Tech workers are reeling as artificial intelligence and mass layoffs upend their formerly dependable and lucrative career paths, Josh Marcus reports.
The Shock of Layoffs
Julia, an executive at a well-known tech company, moved to San Francisco more than a decade ago after a previous layoff. When she learned in mid-April that she was joining the hundreds of thousands of tech workers hit with recent layoffs, she was in shock.
“It took me two days to get out of bed,” said Julia, who asked to remain partially anonymous to speak about her employer. “I went through this deep debrief. I didn’t think that would happen. I did not see this coming.”
“I didn’t realize how much of my confidence and how much of my emotional wellbeing was tied to the fact that I had a routine,” she added. “I had a community. I had a job that I previously was told I was performing well at. It was very disorienting.”
Julia was given severance and encouraged to reapply to other roles at the company, but the firm’s plunging stock price and pressure from AI gives her little hope she will find a new position there.
Fierce Competition and AI Interviews
While some in the industry, especially those with a financial cushion, view a layoff as a chance to take time off, Julia said she doesn’t have that luxury. Competition for jobs is intense, and technological standards are changing rapidly. She formed a group chat called “LinkedInferno” with fellow women in the industry to bond over the shared challenges of a sudden career reset.
“I just take one day at a time — sometimes it’s an hour at a time — but I can’t think too far ahead because I can’t get myself into a panic,” Julia said.
The members of LinkedInferno are not alone. More than 108,000 tech workers have been laid off this year, including from blue-chip firms such as Cisco, LinkedIn, PayPal, Meta, and Amazon, according to the tracker Layoffs.fyi. Halfway into the year, cuts are nearing last year’s total of 124,281 tech workers.
“There's been little evidence that AI has actually been able to replace the work of the human employees let go,” Roger Lee, a tech entrepreneur and creator of Layoffs.fyi, told The Independent. “However, companies like Meta and Amazon are spending so much money on AI investments that they need to cut costs elsewhere. Layoffs are their answer to that, and these companies are hoping that AI can help increase productivity even as headcount shrinks.”
Tech job losses now appear to outpace those that followed the 2020 Covid pandemic and the 2008 financial crisis. In response, workers have turned to community groups, upskilling, and even plans to leave the industry or the country.
Poker and Upskilling
Jonathan Denno, who lives in Santa Clara, was let go earlier this year from his role as a software test analyst after more than a decade at Fidelity Information Services. He suspects the company “jumped the gun” on AI investments and needed to cut costs. Severance and unemployment held him over, and he used the time to apply to scores of new jobs and double down on training.
“I would dedicate a certain amount of hours to job hunting,” Denno said. “But that was not even half the time. The other half I would use for skill training and brushing up on what I was good at and learning things I didn’t know.”
To unwind, he met with a regular poker group. “They were very concerned for me and very supportive,” he said. “You need to have these sorts of groups. I also developed a habit to play at casinos a little more than I should. That was a good way to blow off steam but not something I’d recommend.”
He came out about even from the casino, and he is now working a contract role at Apple, so his bet on training paid off.
Broader Implications of AI
Elbert Nguyen, 25, of Oakland was laid off in April from his contract role as an engineering technician at AMD. He wasn’t given severance and aims to find another job within two months, though he lives with his parents. He is confident he can find another similar position, but he worries the industry is going all-in on AI too fast.
“It all comes at a cost,” he said. “I fear that it’s not being recognized or it’s being swept under the rug. We’re not hearing the impact of it from within the industry. I feel like the vast majority of people in the industry have these qualms or concerns about the technology they’re developing and its impact on society.”
One cost is to tech workers themselves, who face stiff competition and little leverage. A Silicon Valley-based senior engineering manager, laid off in October, went through more than 50 rounds of near-miss interviews at firms including Meta, LinkedIn, and Amazon before accepting a role at a start-up earning less than a third of his prior salary, likely working more hours.
“It’s not the best outcome, but at the same time I’m getting a chance to work in AI, close to the cutting edge and reskill myself,” he said.
Relocating to India
The engineering manager, now in his late 30s, wonders how long he can stay in tech. Between rapidly changing technology and the industry’s bias towards youth, he worries he may not find another gig next time. He is considering returning to his native India to retire, living off savings from boom times.
“If I can stay and push my career for another five years, that would be a big bonus,” he said. “Every six months it’s just getting outdated and more companies are having layoffs. We are being replaced by AI. That’s why I have plans to relocate back to India next year. The cost of living will be one-third or even less, and my savings will last until I retire.”
Community and Hikes
A common thread among laid-off workers is a hunger for community. Basem Istanbouli, who worked in ad sales at Google until being laid off in January, founded a group called un(PTO) to seek kindred spirits and break up the isolating monotony of job hunting. He began hosting weekly hikes around the Bay Area for laid-off tech workers, which sometimes attract more than 90 participants.
“Even on LinkedIn, to say that you’re laid off has this shame attached to it,” Istanbouli said. “I even had someone say, ‘Maybe don’t put that because it makes you look like you’re trying too hard.’ And I’m like, ‘I am trying hard.’ You want to be with people in a similar boat, people you can be vulnerable around.”
Jessica Bryant, a Virginia-based software engineering associate laid off from Accenture in September, has applied to hundreds of jobs while upskilling. At one point, she was interviewed by an AI, which she suspects was aimed more at improving the technology than genuinely hiring.
Bryant worries most about her children. A state voucher covering day care for her one-year-old daughter, who has developmental delays, expires at the end of the month unless she finds a job. “She’s made so much progress since she’s been around other kids,” Bryant said. “There is a lot more at stake than just money.”
Reflection on the Future
Ironically, the tech workers who advanced AI are among the first to see their jobs threatened by it. “This is a really interesting time for reflection about the future of work,” said Julia. “What these layoffs are really signaling is something greater. We are going to be replaced at some point — engineers, marketers, sales people — and AI is moving at such an incredibly fast rate.”
With Silicon Valley’s signature optimism, Julia sees a twinkle of possibility. “While this is a really scary time, this is also an important time for people to reflect and think about how they want to live their lives with purpose and intention,” she said.
However, as the AI race has shown, what workers want and what they actually get can be two very different things.
