Bengaluru's Vishwajeet Jha waited a long time for his Canada visa to work out and when it did, he only got to work at Meta for three days before being laid off. He was one of the 11,000 employees laid off by the tech giant during its first round of layoffs, but Jha's story has a happy ending.
The software engineer secured a new job with fintech firm PhonePe in India.
"Yesterday morning I found out that I am one of the 11,000 employees impacted by the Meta layoff," Jha had shared in LinkedIn four months ago. "I joined Meta three days back, after waiting for a long visa process. Thanks to all the folks who made that transition smooth. Really sad that this happened, my heart goes out for everyone who is affected by the layoffs."
In March, however, there was an update.
"I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Software Engineer at PhonePe!" Jha, who has also worked with Amazon, wrote on LinkedIn.
Read more: Meta layoffs: 'I'm not giving up' says former Indian employee
But not everyone laid off by Meta has found better opportunities till now even as the tech giant rolled out its second round of layoffs this month. The job cuts are part of a wider restructuring that will also see the company scrap hiring plans for 5,000 openings, cancel lower-priority projects and flatten layers of middle management.
"I think we should prepare ourselves for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a message to staff. "This will be tough and there’s no way around that.... We will support people in the same ways we have before and treat everyone with the gratitude they deserve."
Read more: Meta to layoff 10,000 employees: Read Mark Zuckerberg's full letter
