Programmers Aren't Super Excited About Working At Facebook Anymore

In December 2018, the career website Glassdoor released its annual list of the best places to work. On the list, Facebook ranked in seventh place and got a 4.5 award score out of 5. In the previous iteration of the list, the social media company ranked 1st. The report didn’t surprise anyone, thanks to the constant public scrutiny and criticism from privacy advocates.

A recent report from CNBC highlights the further reverberations of this trend. The report claims that more than 12 recruiters who left Facebook recently told reporters that the company has been continuously witnessing a steep decline in job offer acceptance rate. The decline was significant in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data breach that leaked the data of millions of Facebook users.

Following last year’s employer report, Glassdoor’s community expert Scott Dobroski said that considering what has happened at Facebook, a decline in the rating shouldn’t be surprising. There were also reports of computer programmers working at Facebook being motivated to look for a way out.

Prior to the scandal, Facebook’s acceptance rate among top institutions like Carnegie Mellon and Stanford was about 85%. As of December 2018, this rate has fallen to 35% to 55%. A similar decline has also been witnessed in institutions all across the world.

Moreover, the programmers are asking Facebook recruiters tougher questions pertaining to the company’s privacy practices and other steps to safeguard the interests of the users.

Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Slack, Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb are the primary beneficiaries of this trend as the top programming talent is looking for companies with lesser scandals and high-potential startups.

Additionally, a good number of existing number of Facebook employees are also questioning their choice to continue working at the company. What disheartened the employees the most was the fact that they found out what Facebook did the same time the general public did.