In short, yes, I would accept a job at Facebook. My reasoning reflects both where I am in my career and how I think about balancing personal growth with my moral complications.
Career
As someone who will be fresh out of college with no professional work experience besides internships, I think it’s very important for myself to establish the start of my career in a place where I’m able to safely grow, learn a lot, and expose myself to new opportunities. Working at a large company like Facebook would enable me to do that. This mindset is definitely dictated by the goals I have and how intertwined I want my morals to be with my career choices. That said, at the stage of my career, I am looking for ways to explore, learn, and grow. A place like Meta is a great resume booster that can open up many doors for future employment opportunities. It’s great for adding credibility and proving myself in this space as someone who hasn’t yet to really break into big tech.
Navigating Ethical
I skimmed through the Facebook Papers essay and I understand the argument of how large companies like Facebook and Meta sit at the center of massive social and technological change. In doing so they control how the flow of information works, how content is distributed, and how billions of people have access to specific information and are able to interact with that information. I think being inside of an organization for a short period of time or a long period of time would teach me so much about how the system works, how are the forces internally working first hand, what state of the art tools are they developing, what mindset and structures are in place that enable them to grow and develop and scale the way that they have, what technical and strategic skills can I learn that I can then extrapolate and grow elsewhere.
I don’t think by being an employee at a company, you’re necessarily accepting all of its flaws without questions. Even attending an institution like Stanford the way that we are, doesn’t implicitly mean that we agree with every position that Stanford takes and every action Stanford takes. This is like saying by choosing to be an American citizen means that you agree with every policy and politician that is passed into government. I do believe that employees can sometimes have the power to push for reform and advocacy. However, I don’t subscribe to the idea that by choosing to work at a company, you’re endorsing every action that company takes. I’ve worked for Morgan Stanley, HDR, BART, and Stanford: while each experience provided me rich learning opportunities, I could never truthfully claim that I fully aligned myself with the values or actions of any of these organizations. That said, I could understand the opposite positionality. Whereby working for an organization with conflicting morals, you’re there by helping them achieve their mission, goals and expansion of a reality that directly violates your values.
Conclusion
In the end, at this stage of my life, I see jobs as a place to gain exposure, earn an income, and build skills. As long as I’m able to pursue these three goals without impeding my health or wellness (including mental, which by working at a company like Meta can be harmful mentally/emotionally), then employment there within my limits.
