# How much of what a company actually play in your job hunting?



## recycled_lube_oil (Sep 30, 2021)

Just looked at my email, and there is some job spec for a financial company. Sacrificially what is more or less a Payday loans company.

I've personally never really been that fussed about what a company does or so I thought. I work in tech, tech is tech. So what I thought mattered to me was the Tech I would be using and the pay. I have worked for a company that some people have had strong moral/ethical issues about due to what they do. But my view was I thought I would get to play with some pretty impressive tech. I did and what I learnt at that company still serves me to this day (how a lot of their system were configured, etc).

Anyway, seeing this job spec in my email, I clicked just to see what skills are needed out of interest, but after seeing who the firm is, I just shuddered.

Does this play a large part for you in job selection?


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## HAL (May 10, 2014)

I also work in tech, and it certainly helps to protect oneself from whatever bullshit the rest of the company is doing, because (in my case) it's all just programming at the end of the day.

But there is also a relative abundance of jobs available, which means I can pick and choose where I work with a little bit more freedom, and can therefore take a moral standpoint in some cases.

I would never work for a payday loans company.

I would consider working for a gambling company.

I would consider working for a general finance company (investment banking or whatever).

Slightly questionable: I _would_ consider working for an arms manufacturer but would do massive research into them first, i.e. any company that had actively promoted or caused armed conflict would get a massive NO from me.

I would definitely work for a government agency, specially if it were related to an important national asset like power, telecoms or logistics.


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## recycled_lube_oil (Sep 30, 2021)

HAL said:


> I also work in tech, and it certainly helps to protect oneself from whatever bullshit the rest of the company is doing, because (in my case) it's all just programming at the end of the day.
> 
> But there is also a relative abundance of jobs available, which means I can pick and choose where I work with a little bit more freedom, and can therefore take a moral standpoint in some cases.
> 
> ...


I have worked for a Gambling Company which is why I had a bit of aggro from people at my old firm. 

Payday loans however, is the first time I have actually thought "Hell No" due to the company itself. 

I'm not a programmer (yet), but infrastructure engineer, next year I should be making an internal move to the dev team. I just have to do my final project for the Open University and get up to speed on RESTful APIs. But as an infrastructure engineer, a server is a server, a SAN is a SAN and a firewall is a firewall at the end of the day. Although some types of companies add a lot more red tape than others. IE, NHS systems, I would need to justify going near patient records (understandable) as it was highly audited. 

Insurance and finance, although it pays well, the level of red tape is shocking. Although a lot of that is more due to the way the internal teams work than the fact it is finance.


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## islandlight (Aug 13, 2013)

Where do you draw the line? Everyone draws their line somewhere. I knew a convenience store owner who refused to sell lottery tickets. In his words, "I sell lung cancer, alcoholism, and tooth decay, but I draw the line at selling false hope to poor people."

As a freelance academic editor, I was sometimes sent manuscripts that rubbed me the wrong way. For example, research into how to manipulate peoples' perceptions or motives. 

I never turned anything down on this basis. I just figured that everything is part of the same flawed system that we live in. 

I realize that my situation was a bit different from working for a company: 1. I was free to turn work down. 2. Each project lasted only a few days. 3. I didn't have to work in a distasteful culture. (In fact, the professors were great to work for, including the researchers into dubious topics.)


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## recycled_lube_oil (Sep 30, 2021)

islandlight said:


> Where do you draw the line? Everyone draws their line somewhere. I knew a convenience store owner who refused to sell lottery tickets. In his words, "I sell lung cancer, alcoholism, and tooth decay, but I draw the line at selling false hope to poor people."
> 
> As a freelance academic editor, I was sometimes sent manuscripts that rubbed me the wrong way. For example, research into how to manipulate peoples' perceptions or motives.
> 
> ...


Academia is actually one of the fields I would not work in. Politics seems to be part of the culture too much for my liking. 

