I worked at a small network monitoring startup. We sold devices that network operators could use to monitor their services, find problems, fix issues, that kind of stuff.
After a few years there I learned what network operators actually do with our tools: They log everything the customers do, create motion profiles, log your text messages and internet traffic and sell all that on to advertisers (it’s in your phone contract somewhere burried deep in the fine print). Oh, and apparently the company also sold devices to the egyptian secret service to squash the opposition, and to a few other secret services.
So I left from there and joined a mid-sized automation tool manufacturer that makes a platform that is used to e.g. automate a theme park or to automate updates and stuff for a large retailer. Directly when I joined, the company was bought up by a huge corporation that jacked up the prices, fired a large part of the employees and squeezed everyone for money.
Then I switched to a company that makes tools to manage logistics. During the hireing process they talked about green transformation, democratization, automation, stuff like that. Turns out they use these tools to squeeze truck drivers into working for as little money as possible.
About a year ago I switched to work in the IT of a large and old retailer. You know, a company that’s part of the backbone of the nation’s food supply. Job security, a somewhat ethical type of business, doing something good that helps people. Well, turns out that I’m working on the marketing app and the whole point is manipulating people into spending more money for less using dark patterns.
There is no such thing as an ethical IT job that pays the bills. I purposely avoided US businesses, FAANG, gambling, health insurance and all the stuff you mentioned, and I tried to vet potential work places for ethics before joining and still I always ended with non-ethical crap because ethical IT jobs don’t exist.
So I spend my free time to make open source hardware. I made a phone keyboard attachment that I know is used by at least one blind person, and currently I am making a physiotherapy game console for chronically ill kids to make their daily physiotherapy experience more interesting.
I was convinced I wanted to go into a science or engineering from childhood through my early 20s.
Mid 20s was a complete turnaround for me, and I’m a firefighter/medic now. There’s a lot about the job that sucks: but the pay and benefits are decent enough and I’m (mostly) actually helping people without making some sociopath billionaire even richer.
During the hireing process they talked about green transformation, democratization, automation, stuff like that. Turns out they use these tools to squeeze truck drivers into working for as little money as possible.
I worked at a small network monitoring startup. We sold devices that network operators could use to monitor their services, find problems, fix issues, that kind of stuff.
After a few years there I learned what network operators actually do with our tools: They log everything the customers do, create motion profiles, log your text messages and internet traffic and sell all that on to advertisers (it’s in your phone contract somewhere burried deep in the fine print). Oh, and apparently the company also sold devices to the egyptian secret service to squash the opposition, and to a few other secret services.
So I left from there and joined a mid-sized automation tool manufacturer that makes a platform that is used to e.g. automate a theme park or to automate updates and stuff for a large retailer. Directly when I joined, the company was bought up by a huge corporation that jacked up the prices, fired a large part of the employees and squeezed everyone for money.
Then I switched to a company that makes tools to manage logistics. During the hireing process they talked about green transformation, democratization, automation, stuff like that. Turns out they use these tools to squeeze truck drivers into working for as little money as possible.
About a year ago I switched to work in the IT of a large and old retailer. You know, a company that’s part of the backbone of the nation’s food supply. Job security, a somewhat ethical type of business, doing something good that helps people. Well, turns out that I’m working on the marketing app and the whole point is manipulating people into spending more money for less using dark patterns.
There is no such thing as an ethical IT job that pays the bills. I purposely avoided US businesses, FAANG, gambling, health insurance and all the stuff you mentioned, and I tried to vet potential work places for ethics before joining and still I always ended with non-ethical crap because ethical IT jobs don’t exist.
So I spend my free time to make open source hardware. I made a phone keyboard attachment that I know is used by at least one blind person, and currently I am making a physiotherapy game console for chronically ill kids to make their daily physiotherapy experience more interesting.
I was convinced I wanted to go into a science or engineering from childhood through my early 20s.
Mid 20s was a complete turnaround for me, and I’m a firefighter/medic now. There’s a lot about the job that sucks: but the pay and benefits are decent enough and I’m (mostly) actually helping people without making some sociopath billionaire even richer.
I don’t work in IT, but this is so familiar.