This was a question I thought a lot about this summer, while I worked at the Menlo Park office of a SAAS company, which was situated in the same Campus as the Meta Campus, and was an Ex Meta office. It was my first time working in a Big Tech company, and although I was working on the trustworthiness of AI, and AI observability group, I felt like I still had a complicated relationship with the job. Although my job, the title and the work I did reflected my strong belief in ethics and autonomy, I still felt that I was part of, and contributing to something problematic. Because the way that big tech makes money is not by making products that are ethically good, but because they are products that can make money. I needed money, so I worked for this comapny. I do not think its morally wrong to work in a big tech company, but what is morally wrong is that capitalism is set up in such a way that we have no choice but to contribute our skills to these morally ambiguous companies with no morels compass except for money. This is what the article writes about (you can work for a company that is doing bad stuff, but not be contributing to the bad stuff yourself).
Really I think there is no easy answer. I think that there are worse things to do in life than to work in meta, but there are better things to do. I am learning that not everyone feels as strongly that their career needs to be a force to make the world a better place. Many people have a lot of difficulties in their life (visa issues, financial issues, debt, health issues). I would never judge any of these people for working in these companies, and to everyone, their choices make sense to them.
For me, I do want my career to have meaning and impact. What is meaningful and impactful to me is unique to me, and only I know what it is, and I know that working at Meta will probably not give me that. I read this book called ikigai, and it said that the people who live the longest and are the happiest are the ones who believe in and put a lot of intention into their work. For me, work that is morally and spiritually aligned is a way of life, and therefore, I think I would not be able to accept a job at a big tech company for a very long time as I will get very existential and depressed. However, if it is a means to an end to a better career, and I have a clear plan, monetary amount I want to make, and timeline to get out, I would maybe consider working there for some time. If I were to do this, I would think very long and hard about it, as it would be a very challenging time, and I feel there would be a high opportunity cost to such a choice.
Although capitalism is a frustrating system to live under, and sometimes we feel like we have no choice but to conform to it, I feel as Stanford students especially, we do have some luxury and leeway to explore how to have authentic careers that make the world a better place, if that is a priority of ours. I hope to not choose comfort and excuses, and complain about capitalism as a way to avoid doing the difficult work and having the many conversations and reaching the many dead ends of finding a career that is not aligned. I hope I have the courage to sacrifice higher pay checks and perceived prestige for the sake of work as a spiritual discipline.
I see big tech as an easy out, and it exists, Its a parachute, a get out of jail free card, a bailout. But it pulls you into the lukewarm water of comfort, thats very hard to get out of. So you need to keep searching and workign hard until you find a solution.
