Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Under the torrent of the times, the restlessness, powerlessness, hesitation and self-help of ordinary people.

1:45 in the morning. Chen Chueh raised her wrist and looked at her watch, but still felt no sleepiness.

At the beginning of this year, Chen Chueh, a recent graduate, passed layers of interviews with Meta and successfully entered the Silicon Valley headquarters of Meta. On the day she got the Offer, she happily posted it on her moments and was very excited about leaving to become a Metamate.

But shortly after she joined the job, the industry atmosphere in Silicon Valley began to deteriorate sharply, and Meta's share price fell until a few days ago she saw on the news that Meta was about to start a major layoff.

"it may affect more than 10,000 people." These words instantly disturbed Chen Chueh's mood. The group of colleagues also exploded, and everyone was forwarding messages from various media and forums, anxiously asking whether the information was true or false. However, until the day before the media said that Meta would formally issue the notice, the company was quiet.

According to the news, Meta will formally issue a layoff notice at 3: 00 a.m. in Silicon Valley time. Are there any of them? Chen Chueh was nervous.

At 05:25 in the morning, Chen Chueh woke up from a light sleep. The first thing to do after opening your eyes is to turn on your phone to check your email, and sure enough, in the unread email lies a letter from Zuckerberg to all employees: Meta has laid off 11000 people, and each employee will receive a personal notice starting at 7 a.m.

After reading the e-mail, Chen Chueh was almost sleepy. Lie in bed and start browsing some job postings from other companies on your phone, thinking about what to do if you get laid off. At 07:02, her mobile phone reminded her that she had received a company email. She took a deep breath, clicked on it, and the big word "Your Role is Not Affected by Meta's Layoff" was printed into her eyes. Chen Chueh felt relieved instantly.

But she also knew that at the same time on the same day, 11000 colleagues were told they would leave the company.

Since 2022, 1150 companies around the world have announced layoffs, affecting more than 210000 people. In the upcoming holiday season, this year's Silicon Valley is not filled with the joyful and relaxed atmosphere of the past, and a wave of layoffs is hanging over major technology companies.

The picture is taken from the layoffstracker website, and the copyright belongs to the original author. Some people say that this is the torrent of the times.

When we zoom in, we will see that in this torrent, some people are drowning, some are struggling to survive, and at the same time, some people ride the wind and waves all the way against the wind in the cold winter. Behind every cold number of layoffs are unforgettable experiences and living ordinary people.

"when the tide receded, I became the first one to swim naked." like Chen Chueh, Ian is also a member of Meta, but unfortunately, he did not survive this layoff.

In 25 days, Ian will be in Meta for a whole year. Earlier, the group also said that it was time for everyone to get together for dinner to celebrate, but unexpectedly, the farewell suddenly came early. This time, five of the nine people in Ian's group have been laid off, and the remaining four are likely to be transferred to other business units.

"up to now, I still feel quite in a trance. More than a week ago, we were working together in the company group, talking and laughing, but now we don't even have a group." Ian said to the Silicon people.

What makes Ian feel the most pressure is the issue of identity. Since he is still the holder of an H1B work visa, his dismissal means he needs to find a new job within 60 days of his official departure.

Four months' compensation, more than two weeks' salary for each extra year of work, and six months' health insurance will officially take effect from January 13. Although the compensation plan offered by Meta is more generous than that of many companies, and it has set aside more than 3 months for Ian to apply for a job, the current not optimistic market environment has left Ian with no confidence at all.

On the one hand, too many technology companies have recently laid off staff, and many companies have frozen recruitment one after another, and the market has poured into a large number of experienced technical personnel, which has suddenly intensified the competition. On the other hand, this time is about to enter the holiday season, and it is customary for companies to be slower in hiring and document processing at the end of the year than at other times. and this is undoubtedly extremely unfriendly to these job seekers who have identity problems and have been under a 60-day curse.

"60 days doesn't just mean getting an Offer, it means completing all visa transfer and entry procedures. Excluding holidays and document processing time, it actually leaves us very short time to find a job."

Ian told the Silicon Man that after learning that he had been laid off, it was too late to be sad and began to do exercises non-stop. However, most of the companies he wants to go to have frozen recruitment, so he can only ask someone to try it, or look at the opportunities of some start-ups. "my goal now is to try to get ashore before the Christmas season, so it's safer."

