I had to get a background check for my job; the report is a 300 page pdf • Hacker News Board

Re: I had to get a background check for my job; the report is a 300 page pdf

#231

Post by thecleaner » Sat, Feb 01, 2020, 10:38 PM UTC

Jupe wrote: post #111

Get used to it... this is the world we (the tech community) helped, even pushed, to create. I ask myself, would a FAANG company hire someone who doesn't actively tweet? Somehow, I doubt it. It is increasingly impossible to live in the modern world without using the internet. Try buying something these days; many of the brick-and-mortar stores are disappearing. Try getting a job without using online services. Try buyi…

Well take a cue from the drug trafficking industry. The drug cartels dont hire people who use the product because those people would be unproductive. Same goes for social media. Only difference here is that the companies dont actively screen the people using the product.

Re: I had to get a background check for my job; the report is a 300 page pdf

#232

Post by cabaalis » Sat, Feb 01, 2020, 10:41 PM UTC

granshaw wrote: post #194

cabaalis wrote: post #170

It seems against the grain on this board, but people actually think airing all their little annoyances publicly online is a good idea that will never affect their actual lives?

You’re missing the point. This is a bad algorithm that is in effect nothing but false positives, and not even on his posts, but on posts he _liked_ Do you want to live in a world where you don’t dare to do or say _anything_ online that can be traced back to you, cause now you even have to factor in shitty algorithms like these? I sure don’t.

I don't think I did. There are misses due to bad algorithm. And yet some of the tweets highlighted are indicative of a highly toxic mindset.

I do want to live in a world where statements akin to "shut up you f'ing boomer" can be tied to the person who holds or appreciates that value.

Re: I had to get a background check for my job; the report is a 300 page pdf

#233

Post by ianai » Sat, Feb 01, 2020, 10:41 PM UTC

sneak wrote: post #178

grecy wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The better questions is do you want to help your neighbours and people in your community who are in such a situation, or do you just say "It's your problem" and turn a blind eye. What kind of world do you want to live in? Keep in mind you're only one serious medial disaster (massive car crash, cancer, etc.) away from bankruptcy, so it would be extremely quick for the tables to turn. Do some reading into people who we…

I’m thinking that the best way to help those sorts of people is, when the opportunity exists for one, to choose employers that don’t abuse their potential staff. Not everyone has that choice, of course, but those that do should take it and do everything else possible to disadvantage such abusive organizations. That’s how I choose to help. If everyone with a skilled trade adopts that sort of approach and suggests that…

Companies can only offer benefits in proportion to their own finances and employees. A company with 5000 employees has much less bargaining power with an insurance company than a 15000 employee business. There’s no need to make moral judgements about the desire of the smaller company to explain why their employees have worse insurance than their smaller size. Now, mind you, we’re all supposed to be staunch capitalists here who prefer a large economy made up of many small, efficient businesses.

It’s not always a clear-cut this is better than that choice. Even if you were to have all of the information up front. Which you will not.

Re: I had to get a background check for my job; the report is a 300 page pdf

#234

Post by dredmorbius » Sat, Feb 01, 2020, 10:43 PM UTC

guntars wrote: post #164

n4r9 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's fine and dandy for people in tech but if you're a single parent with a narrow set of skills who's struggling and been applying for jobs for over a month then you're going to take the offer. And then you're not going to have much time to continue job searching.

Who’s responsible for you being a single parent with limited skills? The corporation?

No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who feed, clothe, and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed, and lodged.

-- Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations

It may be said that of this hard lot no one has any reason to complain, because it befalls those only who are outstripped by others, from inferiority of energy or of prudence. This, even were it true, would be a very small alleviation of the evil. If some Nero or Domitian were to require a hundred persons to run a race for their lives, on condition that the fifty or twenty who came in hindmost should be put to death, it would not be any diminution of the injustice that the strongest or nimblest would, except through some untoward accident, be certain to escape. The misery and the crime would be that any were put to death at all. So in the economy of society; if there be any who suffer physical privation or moral degradation, whose bodily necessities are either not satisfied or satisfied in a manner which only brutish creatures can be content with, this, though not necessarily the crime of society, is pro tanto a failure of the social arrangements.

