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recently interviewed at Facebook (didn't pass the in-person) and one thing I was looking for was a job that WASN'T based on ads. I didn't want to come across ne

recently interviewed at Facebook (didn't pass the in-person) and one thing I was looking for was a job that WASN'T based on ads. I didn't want to come across negative so I was circumspect in my asking ("Tell me about the positions at Facebook that I as an outsider don't know about - I know ads, messaging, and events"). I wasn't really excited by the answers I got - ads seemed worked into everything they brought up, but the answers weren't super-nefarious either. This was the Seattle office, which apparently has a strong ads-basis. Because they hire people and then (allegedly) let them pick from available team openings (after a "bootcamp" to do onboarding), I simultaneously felt like I'd have a chance to avoid the worst but also couldn't be sure of what I was committing to. I didn't pass the interview and the few weeks since have tried very hard to make me not regret that by raising issues like this one, despite my natural tendency to give FB the benefit of the doubt and to recognize the difficulty of moderating speech sanely. I've never had such uncertainty about what a job would involve before - the "you find your match" sounded good initially, but in retrospect I'm wondering if I dodged a bullet - so hard to know.

mav3rick 8y ago
There's Oculus and Building 8. Also, backend infra stuff.
sweezyjeezy 8y ago
I find it interesting that you would absolve yourself for working for Facebook just because you wouldn't be working directly on ads. Facebook is an ad company with services attached (a fairly reprehensible one in my opinion). If you work for them, you are helping them achieve their goals, which ultimately is about serving people ads, it doesn't matter what particular role you are doing there.
- ergothus 8y ago
  "absolve" is not the correct term (I think) - I don't find ads particularly offensive, I just don't ENJOY them, and I was looking for a job I'd enjoy and enjoy telling people about. I'm perfectly fine with ads existing, though I'm supportive of being able to buy my way out of them. (You can raise issues about ads being inherently deceptive and manipulative, and I wouldn't say you're wrong, but I've not taken a position against them...yet) That facebook is doing bad things because ads are their only real source of income is a problem because of the bad things, not the ads. At the time the primary concern was "what should facebook be doing about de facto empowering hate speech and (actual) fake news?" and that's a tricky problem that I don't think has a resolved answer, and I sympathize with those that empower communication and only later realize people have more desire to trash things than apply rational caution. Since then much more has come out about some FB practices (and Google), and the question of whether ads-as-your-primary-revenue-source is too much incentive to be "evil" is being implicitly raised, but is likewise not yet resolved. That said, I do think there are lines to draw and lines not worth drawing. There's very few jobs that don't end up supporting bad things. I don't think it's right to pretend that if you aren't doing it directly that you AREN'T supporting such things...but I also think it's sometimes unrealistic to make your situation worse to deny an indirect support. Deciding where that line lives is an individual decision, and one I have to regularly re-evaluate. To expand my point in the previous post, the news coming out about FB practices definitely made me feel like I'd have been uncomfortable even if I wasn't working directly in ads.

mav3rick 8y ago

There's Oculus and Building 8. Also, backend infra stuff.

sweezyjeezy 8y ago

I find it interesting that you would absolve yourself for working for Facebook just because you wouldn't be working directly on ads. Facebook is an ad company with services attached (a fairly reprehensible one in my opinion). If you work for them, you are helping them achieve their goals, which ultimately is about serving people ads, it doesn't matter what particular role you are doing there.

ergothus 8y ago
"absolve" is not the correct term (I think) - I don't find ads particularly offensive, I just don't ENJOY them, and I was looking for a job I'd enjoy and enjoy telling people about. I'm perfectly fine with ads existing, though I'm supportive of being able to buy my way out of them. (You can raise issues about ads being inherently deceptive and manipulative, and I wouldn't say you're wrong, but I've not taken a position against them...yet) That facebook is doing bad things because ads are their only real source of income is a problem because of the bad things, not the ads. At the time the primary concern was "what should facebook be doing about de facto empowering hate speech and (actual) fake news?" and that's a tricky problem that I don't think has a resolved answer, and I sympathize with those that empower communication and only later realize people have more desire to trash things than apply rational caution. Since then much more has come out about some FB practices (and Google), and the question of whether ads-as-your-primary-revenue-source is too much incentive to be "evil" is being implicitly raised, but is likewise not yet resolved. That said, I do think there are lines to draw and lines not worth drawing. There's very few jobs that don't end up supporting bad things. I don't think it's right to pretend that if you aren't doing it directly that you AREN'T supporting such things...but I also think it's sometimes unrealistic to make your situation worse to deny an indirect support. Deciding where that line lives is an individual decision, and one I have to regularly re-evaluate. To expand my point in the previous post, the news coming out about FB practices definitely made me feel like I'd have been uncomfortable even if I wasn't working directly in ads.