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Ask HN: How do people feel about working for Meta?

8 points by Desafinado ↗ HN
I'm curious to get the perspectives of both current and former employees of Meta, or the perspective of someone you know who has worked there.

Many years ago I would have envisioned that working for Facebook was quite the status symbol, but now with years and years of scandals, putting children (mental health, sextortion) and maybe even geopolitics at risk, and Mark Zuckerberg spending his days training in MMA rather than dealing with the issues, it seems like that might have changed?

12 comments

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ryanmccullagh
Zuck is still My hero
quietthrow
Just know somebodys hero is another persons zero or villan ;) Having saud that I understand its not a competition.
sircastor
My wife and I sometimes say “You are the Villain in someone else’s story.” A turn on the phrase “everyone is the hero of their own story”

I doubt that very few of us are trying to be.

thiago_fm
I don't know about this nostalgic past you've mentioned.

It has ways been like working to a cigarette company, spreading cancer around the world.

p1esk
Why do you care how others feel? How do you feel about working for Meta?
infamouscow
This question unfairly frames the situation at Meta. It presumes that the company’s reputation has irreparably declined, and implies Zuckerberg's hobbies detract from the leadership of a company he owns in every sense of the word.

Meta, like any large organization, faces complex challenges and public scrutiny. It’s misleading to focus solely on the negative aspects without acknowledging the positive contributions and efforts to address these issues.

Leaders can and do have personal lives and interests outside their professional responsibilities. Suggesting that his hobbies indicate a lack of commitment to Meta is an ad hominem attack.

Desafinado
In fairness to Mark, the company is at a point where he himself likely has limited control over how it operates.

But my view is that the reputation of the company has irreparably declined among thinking people. I'm not sure what the argument would be otherwise.

And I find the 'complex challenges' comment a bit misleading in itself as the company literally sweeps the danger it causes under the rug.

But really I'm interested in hearing from employees in the company, not debating the company's merits.

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okdood64
What is “thinking people”?
Am4TIfIsER0ppos
They are true believers like those who work for the NSA.
quietthrow
This is very close how most are there. There are those who need a paycheck and keep the job but on balance lot of the ones there have drunk the coolaid.
ActorNightly
Personally, I tend to shy way from companies that have the main product as advertising. Your job becomes way more at the risk due to some political bullshit privacy campaign.

I got offers from Meta (then Facebook) and Google and Amazon, and went with Amazon because they have way more actual value than Google or Amazon that is concrete.