With all repeated issues the company is suffering with their product strategy, software quality, privacy issues, executive retention, etc., why are people still eager to join the company?
A lot of the issues are perceived to be overblown - and in more cases than HN would like to admit, they indeed are overblown.<p>Quite a few double standards are being applied to Facebook by the media-industrial complex and the uninformed. On the other hand, Facebook has stumbled a lot on their own and deserve a significant portion of the criticism they get. It's a nuanced topic and isn't as simple as "FB bad, pls delete".<p>Facebook also has an extremely talented employee base and they pay industry-high salaries while also doing cutting edge work.<p>Smart people want to work with other smart people on interesting large-scale problems.
I know a lot of senior data people (read: high demand tech people) applying there right now. A few things:<p>1. People who work there are generally happy. Interesting problems to work on, a company where tech is respected, etc.<p>2. A lot of those issues you list are common in big tech, see Google. The people I know who are looking at Facebook may want to work at a bigger, more stable company.<p>3. As everyone else mentions, $$$. That said, Finance also pays similar rates but I don't see a lot of people fighting for those roles, so that doesn't fully explain it IMO.
Because money trumps ethics in our society, and Facebook still looks like a good career move.<p>But there will be a tipping point soon (next 12 months) when FB stock price begins to legit crash after another scandal finally breaks the camel's back. Hasn't happened yet with the FTC fine, but it will come. When their valuation is no longer up and to the right, the hiring situation will change dramatically.
Interesting technical work, great peers, good comp. If you are a user, it's good to work on something that you use. If you're in the front-end space in particular, its exciting to work on things that have significantly changed the ecosystem.<p>(Ex-Facebooker. When the Cambridge Analytica stuff went down I wasn't too thrilled, but above all I left because of lack of work-life balance.)
Because of money obviously. If someone is out of a job for a month, especially if they don't have "deep" savings, they'll take the first or highest offer they get.<p>Also, how do you know they aren't having a harder time hiring?
They pay 250k for someone with 2yoe. And have benefits better than 99 percent of companies (likely more than 99 percent honestly).<p>Edit:<p>And, a properly defined career ladder. Competitive stock refreshers and bonuses. Varied projects.
Interesting problems (not too many places you can do stuff at that kind of scale/impact), very pleasant environment within the company, and yes, money too. And there are a few who come precisely <i>because</i> of those troubles, to make things better instead of standing in a glass house throwing stones.
Because some support FB's mission of giving people the power to build community and bring the world closer together?<p>Why majority thinks that everything what FB does is necessarily bad? It's not true at all and plainly evil propaganda.
Because they're not suffering with their product strategy, software quality, privacy issues, or executive retention.<p>Don't believe what you read in the news.
Pay > Ethics<p>They will have to live with the consequenses when they are older. I hope it weights heavily on those that compromised their beliefs for a 'cool job'.
Honestly, for that money, I'd sell out. But I'd also make myself a huge thorn in the side after the first year anytime anything unethical was going on. If I got fired, I would ADD IT TO MY RESUME, that I left a job at FB making 150k because I took an ethical stand against nasty behavior. I'd have a big chunk of green in my pocket, come across as a coding saint to future employers, and they would KNOW that my last salary was 6 figures. It's really kinda awesome!