Meta/FB layoffs a year later – where are you now?

While interviewing post-FB to other companies as an SRE-type-engineer, it seemed to me that outside of FANN it's not common to give engineers a very wide scope. One company asked me whether I'd like to join the monitoring team or the container team, to which I replied "why can't I work in whatever team needs me the most, and switch whenever needed?". They didn't like that. After trying and failing to find a part-time position I like (can expand on it if interesting), I ended up joining as an architect to a "fixer-upper" company, where I have a lot of things I can improve and wide scope. The money isn't up to par with FB, but I feel I'm doing meaningful work and making the world better, which was missing from the last couple of months at FB.

I was already interviewing when I got the layoff notice, formally accepted an offer at a large startup the same week I was laid off. I probably wouldn't have accepted that offer if I hadn't just been laid off.

I make about 60% as much (depending on how you calculate the stock). I work about 30% as much.

I don't miss working there, I didn't like their tools or their culture. But I feel something, perhaps insulted, that I was laid off. It can be weird.. disconnecting maybe.. seeing so many people work with such conviction toward goals that defy understanding.

Just imagine tons of brilliant and motivated people with middling communication/organization all working toward some unclear goal (building a metaverse on NFTs?) in the largest PHP codebase you've ever seen, all without batting an eye.

I left big tech to start a company. The timing worked out great in my case. I was already trying to leave and the layoffs gave me an "angel round" to be able to pursue ideas. The biggest surprise was the uncertainty and amount of hours you have to work at a 0-1 company.

Current idea is taking off. I'm solving a global problem that affects literally every company. We have early design partners but looking to team up with a cofounder before we get further along.

If you're a big tech worker who was laid off an actively exploring ideas and want to team up, hmu! Email + twitter in my bio

"Impacted" by layoffs on May 24th. Took a nice 3-4 month break before I even started my search. Just started at DoorDash this week. A lot of former Meta/FB folks here