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Some Engineers Are Turning Down Tech Recruiters in Silicon Valley Over Concerns About Corporate Value (ieee.org)

Tech companies such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft have faced growing internal unrest from employees who raise ethical concerns about how the companies deploy their high-tech services and products. That chorus of dissent is now growing louder as outside engineers voice their concerns to recruiters working for those tech companies. An anonymous reader shares a report: The protests of tech workers have proven persuasive because Silicon Valley firms compete fiercely to recruit and retain relatively scarce engineering talent. For example, Google's leadership sought to reassure employees by declaring it would not renew its Pentagon contract and by issuing a set of ethical principles for future uses of Google-developed technologies. By the same logic, engineers who are approached by tech recruiters also have leverage. "I might be a one-off example, but it could be different if Amazon gets a lot of people emailing them saying, 'Hey I won't work for you because of this,'" Geiduschek, a software engineer at Dropbox, who declined a job offer from Amazon, says.

Jackie Luo, a software engineer at Square, took a similar stance with a tech recruiter who sought to interest her in a career with Google. The recruiter happened to contact Luo when she was reading about Google's plans to re-enter the Chinese market with a censored version of the company's Internet search engine. [...] Individual engineers such as Luo and Geiduschek seem to be responding to tech recruiters through their own initiative rather than as part of any larger movement. Meanwhile, some tech employees have joined organized efforts, such as the #TechWontBuildIt movement spearheaded by the labor advocacy group Tech Workers Coalition.

14 of 257 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds about right by mi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    would not renew its Pentagon contract

    service used by U.S. government agents to target immigrants for detention and deportation

    Right... Because it is unethical for America — uniquely among the world's nations — to fight its enemies and enforce its borders.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    1. Re:Sounds about right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      yeah since we know that the OP is obviously a right winger/Trump supporter, because that parrots stupidly their position, I'd add

      "said no democrat ever"

      The response was correct. It's just done badly and ineffectively under the Trump admin.

      If they really really really really wanted to stop illegal immigration, they'd forget about torturing hapless refugees. They'd instead bring a mighty hammer down on those that employ them. Trust me if you start throwing rich whites into actual prison for employing illegal immigrants, they will stop out of fear of even taking the chance.

      What the Trump admin is doing now is just more "security theater", it plays well with the knuckledraggers and keeps his base energized. It's arguably not doing a damn thing at all to actually stop illegal immigration because that had already been steadily falling for years. They are literally fixing a problem that was already fixing itself.

    2. Re:Sounds about right by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1, Insightful

      If we were fighting our enemies, we'd have blockaded Saudi Arabia's oil ports the week after 9/11. Follow the money.

    3. Re:Sounds about right by lgw · · Score: 4, Insightful

      To his point, we don't because "follow the money". The US is run by a very big-corporate establishment that puppets most Dems and Republicans, and has a laser focus on "more labor supply = more profits", all across the economic spectrum from the illegal leaf picker to the H1-B with a PhD. Open borders directly drives concentration of wealth at the top.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    4. Re:Sounds about right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So Mexico has guards with machine guns with orders to fire on their southern border, but when the US treats illegals much nicer, somehow we're the bad guys?

  2. Article is geographically challenged by Golgafrinchan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The subject's title is, "Engineers Say 'No Thanks' to Silicon Valley Recruiters, Citing Ethical Concerns." And then the article calls out 4 companies: Amazon, Google, Facebook, & Microsoft. 2 of those 4 are headquartered in the Seattle area, not Silicon Valley. How about some simple fact checking?

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    My userid is prime!
  3. Re:Admirable but... by 110010001000 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There is nothing wrong with choosing morality over money. There are good reasons not to want to work for big tech companies. Morality is one of them.

  4. Re:Why Are You an Engineer? by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Engineering pays quite well, but to get rich you're better off being evil.

    FTFY.

    --
    You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
  5. Don't forget about culture problems by aoism · · Score: 2, Insightful

    After the toxic culture at Google came to light during the Damore incident, why would anyone want to join a company that boos you when you get hired if you're not a SJW darling? You may get paid well but there are so many non hostile workplaces that you would be much happier in. Do you really want to work at a place where people claim they sexually identify as an expansive ornate building, and your employer gives them a microphone?

  6. Re:Can confirm by theblkadder · · Score: 5, Insightful

    On the contrary, you just have to have the right politics and/or be high enough up on the hierarchy of oppression to do so.

    --
    Earth is a single point of failure.
  7. Hypocrisy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah, it's a real shame that you can't act like a giant douchebag at work these days.

    From the source you are responding to:

    “You can’t talk about sexual differences between men and women, (although) it’s OK if they favor women,” laughs Tierney. “You can say men are more likely to commit crimes, but you can’t suggest that there might be some sexual difference that might predispose men to be more interested in a topic.”

    Yeah, you can act like a giant douchebag, but only to men. Pointing that out gets you fired. Standing up for yourself gets you fired. Not following a radical political agenda gets you fired...but only at a handful of insane corporations with too much power and not enough ethics.

  8. Re:Amazon has it's 100 hours a week issues! by registrations_suck · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I had a friend that said they worked no more than sixty hours a week while on call 24/7. For programming, that's about the best work/life balance you can expect.

    Only if you're a schmuck. I have never worked those kinds of hours - nor would I any longer than the time it takes me to find another job.

  9. Re:Can confirm by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1, Insightful

    You mean like thinking that calling women "harpies with daddy issues" is a bad idea?

    You might be on to something there.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  10. The headline should read by monkease · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Some American Workers Try to Live Their Ethical Values"

    Regardless of whether or not you agree with those values--and from the modding it looks like a lot of people hovering around this article don't--it is newsworthy that some engineers are willing to turn down lucrative, prestigious jobs because the work they'd be doing, or the company they'd be doing it for, doesn't mesh with their sense of right and wrong.

    Of course, in a better world, this wouldn't be newsworthy at all.