Indeed, life seems to be tough for the giants these days. Just after the big layoffs at Meta, Amazon immediately kicked off tens of thousands of layoffs and announced that the layoffs would continue until next year. The first batch of layoffs were mainly aimed at household equipment departments including Alexa and Echo, and Daniel, which has just joined the job for more than half a year, was first affected this time.

Although there is no identity issue like Ian, the layoff has still had a huge impact on Daniel's life. A few months ago, after successfully getting a big Amazon package, Daniel proposed to his girlfriend, bought an apartment with a loan, and bought a Tesla Model Y to replace his old car. If you work normally, after deducting mortgage, car loan and daily expenses, the couple still have some savings and lead a good life.

Now, they are a little overwhelmed by the sudden layoffs. This time, Amazon has given the affected employee 60 days of internal transfer, and the salary will be paid within 60 days, but if he cannot find a group after 60 days, it will mean that he will be officially laid off. At that time, they will have to face the problem of broken capital chain.

"when I was looking for a job, I actually hesitated in the offer of Amazon and another startup, and later I chose flax because the big company was more stable and safer. I didn't expect to be laid off so soon, and now all the groups in the company are protecting themselves, so it's not easy to find opportunities." Daniel said helplessly. "seriously, I'm under a lot of pressure right now."

No one is absolutely safe in the cold winter. in fact, in the ongoing layoffs in Silicon Valley, it is not only those employees who have been employed for a short time or poor performance will be affected. Within many companies, layoffs are more like an indiscriminate "holocaust". As long as your business group company doesn't want it, no matter you are vice president, supervisor, manager or ordinary employee, no matter how long you work and how good your performance reviews are.

"what impressed me or surprised me about the layoffs in our company is that I think a lot of people who shouldn't have been laid off are on the list this time." Jojo, who experienced 20 per cent layoffs at Snap two months ago, told the Silicon Star. "there are several veteran employees who have a deep understanding of the company's business and are so skilled that it should not be their turn to lay off."

But in retrospect, Jojo thinks it may not just be about personal abilities. When implementing large-scale layoffs, many companies do not have so much energy to study everyone's abilities, but will decide whether to stay or not from the point of view of optimizing the efficiency of the whole company. And if you happen to be in a group that is not that important to the company right now, then you are likely to be affected.

During Snap's layoffs, Jojo's own business was shut down, with few technicians to product managers left in the group. Recalling the layoffs that day, Leo felt that he could describe them in a few words: calm, quick and even cruel.

"I remember it was a Wednesday, and when I woke up in the morning, I had a bad feeling when I saw a very short invitation for a video conference. at that time, the whole process was very standardized. I left my personal email address, informed me of the compensation plan, and read some legal documents. Although I had prepared for it, I couldn't help but feel a little lost when that moment came." After the meeting, Jojo wanted to say goodbye to his colleagues in the group, but his computer access was quickly frozen before he could pick up his pen and write a message.

It's really like a bully snapping his fingers, and one after another people begin to disappear from the company group. And this "no one survived" atmosphere, in the later Twitter layoffs in the drama even more intense.

Twitter's layoffs have been in the spotlight since Mr Musk announced that he would take over, when it was rumoured that 75 per cent of Twitter employees would lose their jobs.

"although in the end, the official announced 50%, but with the number of people who left voluntarily after layoffs, it was actually almost 75%." Alex, a middle-level technical manager who survived at Twitter, told the Silicon Man. "but many of the details are not as exaggerated as outside, such as rumors that Musk prints each person's code to see the number of lines to decide whether to stay or not."

The reality is that about two weeks before the layoffs, Musk transferred a group of engineers from Tesla to Twitter for "interviews" at different levels. The investigation begins with senior managers and vice presidents, then extends to high-level engineers and supervisors, and then other engineers are recommended by these engineers who perform well in the interview. Based on everyone's "interview" performance, eliminate a group of people, tentatively leave a group of people. These people left behind will then take the lead, and each department will rank the personnel in order of importance and draw up a list.

"in fact, the layoffs at Twitter did not start all of a sudden, but the scope involved was too wide to spread the message. Because at the department manager level alone, the layoffs were about 90 per cent this time." Alex said.

