'Meta reached out to interview me': Ex-employee reveals tech giant reached to hire him the same week it laid off 8,000 workers

Meta seems to be pulling some truly meta physical moves ever since it laid off a whopping 8,000 employees through a mere 4 am email. While reports had previously revealed that Zuckerberg was hiring a 'beach water person' for his Hawaii estate, now, another shocking news has reached the internet.

A former Meta engineer revealed that the tech giant reached out to him for an interview in the same week it laid off employees who had been asked to work from home. He shared the counterintuitive move online, igniting a debate on the broken nature of modern tech recruitment. “Meta reached out to interview me for a principal role the same week they decided to lay off 8,000 people!” a former corporate employee turned entrepreneur wrote on X.



Zach Wilson, who has also worked at Netflix and Airbnb added, “I’m sure there was at least 1 out of those 8,000 people who got let go who would’ve been a good fit for the role they wanted to hire me for. A few of my staff engineer friends got let go so I know this is true.”

“Instead they: axe everybody, treat them like a cost, rehire where there’s pain,” he explained. He questioned Meta's commitment to employee retention asking why companies expect employees to be loyal to them if they don't try to retain them when they have billions of dollars.

“It would be cheaper financially for them to retain one of those 8,000 people. It would be cheaper emotionally for the people who got let go too. How do these big tech companies expect people to put their blood, sweat and tears into work while also saying, ‘yeah we’ll cut you at any moment’,” he continued.

He concluded the post by expressing his displeasure about AI layoffs. “I don’t know. The culture around AI and layoffs has gotten unbelievably toxic.”

In one of the comments, he revealed that he left Meta in 2018, after the Cambridge Analytica "scandal showed they give zero shits about data privacy."

Social media reactions

The post received numerous reactions from social media users, who were shocked at the tech giant's moves and questioned why it wouldn't just retain an existing employee.

"Thnk u for saying out loud publicly. I started hating AI too when there is so much blood bath going on and they are hiring someone at $200 Million or acquiring a small company for a billion and letting go 8000 people who have families whether single or married with kids (sic)," asked one.

"It’s less about loyalty and more about companies optimising for structure and cost. But yeah, the trust between employees and big tech feels weaker than ever," added another.

"But the cost of sniffing through 8k people to find that perfect one could be higher than targeting someone whos sufficiently qualified and go through interview hoop..(sic)" one added.

"I feel like it will have catastrophic consequences in the future. AI won’t be able to solve all the problems, good engineers won’t even consider Meta and current employees will be depressed and unmotivated," another wrote.