8 ms·

From my experience, most of this negativity just appears on HN or on channels who have some strong bias (usually business related) against Facebook. All my acq

From my experience, most of this negativity just appears on HN or on channels who have some strong bias (usually business related) against Facebook. All my acquaintances working in tech, which includes people from very wide sociodemographics ranges, consider Facebook an absolutely prestigious employer, with top talent, top challenges, top compensation and top name for building a personal brand. Hell, I interviewed at FB about a year ago and was _thrilled_ to get an offer (which I ultimately didn't accept for other reasons) and I loved the technical challenges that they are working and how they are advancing the state of the art on some really cool scalability problems. I'll be downvoted, but when it comes to Facebook, HN is a broken record.

JumpCrisscross 8y ago
> Facebook an absolutely prestigious employer Anecdotally, I’m helping several friends, who are each exceptionally capable, employed at Facebook with new jobs. They reached out before this revelation, to their credit, though this threw fuel on the fire. I suspect Facebook will be known for having hired mediocre sell-outs a few years from now.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- Jonanin 8y ago
  From your profile: > I trade private equity stakes in technology companies. Former aerospace investment banker and before that, algorithmic equity derivatives trader. You're also the one who submitted this article. Somehow I doubt you are actually helping friends at FB find new jobs. I think it's much more likely that you are short FB. There's a lot of your type out there spreading articles like this as much as possible. Maybe you should spend some time thinking about what contributions you investment banker types are making to society, if there is any. Good riddance...
  - pantaloons 8y ago
    I graduated six years ago, have worked at Microsoft and Dropbox, and anecdotally around a quarter of my friends at either of them wouldn't work at Facebook now. Parent comment is not obviously wrong, and you shouldn't assume bad faith. Your last submission was titled "We're lucky Mark Zuckerberg is in charge" and around half your comment history is devoted to defending Facebook. At least if you're going to question someones motives, you should state yours.
    - Jonanin 8y ago
      Did you actually do a poll of your coworkers on this topic? :) I think it's pretty reasonable to assume an investment banker isn't going to be much help to FB employees in finding a new job. Claiming that "Facebook will be known for having hired mediocre sell-outs a few years from now." is at best a baseless slander. How in the world is that not in bad faith? Spreading misinformation to aid one's short position is a much worse case of bias, in my mind, than what I've said in defense of the company.
      - blackrose 8y ago
        But seriously, what are your motives in defending Facebook so much?
      - elefanten 8y ago
        1. No, it's not reasonable to assume a technology-sector investor isn't going to be able to help techie friends find jobs. 2. The "slander" was supported by an anecdote. And this is a comment section -- opinionated statements will be found. 3. What might be closer to slander is the fantastic assumption that the other commenter is shilling for a short position in Facebook. That's a mind-boggling assumption to make on the flimsiest of evidence. Even setting aside that trying to promote your short in a random HN comment is laughable 4. You're curiously silent on your own bias, well noted by pantaloons
        Jonanin 8y ago
tombert 8y ago
Clearly it can't be that prestigious since they declined me :). But seriously, while they probably are prestigious and cool right now, I do feel that there's enough hostility towards FB in the hacker community (and thus their supply of employees) that it might start forcing them to hire average-at-best engineers.
quest88 8y ago
Yea, I know what you mean. It's unfortunate too since FB does hav some pretty cool things that are worth talking about!
- cityzen 8y ago
  but when you shit where you eat, it all looks like shit.
gxigzigxigxi 8y ago
As a Googler, Facebook would certainly be a place I would consider if I wasn’t at google. You’re right, of course, that it is a better than fine employer.
- techelitism 8y ago
  What do you think of Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple? Are they worthy of your talents as well?
  - TulliusCicero 8y ago
    They're good companies, but not as nice to work for as Google and Facebook.
    - techelitism 8y ago
      Would you think less of me as an employee of Apple instead of an employee of Facebook?
      - gxigzigxigxi 8y ago
        ??? You seem like you’re trying to find a fight here for reasons I cannot fathom. All I think of you as an employee of one of these companies is that you’re probably less well compensated than you could be.
  - gxigzigxigxi 8y ago
    Of course, although all to a lesser extent, since they are widely believed to pay less.
- blub 8y ago
  That doesn't prove anything though: employee at biggest surveillance machine in the world considers working at the 2nd biggest surveillance machine in the world. A lot of us software engineering types lack integrity and are perfectly happy to work on socially harmful projects as long as the pay's right and there's opportunity to grow one's skills.
techelitism 8y ago
What other companies do your acquaintances working in tech consider “prestigious”?
- deanmoriarty 8y ago
  Generally it's FAANG (minus Amazon, plus some unicorns), for the reasons mentioned above: a very good balance of excellent compensation, talented peers to work with, and interesting work. Joining these companies in the right teams is literally what makes it possible to have an exciting technical career AND the guarantee of being able to retire (or more generally, gain financial freedom) in your early/mid 40s, if one decides to stay on an individual contributor technical track. Seriously, it's the only decision that makes sense if one has the chops to get into one of those places. Always pay yourself first, with interesting works that keeps you marketable and with liquid cash to put into your retirement savings! I would have jumped ship myself but, as I said in a few other previous comments, I had crazy luck to join a "very mediocre" startup who is growing a lot, so my appreciated equity prevents me from leaving, otherwise I'd for sure be in FB right now, since the offer they extended me was very generous and the specific work was something I wouldn't be able to do anywhere else. A close friend of mine was hired for their network traffic team a few months ago. I spoke to him recently and he said: "boy, I thought I knew many things about handling large traffic at scale, but the things I'm seeing here are simply unprecedented". So, to all the people who say FB will go down in history for hiring mediocre people, please recognize how ridiculous your statements are.
  - techelitism 8y ago
    Interesting. Out of curiosity, why don't they think Microsoft or Amazon are prestigious? Which one of those parameters do they fail?
    - deanmoriarty 8y ago
      Amazon is known to pay less and have a brutal work life balance. Microsoft is known for paying less and being too big and too political to the point where making an impact is really difficult. Mind you, this is on average: there are stellar teams at both of those companies that work on incredible stuff, and I would consider an honor and privilege to be in that situation, if the opportunity was given to me. Likewise, there are many teams in Google maintaining internal legacy applications with no challenges to solve, and you would have to pay me 7 figures to force me to work on those.
gehsty 8y ago
Hey what are the top challenges that Facebook offer? I dont work in tech and follow HN as I find the less technical posts interesting, and I can’t grasp why people want to work in many of these companies, like where is the buzz from working at Facebook now?
- gehsty 8y ago
  Downvotes but no responses... But seriously, its already built to a huge scale, its core product that people actually use (newsfeed / apps) havn’t changed in years(functionally - I’m sure the code base has..). is it the appeal of working on a product used by a significant proportion of the worlds population or just working at a huge company?
  - deanmoriarty 8y ago
    Downvotes because to be honest your response sounds either incredibly clueless, or incredibly arrogant/condescending (I wasn't the one who downvoted FWIW). Here for a preview of something that is completely led by Facebook due to their scalability needs, and that most small/mid/large employers would never have the resources to fund, or the need to pursue: https://code.fb.com/open-source/linux/ https://code.fb.com/open-source/linux/ All these projects have had major contributions during 2018, so not everything has been "figured out" yet.
    - gehsty 8y ago
      Hi, thanks for the information, I did not mean to be condescending, definitely completely clueless! The interesting thing is building the tools that lets you run a platform the size of Facebook. Cool.
forgottenpass 8y ago
>All my acquaintances working in tech [...] Of course they do. I too, when in polite professional company, don't rip into facebook and make myself look like the tinfoil hat nutter.

