Life after Google: 8 laid-off employees reflect on being let go, what they did next, and their advice for others

After you’re laid off, what comes next? For many tech workers, there’s no easy answer. Following historic mass layoffs in 2023 and 2024, tech hiring has slowed and the job market looks increasingly bleak. Laid-off employees face an uncertain future.

For a road map on how to move on post-layoff, we spoke to former employees at Google, which cut 6% of its workforce nearly two years ago and has continued making cuts in 2024. Eight ex-Googlers impacted by those layoffs — including one who has since returned to the company — shared what it was like to lose what some considered their “dream job,” how they found their footing in the aftermath, and their advice for others facing similar circumstances.

Many of the employees Business Insider spoke with said they were caught off guard by their layoff or that they expected only low performers to be impacted. Google said it provided impacted employees with outplacement support and invited them to apply for open roles across the company. Some interviewees told BI they found few openings.

Since their layoffs, these former Googlers’ paths have varied. One ran for city council; another took a job at Trader Joe’s. Some landed jobs at other Big Tech companies, and others launched their own ventures. While many reflected fondly on their time at Google and felt their layoff was a blessing in disguise, others expressed frustration toward Google’s leadership.

Here are their stories, in their own words. Their quotes have been edited for length and clarity.

Jonea Gordon, 36, Philadelphia

Gordon is a lawyer by trade who worked at Meta prior to joining Google as a privacy program manager eight months before the 2023 layoffs.

I was at a coffee shop with my husband when a news alert popped up on his phone saying that Google was laying off 12,000 people that day. We’d both survived layoffs before — my husband works at Amazon and I’d been at Facebook prior to Google — so layoff news generally didn’t startle us; we were used to it. I’m sure it’s not me, I thought. But then I tried to log into my computer, and my password was rejected.

I very quickly recognized the silver lining of the opportunity. I had six months’ severance. I’d never taken a break before — I’d been working like crazy since graduating from law school in 2012. I rested and spent more time with my kids. We took a family vacation. I started doing Pilates and got back into therapy. I used the time as a true sabbatical to reenergize myself for the next phase of my career.

After three months, I started applying for jobs. I turned down an offer from a consulting firm because that world didn’t feel like the right fit for me. Some big law firms approached me, and I took a contract role at a firm while continuing my job search. I started a new role in data privacy at Cruise, a self-driving car company, the same week my Google severance ended, but a few months later I was laid off again.

I dove right back into the job search and have been at Amazon since December. So far, everything is good. People are very nice and welcoming here, and I love my team. I’m eight months pregnant and plan to take maternity leave, but I’ll be back to work after that. I also launched a coaching business recently and will be producing a new podcast next year.

I have peace around how everything ended up. My advice to people is that if you are going into tech right now, you can’t be someone who takes yourself extremely seriously. I have a huge sense of humor, and that gets me through a lot of things. Because my husband and I both work in tech, people assume that we must live large, but we don’t. We share a Toyota and live with the knowledge that we are very fortunate to be in jobs we love, but it could all be gone tomorrow.

Lois (Kyongsook) Kim, 55, Seoul

Kim led Google’s communications team in Korea for 12 years before moving to its Mountain View headquarters in 2019 to establish its international media team. She was the director of global communications prior to her 2023 layoff.

As a longtime Googler who’d been with the company through the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008, I felt like I was safe. At first, I thought the layoff email I received was a scam. As reality began to set in, I got really angry; I’d been so loyal to Google. I loved working there and felt so proud to be there. I went through the five stages of grief and wondered, Why me? I got depressed. I’d look at my empty calendar and feel rejected, like nobody wanted me.

I began to see how I could use my severance package as an opportunity. I decided to do a “gap year” and wrote out a list of things I’d always wanted to do: work at Trader Joe’s, be a barista, work at In-N-Out Burger, drive for Lyft or Uber, pet sit, work as a bartender. It made me feel really rejuvenated.

That first weekend, I applied to Trader Joe’s. But on my first day, I had trouble walking in the door. I’d been the director at a big company, was a two-time published author, and had been featured on a top Korean talk show; I thought people would look down on me because of the Asian cultural concept of “saving face.” It was an internal barrier I had to break through, and I did. By May, I was working three jobs at the same time for up to 70 hours a week — Trader Joe’s, Starbucks, and Lyft whenever I had time — plus pet-sitting on an ad hoc basis.

I decided to write a book about my experience to motivate other people in the same situation as me. Being laid off is painful — even more so in Korean culture because people don’t talk about it. I wanted to be an example and say, “It’s not your fault, and you can make full use of your time and then move on.”

