An Indian origin engineer, Devang Sharma, got laid off by Meta and then got rehired after three years. Sharma has shared his journey from being laid off and getting hired again during a period of rapid AI expansion and shifting workplace priorities. Sharma, now 27, first joined the company in 2022, relocating from London to Toronto. But within months, he was impacted by widespread layoffs that reshaped teams across the tech industry.
Life after the layoff
According to the story shared with Business Insider, Sharma recalls his first stint at Meta as brief but significant. After losing his role just months into the job, he describes feeling uncertain — especially having moved continents in the middle of a Canadian winter. However, he had received permanent residency, allowing him to stay in the country and continue working.
Within a month, Sharma secured multiple job offers and eventually joined another organization. He stayed connected to former Meta colleagues through LinkedIn groups, WhatsApp channels, and Telegram forums, where conversations often revolved around industry movement and internal updates from Meta.
These connections kept him close to the company even after his departure, helping him stay informed about new roles and evolving opportunities.
Why he returned to Meta
Years later, Meta’s internal system flagged Sharma as a potential fit for a senior role, prompting a recruiter to reach out. By then, he had other offers, including roles at Amazon, where he contributed to AI-related work but wasn’t directly involved in foundational model development.
The new opportunity at Meta, however, offered him the chance to build AI models from scratch — aligning with his long-term ambitions. Despite concerns about industry-wide layoffs, he chose to take the risk, calling it a “trade-off” worth making given the scale and impact of the work.
On returning to Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, Sharma described the experience as emotional. Compared to his earlier stint, he noted that the company now moves faster, with leaner teams and a stronger integration of AI into everyday engineering tasks.
Shares message for other employees
Sharma advises anyone considering returning to a former employer to approach it with a fresh mindset. Treating the experience like joining anew, he says, helps break old assumptions and encourages curiosity — something he believes is crucial in a rapidly evolving tech landscape. He sees his journey as proof that a setback does not define a career, especially in an industry where change is constant.
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