JumpCrisscross 8y ago

> Facebook an absolutely prestigious employer Anecdotally, I’m helping several friends, who are each exceptionally capable, employed at Facebook with new jobs. They reached out before this revelation, to their credit, though this threw fuel on the fire. I suspect Facebook will be known for having hired mediocre sell-outs a few years from now.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
Jonanin 8y ago
From your profile: > I trade private equity stakes in technology companies. Former aerospace investment banker and before that, algorithmic equity derivatives trader. You're also the one who submitted this article. Somehow I doubt you are actually helping friends at FB find new jobs. I think it's much more likely that you are short FB. There's a lot of your type out there spreading articles like this as much as possible. Maybe you should spend some time thinking about what contributions you investment banker types are making to society, if there is any. Good riddance...
- pantaloons 8y ago
  I graduated six years ago, have worked at Microsoft and Dropbox, and anecdotally around a quarter of my friends at either of them wouldn't work at Facebook now. Parent comment is not obviously wrong, and you shouldn't assume bad faith. Your last submission was titled "We're lucky Mark Zuckerberg is in charge" and around half your comment history is devoted to defending Facebook. At least if you're going to question someones motives, you should state yours.
  - Jonanin 8y ago
    Did you actually do a poll of your coworkers on this topic? :) I think it's pretty reasonable to assume an investment banker isn't going to be much help to FB employees in finding a new job. Claiming that "Facebook will be known for having hired mediocre sell-outs a few years from now." is at best a baseless slander. How in the world is that not in bad faith? Spreading misinformation to aid one's short position is a much worse case of bias, in my mind, than what I've said in defense of the company.
    - blackrose 8y ago
      But seriously, what are your motives in defending Facebook so much?
    - elefanten 8y ago
      1. No, it's not reasonable to assume a technology-sector investor isn't going to be able to help techie friends find jobs. 2. The "slander" was supported by an anecdote. And this is a comment section -- opinionated statements will be found. 3. What might be closer to slander is the fantastic assumption that the other commenter is shilling for a short position in Facebook. That's a mind-boggling assumption to make on the flimsiest of evidence. Even setting aside that trying to promote your short in a random HN comment is laughable 4. You're curiously silent on your own bias, well noted by pantaloons
      - Jonanin 8y ago

tombert 8y ago

Clearly it can't be that prestigious since they declined me :). But seriously, while they probably are prestigious and cool right now, I do feel that there's enough hostility towards FB in the hacker community (and thus their supply of employees) that it might start forcing them to hire average-at-best engineers.