Although Alex knew there was a good chance that he would not be affected, when layoffs began to happen, he still felt a huge impact: when the building was about to collapse, every ordinary individual was so small.

He remembers that on that Thursday afternoon, when Twitter employees received layoff notices one after another, they started sending farewell messages to colleagues and friends on various Slack channels within Twitter. For a while, the salute and love symbols were all over the screen, but at the same time, the number of people displayed on the channel decreased one by one.

"there are too many difficult situations this time. Some have just learned that they are pregnant, some are still on maternity leave, some have just bought a house with a huge loan, and some have just got married and asked relatives and friends to attend the wedding.... although we stayed, but we did not have any decision-making power, nor could we fight for anything more for them, and the feeling of powerlessness may only be experienced through real experience."

But the story in the wave of layoffs is not only pessimistic. Although many people are drowning in this flood, there are still some people who are not so afraid of layoffs, but still have some "expectations". Some of them see layoffs as an opportunity to take a long holiday, while others jump out of their comfort zone in the face of adversity and find a better platform for themselves.

After receiving the layoff notice from Meta, Luo Yizhou booked air tickets for himself and his family to return home for the Spring Festival. He hasn't been back to China for three years since the epidemic, and his youngest daughter is now almost two years old. He thought he could take this opportunity for the whole family to return home to visit his parents.

In Meta, Luo Yizhou's group was under great pressure, and it was almost normal to work overtime until 9 or 10 o'clock in the evening. Now that he has been laid off, he feels that he can give himself some time to adjust his state and start again after returning to the United States after the Spring Festival. Of course, Luo Yizhou can have such a relaxed state of mind, on the one hand, he has got a green card without the problem of identity, on the other hand, the accumulation of work over the past 10 years has also allowed his family to have enough cash flow to support at least one or two years.

"as far as I know, many of my laid-off colleagues have received headhunters recently. although the market is not good, there are still a large number of technology companies in Silicon Valley hiring, in fact, there are still opportunities. And maybe things will get better after my vacation this winter?" Luo Yizhou said with a smile.

As a matter of fact, many of the last batch of people who were laid off have indeed successfully landed. For them, the layoffs not only did not bring them any financial losses, but also seemed to give them an extra "bonus".

Snap is a relatively early company in this wave of layoffs, when employees who were laid off thought they were unlucky and other companies were still making high salaries and recruiting, so why did they lose their jobs? But in retrospect, they feel that being laid off at that time was undoubtedly a loss, and they did not know it was a blessing.

"there must still be pressure, but to be honest, there is no anxiety. In fact, the news of layoffs has been heard since early August, first in the forum, and later confirmed by the company's management." "because our group's business was not profitable, we guessed that we would be affected," Jojo recalled. "so basically since August, people began to do exercises after work to prepare for the interview."

When the company officially announced the news on September 1, Jojo immediately started the interview seamlessly, and quickly got Offer from four companies, including Doordash, TikTok, OKX, and so on. So far, more than 90% of his laid-off colleagues have found new companies, and some have even received higher salary packages than before.

"in fact, at that time, we all thought that Snap layoffs were an isolated case, not an industry problem, and we did not expect the situation to be so bad. For those who are being laid off now, the pressure must be greater than ours. But I personally feel that as long as there is no identity problem and work experience, as long as I can keep looking, it should only be a matter of time to go ashore."

Currently, Jojo is waiting for its visa conversion to be completed. During this relatively easy rest period, he is also actively helping some of the people around him who are affected by the wave of layoffs to link to job opportunities and provide as much help as they can.

In an effort to keep no one behind, the wave of layoffs at Silicon Valley technology companies has intensified so far in the second quarter of this year, and there is no sign of stopping. 42000 technology workers have been laid off in November alone, according to layoffs.fyi.

For those who have been affected recently, how to find a new job quickly at a time when the holiday season is about to enter is a very challenging task. In order not to let anyone be left behind, at present, beacons have been ignited in various fields of science and technology, and hopes and opportunities are being passed on in the cold winter.

Open LinkedIn, and posts that are looking for job opportunities because of layoffs are always full of concern and encouragement from strangers and referrals for new job opportunities. Blind, an anonymous workplace forum, not only offers forum browsing rights for people affected by layoffs, but also announced that it will soon launch a technology job recruitment area to help affected people find jobs as soon as possible.

