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- Would you accept a job at Facebook?
- Of course! Why wouldn’t I? There are certain facets of Facebook’s approach to selling their products that I disagree with. While I can understand the economic benefits of creating algorithms that concentrate certain ads and content on particular groups of people, I think that it cultivates a society that is both highly-divisive and highly-stratified. It allows individuals to exist within an echo chamber of their own flawed reasoning, and I don’t think that it a positive thing for civil discourse and exposure to new, alternative thoughts (💭). In addition, I think Meta is a company that frequently engages in ethically dubious missions and connections. The company claims in their mission statement to “give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together,” but I think that often they end up facilitating their users to do the complete opposite. I also struggle a lot with Facebook’s response to child exploitation and bullying amongst children on their platform. I think for children under the age of 16, Meta’s platforms are a cesspit of violence, hatred, and judgement, and I think more needs to be done to prevent these issues from becoming widespread and intractable (🤬).
- My justification for working for Facebook.
- However, that being said, I would still take a job at Facebook. FAANG companies are known for their generous and relaxed attitude towards employees, allowing them ample holiday time, and paying them handsomely. As an international student and non-citizen of the U.S., this is one of the great allures of a company like Facebook, as it would provide me with both the pecuniary means and time to visit my family. I think it is important to satisfy a certain number of the criteria listed in Finding Jobs to Want when searching for a job, and in a company like Facebook, I could guarantee that it allows leisure time, accumulates money, radiates a certain degree prestige (contingent on your position within the company and an individual’s view towards Big Tech), is comfortable, and provides security (💸). So yeah, I don’t see why I wouldn’t take a job at a corporation like Facebook. Regardless of the industry I enter, I hope that when I reach a certain level of income, I will have a sufficient support net beneath me that would allow me to donate money into other charitable or philanthropic organisations. Even if this isn’t the case, I can reconcile my working at a place like Facebook with the fact that I hope to enter the public sector following a number of years in the private sector. This will probably be the best way in which I can give back to society for some of the ills the companies that I work for cause.