Even doing a degree part time, I can see that everything is tediously politically correct. Even in a f**king STEM degree. Instead of just being given Data, there always seems to be a strong political slant/bias in it. If I didn't need the degree I would of dropped out by now. But yeah I need it, but I can just fob off the material, buy courses on Udemy sales and pass the assignments. I am still amazed however that in dry topics (data visualisation/manipulation with Python Pandas, that they can still add politics).

So yeah anyway, Academia is a no no for me. As well as Payday loans companies.


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## thedazzlingdexter (12 mo ago)

I work for whoever pays me. That being said if it wss between the job and starving and the job was slaughter/animalharm/childharm I could not mentally handle it.


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## SouDesuNyan (Sep 8, 2015)

Is payday loan really that bad? People know what they're getting into. Before payday loans, people with bad credit would borrow money from loan sharks, which is much worse.

Same for casinos. I wouldn't consider them to be that bad when compared with the alternatives. Without casinos, people would still be gambling, but illegally, like dog/cock fighting, underground gambling owned by criminals, etc. The government figured that out and that's why they even started their own gambling business (lottery in the US).


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## SouDesuNyan (Sep 8, 2015)

This reminds me of a story of a gentle, wise man who works in the slaughterhouse. When asked why he would work for the slaughterhouse, his answer is that he wants to make sure that the animals are slaughtered as humanely as possible. If he doesn't work there, someone else would, and people in general are not going to stop eating meat anyway.


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## MsMojiMoe (Apr 7, 2021)

I care very much on how ethical a company is…(assuming I have options)

to me…it’s like ppl who hide behind religion to hate or to do unethical th8ngs…like ppl hiding behind the Bible to hate gays etc ( they must of missed the commandment of thou shall not use the lord name in vain, meaning you can’t judge ppl using gods name) but ppl hide behind it to do awful things . Or ppl blame god for their actions. If you don’t care or hate than stand alone and admit it but don’t hide behind something…

same with a job. I find it lazy/ convenient and poor character to hide behind a job…”well, that’s just my job” such a cop out , excuses, excuses, excuses…doesn’t fly with me, it still reflect what kind of character you have. You are who you are, if you are willing to over look something you find unethical ( your own view) than don’t care but you are still responsible for who you work for ( assuming you have options).


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## recycled_lube_oil (Sep 30, 2021)

SouDesuNyan said:


> Is payday loan really that bad? People know what they're getting into. Before payday loans, people with bad credit would borrow money from loan sharks, which is much worse.


I just see them as predatory personally. Although I do agree people know what they are getting into. In the UK, the laws have tightened up a lot on them however. 



> Same for casinos. I wouldn't consider them to be that bad when compared with the alternatives. Without casinos, people would still be gambling, but illegally, like dog/cock fighting, underground gambling owned by criminals, etc. The government figured that out and that's why they even started their own gambling business (lottery in the US).


I'm in total agreement here. It is better than the alternative. In regards to online gambling, I know a lot of people who have given me sh*t for working for a bookies are not aware of the government controls and laws in place. It is pretty tightly regulated and as far as I am aware, none of the major betting firms in the UK at least, offer lines of credit either. 

Some of the stuff I have heard in regard to why bookies are "evil" are not actual valid reasons.


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## Cephalonimbus (Dec 6, 2010)

I've quit entire careers because of that TBH.

Now I don't care much about what a company does to the extent that I'm much more interested in how the corporate culture is and how my coworkers are, but I really don't want to invest so much of my time in something I find morally questionable. The company I work for makes websites for predominantly non-profit organizations. It's not something I'm particularly interested in, but it makes a bunch of people happy and I enjoy being part of the company because they respect their employees and attract young and motivated people. That's enough for me, but as soon as they start doing sketchy shit, I'm out.


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## shameless (Apr 21, 2014)

Yes & No

I'd say It depends what my role for hire is.


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## Alfie Fred (7 mo ago)

0.M.I.A.0 said:


> Yes & No
> 
> I'd say It depends what my role for hire is.


Exactly


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