For the 3rd time in recent years, Meta is laying off thousands of employees. However, this reduction in force (RIF) is particularly damning. Meta stigmatized the severed employees by publicly calling these layoffs "performance-based."
I spoke to several Meta employees who were understandably anxious as they started another job search.
Here are the best practices to gracefully discuss getting managed out or laid off.
👉 First, reframe the layoff as a mutual decision instead of something that happened to you. Instead of “I was unfairly punished by a horrible company,” the story you should tell yourself (and others) is, “My career goals and what the company wanted weren’t a strong fit for now.”
No one wants to hire a victim. Be an active participant in the narrative of your life. In order to find success at your job, and more broadly in your career, you need to be an advocate for yourself. Have the confidence that you are valuable. Too many engineers are their own worst critic, which exacerbates the negative spiral of performance.
👉 The second thing to remember is that you are under no obligation to tell anyone about the reason for your departure from the company. You will likely receive the question, “Why did you leave your last job?” but you are empowered to decide what to share.
You shouldn’t lie about the circumstances, but you also don’t have to be fully transparent about a poor rating or bad manager. This is the key insight as you interview at other companies: Don’t share information that hurts you. Tactically:
- Bias the conversation to focus more on looking ahead: “I’m super excited about this company. I deeply resonate with the mission and smaller/larger company.”
- Use neutral phrasing when talking about previous jobs: “The previous role wasn’t a good fit for X reason.”
If you’ve been laid off, or are concerned about your job security, stay focused on what you can control. You can (and will) have an amazing career after a layoff.
I hope this was helpful. If you’re looking for engineering jobs or advice, check out my platform, joinTaro.com, or follow me on LinkedIn.
If you need more support, check out Educative's Tech Layoffs Survival Guide. It's packed with free resources to help you build skills that get you hired – and stay hired – including an 8-Week Interview Prep Roadmap.
