I’ve been wrestling with questions similar to this ever since I started taking my career seriously – essentially, how much do I value making good money over doing good? Now, I hope I can do both of those things eventually, perhaps in climate tech or the mental health space. Which is a little ironic, given what I’m about to say – during my little research I did before writing this blogpost, I read about how Facebook deliberately designs their products to maximize user engagement, and essentially is profit-maxing at the expense of users autonomy and well being, also known as “exploitation of consumers” from the reading. But, somewhat reluctantly, I do think I would accept a job there.
Accepting a job there doesn’t mean I have to work there forever. It also doesn’t mean that I personally have to be the one doing the arguably unethical stuff – asking the question “How close is my work to those actions I believe wrong?” from the reading – maybe they hire me to be on a team that develops technologies that are actually good for people’s well being. Although, in full honesty, I might still take the job even if I didn’t feel fully distanced from the ethically questionable things.
My main priority is not to find the perfect job right out of college, it is just to find a job. I also want to retire my parents, who have given me so much in this life, and they don’t think they’ll ever retire. I want make money so that I can give back to them, and so that I can provide to the kids I plan to have how my parents provided for me. And, as the reading mentioned near the end, if you really want to distance yourself from unethical work, it may be best to take whatever opportunities you have to bolster your resume so that you have more options and flexibility down the line. So those are my thoughts. Would I take a job at Meta? Probably. Would I want to stay there forever? Definitely not. Thanks for reading.
