"Terrifying": Ex-Meta Employee Struggles To Find Job 200 Days After Being Laid Off

Since the beginning of this year, IT companies have undertaken massive cost-cutting measures. Several tech giants have conducted mass layoffs, leading to uncertainty among remaining employees and resonating with thousands of others. Meta announced several rounds of layoffs in which over 20,000 employees lost their jobs. Recently, a former employee of the company took to LinkedIn and stated that it has been over two hundred days and she is still struggling to find a new job. She also added that she misses "working" and "collaborating" with people. 

Susan Dutter, who worked for two years as a Technical Recruiter at Facebook said in her post, "It's been 201 days since I was impacted by Meta's layoffs. I have been grinding everyday to find new employment. I never imagined 6 1/2 months later I would still not have a new role. But here I am. I know there are many TA folks in this same predicament and I hope we all find our new home soon."

She continued, ". Sustaining your life for 6+ months without employment is tough. Not knowing if it will last another 6 months is terrifying. I'm hopeful that my 20+ years of impactful recruiting will lead me into my next role. I miss working, I miss collaborating on projects and building relationships."

Ms Dutter then urged her LinkedIn network to help her find a job. Concluding the post, the former Meta employee said, "I appreciate each of you and hoping there is light at the end of this storm soon!"

Meanwhile, Meta was planning to lay off employees on October 4 in the unit of its metaverse-oriented Reality Labs division focused on creating custom silicon, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Employees were informed of the layoffs in a post on Meta's internal discussion forum Workplace on October 3. The post said they would be notified about their status with the company by early Wednesday morning.

The company has slashed around 21,000 jobs since November 2022 as it has sought to reassure investors that it was reining in costs amid waning revenue growth, high inflation and concerns that Reality Labs was losing too much money. In a statement in March this year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the bulk of this year's layoffs would happen in the spring, but that "in a small number of cases, it may take through the end of the year to complete these changes."