The ethical question of whether it is justified to take a job at a company that does unethical things is one that I think about a lot. As a CS student at Stanford, there is undoubtedly a pathway from my degree to one of these “unethical” jobs. This is seen through our job fairs, which often host FAANG+ companies, to the way FAANG is referenced in my day to day classes and by my peers (i.e. as being the “top” tech internships to shoot for).
As a freshman coming into Stanford, I often envisioned I would use my degree for CS for social good – think, working for tech at a non-profit or doing meaningful tech pro-bono work. But, three FAANG summer internships later, I guess you could say my pathway has changed quite a bit…😅
There have been times at Stanford that I have felt so guilty for accepting a FAANG internship. After all, how can I justify working at a company like Amazon when I know that they participate in terrible exploitation of workers in their factories? What does it mean that I am using my skills and resources to support such a company? To say this dilemma has left me ethically confused at various points in my undergrad is an understatement.
On the other hand, however, I also recognize that a lot of the high-paying jobs in tech do come from companies that toe the “ethical gray line”. As I think about my post-grad goals, and about wanting to generate enough income to support a family and kids in the future, I’d be lying if I said that the salary of my job is insignificant to me.
In thinking about these nuanced sides of the ethical dilemma, the reading had a quote that really resonated with me. The author writes that some people can justify working at an unethical company because it “allows [them] to better equip [themselves] to get an improved job further down the line. If [they] really want to avoid touching unethical work, then [their] best option may be to do whatever’s necessary to build the strongest résumé possible. Once [they’ve] done that, [their] options for working will increase and correspondingly the possibilities for ethically satisfying employment.” I agree with this argument wholeheartedly; taking on a job right now at a big-name company that may not be completely ethical will certainly open up doors for more jobs in the future.
So, going back to the central question of “Would I Accept a Job at Facebook”? I think I would, under the following conditions: I would have to know that I’m working on a team that does not directly contribute to something that I do not ethically support, and I would have to see some path in the future where I can use my Facebook job as a leaping point to another job that is more in line with my ethics-for-good goals. If these two conditions are satisfied, I think I would take the role, do it for a few years, and then go from there.
