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Ask HN: New hire at Facebook, getting weird cult vibes

52 points by lifeplusplus ↗ HN
Going from big L to Facebook I see lot of differences in onboarding. First there is huge cult like behavior. "The meta way".."interpretation of our values is the only one".... Then from start to finish there has been defensive explaining / self consciousness how we are visionary despite what they say.. almost begging salesy about metaverse .. like dude I'm not joining the meta team get over it. Also seem to take pride in being overbearing, prev company was like take time and settle in and this is like go go go give me 100 soldier... cringe

45 comments

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togaen
I mean, what were you expecting.
mikewarot
You didn't watch "The Circle" [1] did you? I expect it's a somewhat accurate, if hyperbolic, picture of what life there is like.

Take their money, as long as it doesn't eat your soul. You'll likely learn a lot of interesting technologies along the way.

1 - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4287320/

hoppyhoppy2
The Circle is also a novel by Dave Eggers, which is the original version that predates the movie adaptation.
nonrandomstring
This 2014 Alternet piece by Harmon Leon only really talks the cult-like aspects of Facebook from a consumer POV [1]. The only other thing I saw (but have not read) is Minda Zetlin's article here [2]

I do know people who got sucked into FB, not as individuals but via acquisition. I don't hear from those people any more and suspect they realised any association with me would not be in their career interests.

[1] https://www.alternet.org/2014/12/8-ways-facebook-cult-just-s...

[2] https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/facebook-culture-cult-like-...

lifeplusplus
Reading article helped me process what I've been feeling. Which reminded me fb also has internal Facebook like thing called workplace and all new hires are basically being encouraged to post photos of their whole life like other 10k employees are their close relatives. Also cringey LinkedIn style "I'm so grateful..." blurbs. Basically it feels like they want me to publicly obsessively say "metaverse is the future I'm so happy our values are the best I'm grateful to be here mark is a genius that's why I'll work 60 hours a week"
jcpham2
Standard social media virtue signaling
lifeplusplus
onboarding is a grooming session - "why don't you share how one of metaverse products changed your life"
burntoutfire
I wonder what happens if you give reasonable, sane, but negative answers- e.g. "none of the products has had any effect on my life" etc.
lifeplusplus
I think you would become pariah and would be avoided by instructor and other people in the class. From instructor to keep the presentation going in the pre-planned direction and from fellow participants to avoid coming under negative light due to association.
jleyank
Sounds like Sauron’s pitch with rings of power to Men…. It’s great, you’ll be a member of a VERY exclusive club and get to work with all sorts of special features. Don’t worry that you wake up some nights in the small hours with a vague empty feeling…
caffeine
Try making friends w some people in their late 30s / 40s and have a few beers away from bosses… I bet the charade comes off and you can meet some actual humans.
strikelaserclaw
yes, having a couple of beers in a safe environment is the best way to get to know your real coworkers.
s1artibartfast
I understand you post without the quotation marks, but not with it. What am I missing?
caffeine
I understood “safe” means nobody from management is watching, and “real” means cult-mode is switched off.
strikelaserclaw
i removed the quotes, not sure why i used them in the first place.
s1artibartfast
haha, thanks for clarifying. I thought I was missing some sarcasm like fingered airquotes and couldn't figure it out .
JonChesterfield
Trust may be misplaced. What is said in the neutral environment may be fed back to management.
tehlike
Onboarding is a weird one, i got the same vibes but the actual work is much different once you are done with that.

I kinda hated first 3 days because of that tbh.

durnygbur
I don't get it... you want money or to preserve your soul? If the former, bend over to the occultists. With the time as you prove obedience, you'll have served fresh meat in form of new hires as well.
belval
A lot of companies have that weird part of the onboarding where it sounds like you joined a cult. From what you described nothing is super off-mark here.

After some time you'll see if it's the actual internal culture or just the onboarding that is weird.

matt_s
Start a counter on when your stock options vest. Hope that the stock doesn't tank more than it already has recently. I don't know the correct terms but there is an option/grant type where when you exercise there is a strike price tied to the option/grant, hopefully you don't have those.

