"It was a sense of relief, not of hurt" — the day my Meta layoff finally came

Rumours about Meta job losses started circulating in March, but staff did not know when the cuts would be made. The uncertainty made workers anxious, especially since the company had announced layoffs on some days.

"Some of my colleagues and I were dreading Wednesdays because Meta has sometimes laid people off on those days. So every Tuesday night when I left work I wondered if I was coming back." She started looking at her email early Wednesday mornings, hoping for some information on her job status. That continued for weeks, and then came word the layoffs would come May 20.

"When the day finally came, and I got laid off, I was like, 'This is it.' It was a sense of relief, not of hurt."

Looking back, Chen believes AI helped change the course of her career. "Ultimately, it feels like I lost my job to AI."

Chen worked as a data scientist on Instagram at Meta. She said many routine parts of the job are already being affected by AI tools. Tasks such as writing queries, creating visualizations, and analyzing basic data are becoming less valuable skills on their own. "If you only know how to code, that's not enough. If you're just writing SQL queries, using Python, or tracking and analyzing metrics, it's not a very promising career anymore."

She compared the situation to workers being on a large ship while the technology industry faces a major shift because of AI. "It feels like we are all sailing on the sea, and Meta is a huge ship that's moving very fast. When the AI storm comes, is your next move to jump to a smaller, slower ship?"

The layoff changed her view of corporate careers. She previously stayed in her job because she worried about financial security outside a big company. "How am I going to feed myself if I don't work for a big company?" But after the layoff, her thinking changed. "Now I feel like it's not safe anymore, like I can get laid off at any time."

Chen said she would consider joining an AI startup if she finds a company that matches her interests and values. "Those companies can be risky, but staying at a big company doing traditional data analytics and reporting jobs just feels like I will be left behind. That's riskier in the long term."

She has started sharing her career journey online and documenting what she is learning about AI. She is also exploring career coaching to help people dealing with changes brought by new technology.