. This describes my what I've observed perfectly. There are very few companies that make new grad offers comparable to Facebook's, and career advancement opportunities and working conditions at Facebook tend to be better than…

And that's exactly why your colleagues at Facebook are likely to care less about ethics. Another reason to not work there.

Re: ‘I Don’t Really Want to Work for Facebook.’ Say Some Computer Science Students

#163

Post by eksemplar »

cgoecknerwald wrote: post #126
eksemplar wrote: post #117

I get that we don’t like Facebook, but isn’t this a bit much? Are they worse than google or amazon? What about people who work for Coca-Cola? What about the people who make mobile games and loot boxes for Blizzard? Where is it ethical to work? I mean, I’ve been in public service for decades, so I know a thing or two about choosing idealism over money, but that’s not for everyone and I frankly don’t think Facebook is…

> Like we recently ordered a system for abused children journals. A nationwide bidding landing in a 120 million danish or deal, for a piece of software that 30 municipalities build an equivalent of on their own for 2 million danish kr a few years back. Can you give the name of this company / case? I can't find anything in English news of Denmark.

The system that won the bidding is called DUBU. https://www.kombit.dk/dubu

The system that does the same thing DUBU does today, and the next DUBU will, good enough is called sbsys.

It’s not a secret, the 120 million might be 128 million though, but it’s not completely unreasonable for what it’s meant to do, the politics involved and so on. It’s just hilarious that communal co-ownership of software did it for 2 million. I mean you could argue that it’s illustrating how silly enterprise software companies are in general, but it is what it is.

Re: ‘I Don’t Really Want to Work for Facebook.’ Say Some Computer Science Students

#164

Post by aylmao »

This is.. odd to me.

I graduated college not too long ago, and you hear stuff like this all the time. A big one is Financial Tech-- people talk a lot about how they don't want to work for those companies.

Some people are against working in big-tech, or AirBnB because of the housing crisis, Uber because of the sexual harassment and competitive culture, etc.

This is however the first time I see a NYT article about this. They're really going after Facebook with all they can find.

Re: ‘I Don’t Really Want to Work for Facebook.’ Say Some Computer Science Students

#166

Post by wesleytodd »

elicash wrote: post #157
SCHiM wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a weird thing to say about oneself. Do you really consider yourself to be "less ethical" or have you internalized "mainstream" ethics as "good", and found that that's not what _you_ think is ethical/good behavior?

I took it as OP being modest and not wanting to sound holier-than-thou.

This mostly. But also I don't self identify with a strongly held ethic. I identify more with a balanced approach where sometimes ethics are a guide, and other times the outcome is as or more important, just depends on the situation.

In the case above, both my ethics and the outcome pointed me in the same direction. In others the might conflict and I do a cost benefit analysis.

Re: ‘I Don’t Really Want to Work for Facebook.’ Say Some Computer Science Students

#167

Post by tombert »

marssaxman wrote: post #138
Animats wrote: post #49

...the head of the start-up incubator and investment firm, Y Combinator, gave opening remarks, recommending that young people avoid jobs in big tech. “You get to program your life on a totally different scale.... The worst thing that can happen to you is you get a job at Google.” He called those jobs “$100,000 a year welfare” — meaning, he said, that workers can get tethered to the paycheck and avoid taking risks. Wh…

Same reason you'd work for any startup - because startups are fun and interesting? You get a level of autonomy you can never have at an established company, with freedom to experiment and work creatively.

As someone who has worked for five separate startups, I have to disagree. While you do get close to your teammates, in my experience the managers in startup-land tend to be a lot less flexible because they have their vision of how something is supposed to be done.

I work for a giant evil megacorporation now, and I honestly feel like I have more freedom here to explore new stuff than I ever did as a JS/PHP/GOLANG/MONGODB Ninja/Rockstar/Guru in startup land.

Re: ‘I Don’t Really Want to Work for Facebook.’ Say Some Computer Science Students

#168

Post by icedchai »

PascLeRasc wrote: post #155
icedchai wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're probably not smart enough to get in, anyway. If they were, they'd go to FB, milk that huge salary, unload their RSU's on a regular basis, save and invest, and FIRE by age 35. Signed, a CS graduate and FB stock holder with 500% return.

What do you think you'll be remembered for after you pass?

Ask my 3 adopted children.

Re: ‘I Don’t Really Want to Work for Facebook.’ Say Some Computer Science Students

#169

Post by nemild »

yaacov wrote: post #9

> Ms. Brown said a lot of students criticize Facebook and talk about how they would not work there, but ultimately join. “Everyone cares about ethics in tech before they get a contract,” she said. This describes my what I've observed perfectly. There are very few companies that make new grad offers comparable to Facebook's, and career advancement opportunities and working conditions at Facebook tend to be better than…

I loved this quote:

> “Employees are wising up to the fact that you can have a mission statement on your website, but when you’re looking at how the company creates new products or makes decisions, the correlation between the two is not so tightly aligned,” said David Chie, the head of Palo Alto Staffing, a tech job placement service in Silicon Valley. “Everyone’s having this conversation.”

I call these anodyne mission statements, false mission. Mission that feels good, but that doesn't have teeth in incentives — or selectively ignores inconvenient facts.

Beware False Mission

https://www.nemil.com/snippets/beware-false-mission.html

Re: ‘I Don’t Really Want to Work for Facebook.’ Say Some Computer Science Students

#170

Post by eksemplar »

zandl wrote: post #154
eksemplar wrote: post #117

I get that we don’t like Facebook, but isn’t this a bit much? Are they worse than google or amazon? What about people who work for Coca-Cola? What about the people who make mobile games and loot boxes for Blizzard? Where is it ethical to work? I mean, I’ve been in public service for decades, so I know a thing or two about choosing idealism over money, but that’s not for everyone and I frankly don’t think Facebook is…

If you can link the fall of democracy to misinformation being spread on their platform, genocide and mob murders, yes I’d say not all tech companies are that bad.

I think poor education, stagnation of living standards and rising inequality is a lot worse in that area than Facebook.

Granted, I think angrymob-media would be a much more fitting description than social-media, but it’s not like humanity wasn’t perfectly capable of making really shitty decisions long before the internet.

Post reply on HN