Reasons the stock might go down further: user counts go down/market saturation, aging fb user-base and not growing usage by younger people means when all the aunts, crazy uncles and grandmas pass away the active user population will plummet.

aaaaaaaaata
> Hope that the stock doesn't tank more than it already has recently.

, ignoring that Mark has been selling $2Xmm in stock/day since Bethlehem...

hogrider
You are in one of the modt privileged positions in the world. Don't drink the coolaid but a little annoyance is nothing, nothing compared to what you are getting out of them.
leros
I recently overheard a Facebook employee who was on a date explaining how cool the Metaverse is and how it's going to change the world. It was really weird and cringy to hear. It's clear he's been drinking the Facebook Kool aid.

The same thing happened to me working at Microsoft a long time ago. You spend so much time on campus, around other Microsoft people, and you feel like you're at the best company in the world and you're working on the most amazing things. I was convinced Internet Explorer was going to become the top browser again because of how it's JavaScript engine could tap into GPUs better on Windows due to better GPU drivers and how it could do things no other browsers could because of Windows OS integration possibilities. Inside Microsoft, we "knew" Internet Explorer was coming back. The illusion got shattered in my mind about a week after leaving. It was really weird. I had obviously drank the Kool aid too.

ironmagma
The sad thing is, that optimism isn't necessarily unfounded. In fact, in order for IE to make a comeback, it's needed. Unfortunately Microsoft just is so dysfunctional that it can't coordinate well enough to get it done. (I'm not saying it's unique in this regard, many giants have this issue in various forms.)
leros
I think its also just an inevitable result of working somewhere. You're constantly surrounded by coworkers, you're repeatedly hearing all of the overly optimistic business justifications for why you're working on what you're doing, and maybe you read an article about the competition a few times a year. It's a classic echo chamber.
lifeplusplus
one activity: we will put you in breakout rooms and talk about how one of our meta products changed your life.. I just said I dont use facebook and not active on insta, although i know my mom use whatsapp, good acquisition, lol?
leros
That's a little weird. The ways companies motivate their employees with mission statements and how they're "changing/saving the world" can definitely be weird.

That being said, a lot of people appreciate and need that kind of motivation. Hopefully it's gets less weird as you get into your role.

I'm always thinking things like "yeah, I guess our mission is to change the world in X way, but I've spent the last three months making this revenue reporting graph for EU tax purposes."

ss108
When you say "big L" do you mean biglaw?

If so, would love to compare notes a bit. I was a dev for a years, currently in biglaw, planning on becoming a dev again soon (and targeting bigtech).

ab_testing
I think he meant LinkedIn.
ss108
Ah, you're probably right.
ezekg
I was thinking Lyft, but that makes more sense.
apohn
>When you say "big L" do you mean biglaw?

I'm curious as well. What is "big L?"

seanhunter
Perhaps only people in the "big L" call it that. I've never heard of that before either.
lifeplusplus
Honestly I shouldn't have referred to it as big L, it's a social network of sort lol
anacrolix
What's big L?
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
burntoutfire
Probably how LinkedIn employees call LinkedIn, thinking everybody else does too...
dogleash
Yup. That's the vibe of facebook. Profit makes the hype believable to the point people can no longer distinguish hype from the concrete positives.

There's also the salty ones who, in private, will admit they loathe the company but aren't against working for it anyway.

Dunno what else to tell you. Try to keep your head on straight because the valley conformity game just got turned up to 11.

sjg007
I think the metaverse will be huge and there is a lot of exciting potential. It's not just VR but also about pervasive computing, something that we haven't seen yet but have only glimpsed in smalltalk.
andrei_says_
I recommend reading “Disrupted” by Dan Lyons and Broken by Design by Mike Monteiro.

Will help you preserve your sanity.

lifeplusplus
just finished the audiobook, I'd recommend it as light reading to people feeling if they are going crazy.. and lost ton of respect for hubspot