Ask HN: Thoughts on Working for Huawei?
I have the opportunity to apply for a job at Huawei in Russia and I would like to hear your thoughts on Huawei as a company. Would you like to work for Huawei? Why or why not?
47 comments
No, I wouldn’t work for Huawei. From what I know from my Chinese friends, the line between a business like Huawei and CCP is blurry at best. Considering how authoritative, and anti-democratic they are on their own citizens(The great firewall as just one example, and social credit rating of people as the worst example), I wouldn’t want to do anything with/for them. Worst case scenario is for them to think you have their knowledge/IP or for them to claim whatever else you work with to be theirs.
May be I am too paranoid. But, in all the recent places I have worked at, there is a separate entity in China to do business with Chinese users. All companies are too scared to share their IP/code/designs with their own Chinese sub-organisation.
I’d consider it too risky to get myself involved into such a mess. That’s just me.
May be I am too paranoid. But, in all the recent places I have worked at, there is a separate entity in China to do business with Chinese users. All companies are too scared to share their IP/code/designs with their own Chinese sub-organisation.
I’d consider it too risky to get myself involved into such a mess. That’s just me.
They have so many evil campaigns running, e.g. their (over)fishing fleets marauding the seas.
But lets not forget the Genocide the CCP is forcing upon Uighurs, Nepal and other regions. CCP are faschists and we all should look that fact in the eye.
Are you ok to work for faschists is the real question.
But lets not forget the Genocide the CCP is forcing upon Uighurs, Nepal and other regions. CCP are faschists and we all should look that fact in the eye.
Are you ok to work for faschists is the real question.
I know someone that has a friend that works there. He makes it sound very much like a front to steal IP from other companies. Yes, they do hire smart people and have interesting work, but they also push them to reveal what would be trade secrets of previous employers.
Not sure future western employers will comfortable hiring you if you have a long career there.
Not sure future western employers will comfortable hiring you if you have a long career there.
5 years ago I knew several co-workers who went to Huawei and got paid a lot of money, so if making a lot of money is your aim, and you don't care about working in the West later, go for it.
If you want to work in the West, know that Huawei's reputation is toxic, and I wouldn't be surprised if future Western employers would be suspicious of you.
If you want to work in the West, know that Huawei's reputation is toxic, and I wouldn't be surprised if future Western employers would be suspicious of you.
I am almost 40 now. When I was younger I didn't care, I followed the money. Now that I am getting older my interests and environment changes. I definitely think more about consequences as I used to do.
If I would have this opportunity right now I would deny it. 5 years ago I would have jumped in without thinking.
If I would have this opportunity right now I would deny it. 5 years ago I would have jumped in without thinking.
And what consequences of working for Huawei do you see right now?
I saw a “dead” comment with the following content, but I think the mods were wrong to delete it. The CCP is accurately described as the Nazis of our time. This is technically relevant to OP’s technical question.
“ The CCP are the Nazis of our time, and currently have border disputes with all of their neighbors. There's an arms race in that region because they won't respect WTO rulings. Huawei's founder is "former" PLA, which is the CCP's military arm. Huawei has gutted Western telecom competitors by dumping equipment on the West, which reduces tech job opportunities. Any Huawei router is one firmware update away from giving the CCP access to your network.”
“ The CCP are the Nazis of our time, and currently have border disputes with all of their neighbors. There's an arms race in that region because they won't respect WTO rulings. Huawei's founder is "former" PLA, which is the CCP's military arm. Huawei has gutted Western telecom competitors by dumping equipment on the West, which reduces tech job opportunities. Any Huawei router is one firmware update away from giving the CCP access to your network.”
??? China has border disputes with all its neighbors? No, not even the majority of neighbors. I mean, China has a ton of neighbors. But only a handful (less than half) have disputes, and some of those disputes are quite theoretical.
A friend of mine worked for them several years ago and run away after a couple of years.If you are not Chinese, there is no chance of career improvement, and the Chinese leadership style is very different from the western style.
