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Facebook has struggled to hire talent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal

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Re: Facebook has struggled to hire talent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal

#151

Post by telltruth »

jfasi wrote: post #38

I just spent three months hiring in NYC, and now that I think about it, I haven't seen a single person mention they were considering counteroffers from Facebook. For context, Facebook and Google are the two largest tech companies with a significant NYC presence. It's telling that a substantial portion of our candidates admitted to considering competing offers from Google, but literally no one was considering Facebook…

> It's no wonder the substantial portion of people who care about their employer's ethics are turned off

Nope. People who I know have turned down FB offer was purely because they see them as less stable company and have doubts if their stock will keep falling. No one wants to wake up a month later to find out that their signing bonus just got reduced by 10% due to bad news cycle. I would estimate that less than 10% of people turn down employer due to privacy related ethics. Also, on side note, FB has jacked up stock bonuses for existing employees. Their attrition rate is virtually unaffected despite of all the bad news.

Re: Facebook has struggled to hire talent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal

#152

Post by tomdell »

trailingZeroes wrote: post #96
redwards510 wrote: post #55

As much as everyone wants to believe this is because all the applicants are suddenly taking strong ethical stances, I bet it has more to do with Facebook simply not being considering cool or exciting anymore.

Agreed. I would argue that Facebook is not considered cool as a direct result of all the outrage surrounding it.

Facebook was uncool before the outrage really took off. It's bloated and fewer young people from each cohort take to it each year.

Re: Facebook has struggled to hire talent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal

#154

Post by compiler-guy »

silversconfused wrote: post #86
jeromegv wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forget about the network effect. None of our friends are on IRC. Reddit is great for some niche groups, but there are tons of facebook groups specific to a niche that really have no equivalent anywhere else.

The value being in the network means the value is subject to social whims. That's not a secure place to do business long term. All other places I listed have networks as well. You have chosen to think this network is better for you, but if/when people move then you might need to re-evaluate that as well.

No one is claiming that it is the best place forever and ever and that can never change.

But today, facebook rules from network effects. Someday it won't (just like myspace doesn't anymore).

Re: Facebook has struggled to hire talent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal

#155

Post by baoha »

Recently I think the scandals haven't been the single biggest factor when deciding between Facebook and other firms.

The common reason I heard from most of my friends who turned down FB, or quitted FB was that the working culture is too demanding and kind of pressure. Google on the other hand is more laid back and family friendly. So people who started building a family will prefer Google over FB. The nice thing is FB tends to offer higher level than Google, so in some cases, if you get matched, it works out pretty well.

I have a friend who worked at FB, after he came back from paternity leave, his manager told him he has been slacking (his reviews were always "meet all"/"exceeding" before), it's time to put in more work, he quitted after a month.

Re: Facebook has struggled to hire talent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal

#156

Post by Barrin92 »

elorant wrote: post #103
mrtksn wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>google is a bigger concern for privacy and personal liberty Big claim. Any proofs? With Facebook, what annoyed me was that they set up internal teams to help with political candidates social media campaigns - no matter who the candidates are. Extremely worrisome if you prefer to have people elected through a democratic process that is based on the discussion. This is not like understanding what people want or how do…

Just look at the amount of personal information Google knows/records about you. Your search history, web stats through Chrome, location history through Android, with whom you exchange emails if you're using GMail, which sites you visit and how long you stay on them through Google Analytics, probably online purchases with a combination of AdSense/AdWords & Analytics, everything you watch on YouTube etc. They definitel…

>They definitely collect much more data than Facebook. The only reason they haven't faced the same shitstorm is because they don't seem to share all that data with 3rd parties.

And that is something that is much more relevant to many users. I don't mind sharing a lot of my data as long as I know where my data actually ends up. If Google uses my data to improve their ad algorithm I'm fine with it, if my Facebook data ends up in the hand of some election manipulation company I'm not fine with it, no matter how much data it is.

Re: Facebook has struggled to hire talent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal

#157

Post by la_barba »

mrtksn wrote: post #64
clairity wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "It's telling that a substantial portion of our candidates admitted to considering competing offers from Google, but literally no one was considering Facebook." intersting anecdote. google is a bigger concern for privacy and personal liberty, yet jobseekers are shunning facebook because of the more wide-ranging negative press.

>google is a bigger concern for privacy and personal liberty Big claim. Any proofs? With Facebook, what annoyed me was that they set up internal teams to help with political candidates social media campaigns - no matter who the candidates are. Extremely worrisome if you prefer to have people elected through a democratic process that is based on the discussion. This is not like understanding what people want or how do…

Has Google ever disclosed exactly what data they collect, what they do with it, who can look at it, etc? We "know" that Google takes privacy "seriously", but that is a faith based position.

Re: Facebook has struggled to hire talent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal

#158

Post by maxxxxx »

throwaway165 wrote: post #108
Balgair wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and then lost its way sometime between 2009-2012. Tahrir Square was the high water mark of the old school techies. The failure of tech to effect real and lasting change really hasn't been understood by the techies, even still. That optimism about the future and tech's role in it, is gone.

Based on discussions I’ve had with Egyptians, Facebook was used to track down dissidents after the counter-revolution that brought Sisi into power. Not sure if it was Tahrir-era posts that got them into trouble, or criticism of the Sisi government. The only lasting legacy of social media’s role in the Arab spring seems to have been inflating the self-worth of high level execs, and blinding Obama-era officials to the…

"The only lasting legacy of social media’s role in the Arab spring seems to have been inflating the self-worth of high level execs"

When the media talked about the "Twitter revolution" I still remember thinking that there were people risking their lives on the streets and how ridiculous it was that some social media guys drinking lattes in their offices got the credit.

Re: Facebook has struggled to hire talent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal

#159

Post by la_barba »

Barrin92 wrote: post #156
elorant wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just look at the amount of personal information Google knows/records about you. Your search history, web stats through Chrome, location history through Android, with whom you exchange emails if you're using GMail, which sites you visit and how long you stay on them through Google Analytics, probably online purchases with a combination of AdSense/AdWords & Analytics, everything you watch on YouTube etc. They definitel…

>They definitely collect much more data than Facebook. The only reason they haven't faced the same shitstorm is because they don't seem to share all that data with 3rd parties. And that is something that is much more relevant to many users. I don't mind sharing a lot of my data as long as I know where my data actually ends up. If Google uses my data to improve their ad algorithm I'm fine with it, if my Facebook data…

> I know where my data actually ends up

And how do you know what Google does with it? AFAIK Google has never officially stated in specific detail what data they collect, what they do with it, who can access it, etc.

Their Privacy Policy gives them a giant escape hatch to essentially do anything with it -

"We provide personal information to our affiliates and other trusted businesses or persons to process it for us, based on our instructions and in compliance with our Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures. "

https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US#infosharing

Re: Facebook has struggled to hire talent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal

#160

Post by decebalus1 »

mtgx wrote: post #47

Forget Cambridge Analytica. There have been several reports about how badly they've been treating their executives. Why would anyone else trust them after those reports?

do you think the rank-and-file employees give a damn about how they're treating the executives?
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