The picture is from Linkedin, and the copyright belongs to the original author. At the same time, the Chinese community in North America is also moving quickly. On the night when he learned that Meta was about to make a big layoff, Victor, both a technology practitioner and also the head of the song Zaigu community, set up five job-hunting mutual help groups one after another. Within two hours, all of these groups were full, and instantly gathered more than 1000 Chinese.

Among them, there are job seekers looking for jobs, as well as a large number of engineers from other recruitment companies. Everyone has posted the recruitment information they have learned about the company in the group, and many people have established contact through the WeChat group. But after moving information back and forth in several groups, Victor realized that a larger platform and more efficient methods might be needed to collect and publish information.

"too many people need help. The retention period of information in WeChat group is too short and the power is too scattered." As a result, through community resources, he pulled the heads of some Chinese platforms into a group and asked them for more support, including workplace mutual aid associations, various alumni associations, media platforms, and so on.

To Victor's surprise, the idea of cross-community assistance, which "overcame the difficulties together", was almost echoed, and everyone came forward to express their willingness to do something to help job seekers in the cold winter. Soon, the number of platforms in the group changed from 4 to 8, and from 8 to 15. So far, 19 platforms have joined the mutual aid campaign, with influence covering the whole of North America.

In just one week, the people in charge of the mutual aid platform have held several meetings, and they all share the same goal: "unite the forces of the Chinese and help as many people as possible."

In order to solve the problem of cluttered job search and recruitment information, some volunteers quickly set up a mutual help website and LinkedIn home page to help people exchange and organize information. In view of the most pressing issue of visa status, they soon found professional immigration lawyers to conduct a special lecture to address everyone's concerns. At the same time, people are planning a series of more targeted and more detailed job search lectures and activities, such as the simulated interview platform initiated by Snap, Google and other senior engineers.

After waking up on the LinkedIn home page of the Cross-Community United Action for Mutual Assistance, behind the help and help in the same boat, many people have also begun to wonder why this wave of layoffs has come so violently.

In the past decade, the technology industry has experienced a period of rapid expansion, and the myths of buying a house in three years and financial freedom in ten years seem to be everywhere in Silicon Valley. The Fed is frantically printing money, technology companies are spending money to expand, a simple business may need only 10 people to run, but in the capital spree, the end up to 100 people. The employees are posting a bigger package, immersed in the sweet dream of "more money, less welfare", thinking that this is the normal state of their future life.

"it's not so much about getting rid of the bubble, it's more like technology companies are paying off the debt they owed in the previous two years of disorderly expansion. unfortunately, when the process begins, ordinary employees are pushed first." Alex said.

In this interview, several interviewees also talked to the Silicon people about their experience of layoffs and their suggestions to their friends who are also in the tech workplace.

It is important to obtain information at any time, whether it is about industry information, company business information, personnel information or financial information, the earlier and more you know, the more beneficial it is for you.

Never think that you are absolutely safe and "lie flat" at work. In the Internet era, technology is changing with each passing day, keep humble, keep learning and lay a solid foundation, so that you can be competitive at all times.

To do a good job in family financial risk control and investment management, it is necessary to reserve at least half a year to one year's cash reserves for families in the worst case.

Let go of the halo of the industry you think you have and correct your position as an ordinary worker. Strive to improve your influence in the group and within the company, actively expand your network resources, and prevent yourself from becoming the first option to be eliminated.

Finally, when asked if they thought the layoffs marked the end of the golden age of Silicon Valley's technology industry, the answer was generally negative. The economy has cycles and industries have ups and downs, so adjustment is inevitable. Only by truly experiencing the throes of halving valuations and mass layoffs can the industry return to calmness and rationality from its previous blind frenzy.

With this vigorous wave of layoffs, the last golden era of the technology industry may have come to an end for the time being, but everyone believes that when the storm is over, the next better era and opportunities are still ahead. Before that, what every ordinary person needs to do is to cheer up, "live" and wait.

Note: 1. The interviewees Chen Chueh, Ian, Alex, Jojo, Daniel and Luo Yizhou are all aliases.

two。 The cover image comes from the Internet, and the copyright belongs to the original author. If you do not agree to use it, please contact us as soon as possible and we will delete it immediately.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: Silicon Man (ID:guixingren123), author: Juny, Editor | VickyXiao

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