‘Selling out’ has been something I’ve had many strong and changing feelings about since I’ve started at Stanford. The latest has been fear that inevitably it will happen to me (as I decide to be a passive object). Would I take a job at Facebook? (Or, Meta, but that feels like I am empowering their undeniable giant force.) Two years ago, I encouraged my partner to accept a job there: it paid well, was a great starting internship opportunity, and selfishly, it helped fund a great vacation. Though it is harder, I would have the same answer myself. Working at Facebook isn’t something I would seek for a long-term goal or once I am more established in my career, but currently, this experience would along me to build up a stronger resume for a (less unethical) job that I would want in the future, as the reading suggests. Taking an entry-level job is also pretty distant to the ‘really bad stuff’- which, though it feels like an excuse to some level, still offers some relief. It’s pretty much impossible to be separate from unethical behavior in a company as a worker, and so long as working at Facebook would allow me to get more out of it than they would get out of me (and use for … bad things), I would take it.