In much of Asia, loyalty is rewarded and promoted over merit. Often that loyalty is tested in some way. The easiest test is to treat someone terribly, e.g. long hours, abusive words, low pay, and see if they remain loyal. It's not necessarily about race, but many people unfamiliar with the culture may feel unfairly targeted or refuse to play this game.
Get in for a few years and out for a lot of money would be nice. So far Huawei is respecting the local labour regulations (so you don't need to work 996) and it pays well. However if you have other concerns I'd advise drop the opportunity as I believe you surely can obtain similar offers from other companies.
I wouldn’t. Also I wouldn’t work for parasitical corporations such as Facebook/Google etc. You’re ethical enough to ask the question so there’s hope your decision will be too.
I work for Huawei in Germany as external contractor. Project I am working on is extremely interesting and payment is correct. Some of colleagues I have are one of smartest people that I met. There is culture clash sometime when I need to collaborate with colleagues in mainland China, but I see them as interesting features of global world. If job is interesting, well paid and progress in your career then go ahead.
Does it pay good and expose you to work beneficial to your career? Do you want to work for a western company in the future? If you answer yes and not really, go for it.
I think it's best to not mix work and politics unless you work in politics. That said, be realistic. I would hesitate to hire former huawei or foxconn people.
I think it's best to not mix work and politics unless you work in politics. That said, be realistic. I would hesitate to hire former huawei or foxconn people.
Why would you hesitate?
They might have gotten used to unethical business practices. What people assume is acceptible is important
Would you hesitate to hire someone from Facebook or any of the multitude of western companies with a history of unethical business practices?
Depending on the company? Yes. I said hesitate, not write off. As in, I would have reservations that the candidate would need to address. If you worked for Cellebrite,NSA or the NSO group, same thing. It makes no sense to disregard the publicly known work and ethics culture about an organization. I myself have developed practices because that is how things were done at some company I worked at years ago.
If you like that step in your career do it. Compared to people here who work for Facebook, Google and other harmful US companies that can't event respect European privacy laws Huawai is doing way less direct evil to the society. That said their technology is great too ;)
Don't forget about harmful European companies that can't respect the planet like VW or fund terrorism and corruption like HSBC. And their technology isn't even that great.
Apply for the ego boost of getting a job offer. Absolutely do not accept it.
I think you need to look at the company's culture, and so it would be best to have feedback from non-Chinese who work for Huawei. This also applies to all East-Asian companies (Korean and Japanese).
I guess depends what at Huawei? They make phones and smartwatches, and networking hardware, and probably nasty things for CCP too.
Answers like "no never" should really follow up by not buying anything made in China (could be slave labour), hardware made in China (could be compromised) etc.
There is of course the moral hazard that Huawei becomes embroided in a worse scandal than what we've seen so far and somehow that affects you, or at least you need to explain yourself when looking for the next job.
Answers like "no never" should really follow up by not buying anything made in China (could be slave labour), hardware made in China (could be compromised) etc.
There is of course the moral hazard that Huawei becomes embroided in a worse scandal than what we've seen so far and somehow that affects you, or at least you need to explain yourself when looking for the next job.
To me, the answer depends on where you are in your career and what you are looking for. If you're a junior dev looking to spend 2-3 years adding some experience and cool tech to your resume before moving on, then sure.
If you're senior engineer with ambitions of spending the rest of your career there as a senior executive, then that is an entirely different question.
If you're senior engineer with ambitions of spending the rest of your career there as a senior executive, then that is an entirely different question.
What I'm mostly concerned about is what others mentioned in the comment section: it might affect my chances of being accepted by a Western company in the future due to whatever politics. In that case it would be the exact opposite of career boost, don't you think?
Applying for a job isn't an opportunity, the interview and job offer is.
Unless it is a very specific and rare role that just opened up?
Unless it is a very specific and rare role that just opened up?
There's a hackathon the performance of which decides my eligibility for an internship at Huawei.
Ever try just contacting a recruiter or applying on their careers page?
They are going to make you do irrelevant algorithm problems no matter how much of an impression you made or connections you have.
In software engineering, literally just skip the extracurriculars unless you want to do them, they don't matter. There is no rat race of eligibility. Just solve the problems after you get the interview.