-- John Stuart Mill, Chapters on Socialism

Re: I had to get a background check for my job; the report is a 300 page pdf

#235

Post by s45 » Sat, Feb 01, 2020, 10:44 PM UTC

tyingq wrote: post #98

wp381640 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some people the very process of having to go through a polygraph can set off other triggers

Sure. But that selection bias creates a sort of monoculture of mindless drones.

NSA is 99% white people.

Re: I had to get a background check for my job; the report is a 300 page pdf

#236

Post by drngdds » Sat, Feb 01, 2020, 10:45 PM UTC

The main thing I'm getting from this is that Twitter is terrible. Why do likes have to be public? Why can't you choose to make some tweets followers-only? Those two things would cripple this kind of background check.

(Mastodon has both of those, but a social network is only as good as its userbase, and Mastodon's is small and niche.)

Re: I had to get a background check for my job; the report is a 300 page pdf

#237

Post by martin8412 » Sat, Feb 01, 2020, 10:47 PM UTC

grecy wrote: post #172

BurningFrog wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US has record low unemployment. There are many fields outside tech where workers can be picky about jobs.

Yes, and millions of people working multiple jobs are considered to be living below the poverty line. America is the only developed country that has the class of "working class poor" More crap jobs is not a good thing, and nobody should want that.

Germany has the same

Re: I had to get a background check for my job; the report is a 300 page pdf

#238

Post by vntok » Sat, Feb 01, 2020, 10:49 PM UTC

yowlingcat wrote: post #169

vntok wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"BIG DICK ENERGY" is arguably a childish and immature post. Someone liking that post is arguably being childish and immature in their minds at that time . Of course, a single like of a childish or immature post or meme is a meaningless data point (one could like it to laugh at it). So are 5 likes. So are 10 likes. However, say that twitter account regulary likes memes that are only shared in a particular incels-commu…

This is a toddler level correlation/causation conflation and misunderstanding of psychological motivations and a thorough lack of understanding of humor. To assign so much meaning to a like is to presume to understand its meaning. But what if the like itself is ironic, sarcastic, or merely a bookmark? This kind of literalist interpretation is laughable, and will surely be looked upon in the future as a cringe-worthy…

Please read my comment again. One like from your personal Twitter account on a nazi post or conspiracy theory meme means nothing. 90% likes on such content categories from your personal account? That means a lot about you.

Re: I had to get a background check for my job; the report is a 300 page pdf

#239

Post by vntok » Sat, Feb 01, 2020, 10:51 PM UTC

allovernow wrote: post #139

vntok wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"BIG DICK ENERGY" is arguably a childish and immature post. Someone liking that post is arguably being childish and immature in their minds at that time . Of course, a single like of a childish or immature post or meme is a meaningless data point (one could like it to laugh at it). So are 5 likes. So are 10 likes. However, say that twitter account regulary likes memes that are only shared in a particular incels-commu…

This is exactly the kind of hysteria that will tear society apart. The types of jokes a person shares and enjoys outside of the office by and large are not a reflection of character, even when they are racist, sexist, or some other -ist . In fact that's the very reason that they are funny, because they are counter to norms. There's nothing immature or childish about this if you're not oversocialized. Believe it or no…

> The types of jokes a person shares and enjoys outside of the office by and large are not a reflection of character, even when they are racist, sexist, or some other -ist.

If most of your social media posts are you liking racist, sexist or some other ist content, I will avoid you. Who wouldn't?

Re: I had to get a background check for my job; the report is a 300 page pdf

#240

Post by drngdds » Sat, Feb 01, 2020, 10:52 PM UTC

Jupe wrote: post #149

lonelappde wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FAANG is full of people who don't actively tweet. G+ was famous for Google execs not using it.

Ok, fair enough, but try and extend the pattern. What if the technical candidates don't have a Facebook account, a twitter account, a github account, or any other active online presence? Do you think such resume's will jump to the top of the decision pile? I highly doubt it.

I don't think it matters that much. My only online presence under my real name is a locked-down Facebook account and an inactive LinkedIn profile with no profile pic, and I get recruitment emails from big tech companies pretty often.