
Ask HN: Why is Facebook not having a harder time hiring? - kngspook
With all repeated issues the company is suffering with their product strategy, software quality, privacy issues, executive retention, etc., why are people still eager to join the company?
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jy1
When you get paid $200k/yr right out of college, who's complaining?

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HNLurker2
Integrity

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askafriend
A lot of the issues are perceived to be overblown - and in more cases than HN
would like to admit, they indeed are overblown.

Quite a few double standards are being applied to Facebook by the media-
industrial complex and the uninformed. On the other hand, Facebook has
stumbled a lot on their own and deserve a significant portion of the criticism
they get. It's a nuanced topic and isn't as simple as "FB bad, pls delete".

Facebook also has an extremely talented employee base and they pay industry-
high salaries while also doing cutting edge work.

Smart people want to work with other smart people on interesting large-scale
problems.

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sgeneris
Destroying a society, addicting people/kids, violating privacy, generating
inequality consequences -- interesting large scale problems indeed -- FB is
working on CAUSING them. REALLY smart people wouldn't do this.

But then, who cares if you make big money. For allowing this the US deserves
everything it gets.

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askafriend
This is the kind of rhetoric that people shut out. It doesn't work.

Facebook is many things, and has many effects on society. Not all of them are
good and in some cases cause active harm but not all of them are bad and in
some cases do active good. I think most people agree with this assessment if
they're being intellectually honest.

And from there, we can try to identify what aspects are extremely problematic
and potential solutions to curb the downside risks.

But the point of your rhetoric seems to be because you want to drive a
specific agenda or viewpoint. Everything you said could equally apply to
Television, Hollywood, or even Radio and those same arguments were made during
the advent of those media too. It's just not interesting rhetoric to engage
with.

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rm999
I know a lot of senior data people (read: high demand tech people) applying
there right now. A few things:

1\. People who work there are generally happy. Interesting problems to work
on, a company where tech is respected, etc.

2\. A lot of those issues you list are common in big tech, see Google. The
people I know who are looking at Facebook may want to work at a bigger, more
stable company.

3\. As everyone else mentions, $$$. That said, Finance also pays similar rates
but I don't see a lot of people fighting for those roles, so that doesn't
fully explain it IMO.

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mindgam3
Because money trumps ethics in our society, and Facebook still looks like a
good career move.

But there will be a tipping point soon (next 12 months) when FB stock price
begins to legit crash after another scandal finally breaks the camel's back.
Hasn't happened yet with the FTC fine, but it will come. When their valuation
is no longer up and to the right, the hiring situation will change
dramatically.

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aussiegreenie
Facebook is today's tobacco company. Tobacco companies need to pay 2-5 times
to the "normal" rate to get people to work for them.

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askafriend
Why such an extreme comparison?

Does the Television industry hit too close to home to not use as an analogy
instead?

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foolfoolz
netflix pays more than facebook

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wincent
Interesting technical work, great peers, good comp. If you are a user, it's
good to work on something that you use. If you're in the front-end space in
particular, its exciting to work on things that have significantly changed the
ecosystem.

(Ex-Facebooker. When the Cambridge Analytica stuff went down I wasn't too
thrilled, but above all I left because of lack of work-life balance.)

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lizardking
Because people like money

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galori
Because of money obviously. If someone is out of a job for a month, especially
if they don't have "deep" savings, they'll take the first or highest offer
they get.

Also, how do you know they aren't having a harder time hiring?

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tudelo
They pay 250k for someone with 2yoe. And have benefits better than 99 percent
of companies (likely more than 99 percent honestly).

Edit:

And, a properly defined career ladder. Competitive stock refreshers and
bonuses. Varied projects.

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notacoward
Interesting problems (not too many places you can do stuff at that kind of
scale/impact), very pleasant environment within the company, and yes, money
too. And there are a few who come precisely _because_ of those troubles, to
make things better instead of standing in a glass house throwing stones.

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ochronus
Why are people taking jobs in governments? In oil companies? In tobacco
companies?

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rinchik
Because some support FB's mission of giving people the power to build
community and bring the world closer together?

Why majority thinks that everything what FB does is necessarily bad? It's not
true at all and plainly evil propaganda.

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sgeneris
Oh, please, you can't be that gullible to believe Zuckerberg's marketing -- a
guy who sued 300 people to build his Hawaii mansion.

With people like you no wonder he gets away with all his crap.

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lallysingh
Also lots of people aren't paying attention to that stuff.

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bifrost
Because they get first pick of the good interns and they're still better than
a couple of the other big places to work for.

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shishy
Unfortunately, accountability and respect for privacy seem to be a meme these
days

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iliaznk
Show me a big company without those kinds of problems.

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gouh
Because Facebook hires skilled people, not great people.

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diminoten
Because they're not suffering with their product strategy, software quality,
privacy issues, or executive retention.

Don't believe what you read in the news.

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thereare5lights
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

I mean really it shouldn't be surprising, they pay really well.

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whenchamenia
Pay > Ethics

They will have to live with the consequenses when they are older. I hope it
weights heavily on those that compromised their beliefs for a 'cool job'.

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craftinator
Honestly, for that money, I'd sell out. But I'd also make myself a huge thorn
in the side after the first year anytime anything unethical was going on. If I
got fired, I would ADD IT TO MY RESUME, that I left a job at FB making 150k
because I took an ethical stand against nasty behavior. I'd have a big chunk
of green in my pocket, come across as a coding saint to future employers, and
they would KNOW that my last salary was 6 figures. It's really kinda awesome!

