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Ask HN: Is working for Huawei a bad career move?

I received a very attractive offer from Huawei to working in cutting-edge machine learning research. This offer was for an office in the US, which operates via their subsidiary, FutureWei. However, given recent news about security concerns of Huawei, I'm concerned whether working for them would be a blemish on my resume for future opportunities with American companies. I keep seeing news articles pop up here and there, and one of my friends warned me of certain American companies having "blacklists" for hiring former Huawei employees (this may or may not be true, but the sentiment may still be there). I'm not sure if future recruiters or hiring managers might look upon this experience with distrust. I'm early career (mid 20s), and I have large career aspirations in machine learning research/engineering. I do not want future employers, especially Silicon Valley companies or government-related work, to be concerned of any potential security risk of hiring me. Or, just the fact that I worked at this company to be some sort of red flag in my application. On the other hand, the money is good, and the team seems strong. I would be working on very interesting topics, which would be great for my career advancement. The offer almost seemed too good to be true, so HN - are my concerns justified?

ThrowawayR2 8y ago
A variety of companies have been vilified in the past: IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and now even Facebook, Google, and Amazon to some extent, yet their employees have no difficulty finding new employment. Short of working on a controversial project, your past employer should have little bearing on how future employers view you. Should it ever become an issue, you can always leave Huawei and cite ethical concerns as part of your reasons for doing so to future employers.
lettergram 8y ago
Is working at Facebook a bad career move? You'll always have ethical concerns when working at a multi-national, multi-million dollar Enterprise. I don't think anyone is particularly looking at your background from an ethical perspective. We (as in general public) still hire people from the government for instance, who are from the military.
- ElTigreDeLibre 8y ago
  I definitely agree with your statement about tech company ethics as a whole. However, Huawei is particularly in the spotlight for US national security reasons, possibly leading to perceiving involvement with Huawei as a liability. See the following (more articles on the subject can be found with a search): https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/14/17011246/huawei-phones-safe-us-intelligence-chief-fears https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/14/17011246/huawei-phones-sa... https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10485560675556000 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10485560675556000 https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/19/huawei_spied_us_jury_finds/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/19/huawei_spied_us_jur... Given the increasing US-China tensions, the beginnings of a so-called "AI arms race', and Huawei's use of employees to breach the trust of other companies, would this make an employee seen as a potential risk to US companies? It may sound paranoid, but even unfounded rumors can have an effect if a company is paranoid as well!

ThrowawayR2 8y ago

A variety of companies have been vilified in the past: IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and now even Facebook, Google, and Amazon to some extent, yet their employees have no difficulty finding new employment. Short of working on a controversial project, your past employer should have little bearing on how future employers view you. Should it ever become an issue, you can always leave Huawei and cite ethical concerns as part of your reasons for doing so to future employers.

lettergram 8y ago

Is working at Facebook a bad career move? You'll always have ethical concerns when working at a multi-national, multi-million dollar Enterprise. I don't think anyone is particularly looking at your background from an ethical perspective. We (as in general public) still hire people from the government for instance, who are from the military.

ElTigreDeLibre 8y ago
I definitely agree with your statement about tech company ethics as a whole. However, Huawei is particularly in the spotlight for US national security reasons, possibly leading to perceiving involvement with Huawei as a liability. See the following (more articles on the subject can be found with a search): https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/14/17011246/huawei-phones-safe-us-intelligence-chief-fears https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/14/17011246/huawei-phones-sa... https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10485560675556000 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10485560675556000 https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/19/huawei_spied_us_jury_finds/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/19/huawei_spied_us_jur... Given the increasing US-China tensions, the beginnings of a so-called "AI arms race', and Huawei's use of employees to breach the trust of other companies, would this make an employee seen as a potential risk to US companies? It may sound paranoid, but even unfounded rumors can have an effect if a company is paranoid as well!