Good luck
They are going to make you do irrelevant algorithm problems no matter how much of an impression you made or connections you have.
In software engineering, literally just skip the extracurriculars unless you want to do them, they don't matter. There is no rat race of eligibility. Just solve the problems after you get the interview.
Good luck
Working for Huawei means your true boss is the CCP, a genocidal totalitarian regime seemingly bent on world domination.
I am certain if you are skilled you can find another job that will not accelerate the CCP mission.
I am certain if you are skilled you can find another job that will not accelerate the CCP mission.
No, I wouldn't do it. Mega-success in China is dependent on becoming an arm of the CCP, so that's a given. The CCP is probably the most dangerous organization on the planet. If you help them, surely there will be significant karmic consequences.
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Any business in China of certain size is required to hire CCP figurehead(s).
Big business is CCP controlled in every meaningful aspect. If you dont comply you get 'educated' then publicly apologise or you 'retire'.
Big business is CCP controlled in every meaningful aspect. If you dont comply you get 'educated' then publicly apologise or you 'retire'.
I see no harm in applying.
What does the question imply, however? Do you have reservations because they are from China?
Would you ask the same question wrt applying at AWS or Microsoft?
What does the question imply, however? Do you have reservations because they are from China?
Would you ask the same question wrt applying at AWS or Microsoft?
I would ask the same question whenever I apply to a company from a country with obvious political tension with the rest of the world. It happens to be Huawei at this point :)
Pros: They have probably close to 0 tech debt. It's amazing. There's some overengineering, though. Pay seems pretty good. Workload is reasonable, no heroism. Lots of training. Sexy test and debug suites. Schedules are actually slightly more accurate than usual, risk is managed well, but it's still software. There are some relaxing roles where you need to do nothing and still get paid well. They appear to overhire.
Cons: No heroism. They have coding down to factory like precision. 996 is a meme elsewhere but it strongly applies here. Seat warming seems to matter more than output. There are good people there, but well, such environments don't attract the competitive.
CCP involvement is probably similar to FAANG and the FBI/US military.
Also you can verify a lot of information on Glassdoor, instead of listening to strangers who have never worked there. Anecdotal information is anecdotal.
Cons: No heroism. They have coding down to factory like precision. 996 is a meme elsewhere but it strongly applies here. Seat warming seems to matter more than output. There are good people there, but well, such environments don't attract the competitive.
CCP involvement is probably similar to FAANG and the FBI/US military.
Also you can verify a lot of information on Glassdoor, instead of listening to strangers who have never worked there. Anecdotal information is anecdotal.
Do you have any links to presentations or documents about Huawei's management and development methodologies? It sounds like a different kind of beast, and I'd very much like to learn more.
There's a lot of content on their site as well as the certification materials: https://developer.huawei.com/consumer/en/activity/1016238948...
I can't really think of a better overview than that, though.
I'd say it's not unique, most similar to AWS. There's a lot of things moving constantly, so instead of updating text documentation, the "table of contents" is the certifications. They maintain their experts to ask questions on whether an API or service exists to do X. There's a lot of automated stuff to scale, like labs and tutorials, and their marketing is very similar too.
I can't really think of a better overview than that, though.
I'd say it's not unique, most similar to AWS. There's a lot of things moving constantly, so instead of updating text documentation, the "table of contents" is the certifications. They maintain their experts to ask questions on whether an API or service exists to do X. There's a lot of automated stuff to scale, like labs and tutorials, and their marketing is very similar too.
Can you explain what you mean by FAANG and FBI/US military? I don't understand if you're comparing them separately or by relationship.
It's a bit tongue in cheek.
But it is common for tech companies to surrender classified data to government and law enforcement, willingly or not. And it is common for corporations to take large sums of money from organizations that cause suffering for many.
Personally, I find the USA and China to be different kinds of dystopias, and tech giants are the pillars that keep them together.
But it is common for tech companies to surrender classified data to government and law enforcement, willingly or not. And it is common for corporations to take large sums of money from organizations that cause suffering for many.
Personally, I find the USA and China to be different kinds of dystopias, and tech giants are the pillars that keep them together.
Lookup Edward Snowden.