quest88 8y ago

Yea, I know what you mean. It's unfortunate too since FB does hav some pretty cool things that are worth talking about!

cityzen 8y ago
but when you shit where you eat, it all looks like shit.

gxigzigxigxi 8y ago

As a Googler, Facebook would certainly be a place I would consider if I wasn’t at google. You’re right, of course, that it is a better than fine employer.

techelitism 8y ago
What do you think of Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple? Are they worthy of your talents as well?
- TulliusCicero 8y ago
  They're good companies, but not as nice to work for as Google and Facebook.
  - techelitism 8y ago
    Would you think less of me as an employee of Apple instead of an employee of Facebook?
    - gxigzigxigxi 8y ago
      ??? You seem like you’re trying to find a fight here for reasons I cannot fathom. All I think of you as an employee of one of these companies is that you’re probably less well compensated than you could be.
- gxigzigxigxi 8y ago
  Of course, although all to a lesser extent, since they are widely believed to pay less.
blub 8y ago
That doesn't prove anything though: employee at biggest surveillance machine in the world considers working at the 2nd biggest surveillance machine in the world. A lot of us software engineering types lack integrity and are perfectly happy to work on socially harmful projects as long as the pay's right and there's opportunity to grow one's skills.

techelitism 8y ago

What other companies do your acquaintances working in tech consider “prestigious”?

deanmoriarty 8y ago
Generally it's FAANG (minus Amazon, plus some unicorns), for the reasons mentioned above: a very good balance of excellent compensation, talented peers to work with, and interesting work. Joining these companies in the right teams is literally what makes it possible to have an exciting technical career AND the guarantee of being able to retire (or more generally, gain financial freedom) in your early/mid 40s, if one decides to stay on an individual contributor technical track. Seriously, it's the only decision that makes sense if one has the chops to get into one of those places. Always pay yourself first, with interesting works that keeps you marketable and with liquid cash to put into your retirement savings! I would have jumped ship myself but, as I said in a few other previous comments, I had crazy luck to join a "very mediocre" startup who is growing a lot, so my appreciated equity prevents me from leaving, otherwise I'd for sure be in FB right now, since the offer they extended me was very generous and the specific work was something I wouldn't be able to do anywhere else. A close friend of mine was hired for their network traffic team a few months ago. I spoke to him recently and he said: "boy, I thought I knew many things about handling large traffic at scale, but the things I'm seeing here are simply unprecedented". So, to all the people who say FB will go down in history for hiring mediocre people, please recognize how ridiculous your statements are.
- techelitism 8y ago
  Interesting. Out of curiosity, why don't they think Microsoft or Amazon are prestigious? Which one of those parameters do they fail?
  - deanmoriarty 8y ago
    Amazon is known to pay less and have a brutal work life balance. Microsoft is known for paying less and being too big and too political to the point where making an impact is really difficult. Mind you, this is on average: there are stellar teams at both of those companies that work on incredible stuff, and I would consider an honor and privilege to be in that situation, if the opportunity was given to me. Likewise, there are many teams in Google maintaining internal legacy applications with no challenges to solve, and you would have to pay me 7 figures to force me to work on those.

gehsty 8y ago

Hey what are the top challenges that Facebook offer? I dont work in tech and follow HN as I find the less technical posts interesting, and I can’t grasp why people want to work in many of these companies, like where is the buzz from working at Facebook now?

gehsty 8y ago
Downvotes but no responses... But seriously, its already built to a huge scale, its core product that people actually use (newsfeed / apps) havn’t changed in years(functionally - I’m sure the code base has..). is it the appeal of working on a product used by a significant proportion of the worlds population or just working at a huge company?
- deanmoriarty 8y ago
  Downvotes because to be honest your response sounds either incredibly clueless, or incredibly arrogant/condescending (I wasn't the one who downvoted FWIW). Here for a preview of something that is completely led by Facebook due to their scalability needs, and that most small/mid/large employers would never have the resources to fund, or the need to pursue: https://code.fb.com/open-source/linux/ https://code.fb.com/open-source/linux/ All these projects have had major contributions during 2018, so not everything has been "figured out" yet.
  - gehsty 8y ago
    Hi, thanks for the information, I did not mean to be condescending, definitely completely clueless! The interesting thing is building the tools that lets you run a platform the size of Facebook. Cool.

forgottenpass 8y ago

>All my acquaintances working in tech [...] Of course they do. I too, when in polite professional company, don't rip into facebook and make myself look like the tinfoil hat nutter.