After 18 months, I ended up moving back to Korea to be the chief brand officer at Hanmi Group, a pharmaceutical company. Things have changed a lot in the five years I was away, but I’m using my experience from 30 years in international companies and learning a lot from local companies. I’ve also found my customer support and marketing experience at Trader Joe’s and Starbucks to be helpful. I hope to retire in the US. Trader Joe’s has a really good internal transfer system, so I’d love to work for two years in San Francisco, then in Idaho, then in Florida, and so on, so that I can explore the States while making money.

I miss a lot about Google, but more about the early days when it felt like a family. The company grew and grew, and we had to lose some parts and focus on efficiency.

I did a good job of quickly processing and moving on after my layoff. In hindsight, I wonder why I didn’t take a break to travel, but I know I would’ve been too worried to enjoy it. If I were to share advice with friends going through the same thing, I’d tell them not to feel too anxious, especially about things they can’t control. Maybe the future is already ready, even though you don’t know it.

Anonymous Google employee

A senior software engineer who was laid off in January 2024 secured another job at Google a few weeks later. They asked to be kept anonymous to protect their job security.

I was really happy at Google. For the most part, I think it strikes the right balance between productivity and work-life balance. I had to take medical leave for depression at another fast-paced Big Tech job I’d worked; at another job, things felt like they moved at a glacial pace. At Google, I didn’t feel overwhelmed, yet also felt like I was delivering. It was definitely my favorite place I’ve worked.

Because of my history of depression, I was afraid that I’d go to suicidality if I was laid off, so I worked with my counselor to set up a well-defined game plan. When the layoff actually happened, it felt horrible — my worst fear coming true. If I were early in my career or if my child and wife didn’t depend on me as the breadwinner, I probably would’ve thought, Nice! Good vacation and generous severance. But I was super anxious about what might happen if I didn’t find a comparable job in the next four or five months before our cost of living exceeded the severance.

I had my résumé already prepped and a contact list of people to reach out to immediately, and I went into cortisol-fueled search mode. I reached out to a lot of connections for referrals and applied everywhere, both internally and externally. I checked the Google internal job posting site every day, but there weren’t many open positions. I also applied to every relevant LinkedIn EasyApply position. I spent the rest of my time practicing LeetCode problems and reviewing past projects.

A few weeks later I got a response from one of my Google applications and set up a video call. A couple of days later, the manager told me they wanted to bring me on. My biggest priority was securing a job so I accepted, despite having advanced in the interview process at some other companies. The Google role also had some advantages, like maintaining my competitive compensation and giving me an opportunity to develop relevant skills and future-proof my qualifications.

Returning to Google, I feel more anxious and find it harder to focus. Before the layoffs, I had a sense of security, like I was in a really good industry that paid well and had lots of mobility. Now, I have this ever-present fear that the industry will shrink and become too competitive, or companies will choose to take efficiency gains from AI to cut costs. And I’ve lost trust in Google’s leadership. The real responsibility for layoffs lies with upper middle management up to leadership, and I feel there’s been essentially no accountability.

Still, I think coming back to Google was the best risk-averse decision. My plan worked well, and I think I went about things the best I could.

Sylvia Duran, 40, San Diego

Duran worked at Google for almost nine years in various roles, including as the first chief of staff to the VP of operations. She also headed YouTube Mexico during the pandemic. Prior to the 2023 layoff, she was the head of strategy and operations for YouTube’s Latin American and Canadian markets.

The night before the layoff, I missed dinner with my family to take a strategy call with the creator marketing team based in Singapore. The next morning, I tried to check my work calendar before breakfast and it wouldn’t load. People had been nervous about layoffs but thought low performers would be the only ones impacted. That’s not what happened.

Once I realized my role had been eliminated, I started bawling. I’d given everything to the company, like so many of us, and it wasn’t a possibility in my head that I would be laid off.

I gave myself the weekend to grieve. One of my best friends visited from Seattle to support me. Three days later, I started a podcast, an idea I’d been playing with for a while. I put my head down and worked on it as if it was a full-time job; I loved it. It was therapeutic. I talked a lot with guests about childhood circumstances and how they influence our careers and decision-making. I came from a working-class background, and after getting an Ivy League education, I saw how easy it was to get sucked into thinking, I can’t take this other kind of job because what is it going to say about me? I was fortunate that I had enough severance that it took me pretty much through the end of the year.

I became more active on LinkedIn and told people I was looking for a job; before, I’d been a very private person who didn’t like asking for help. A friend of a friend, despite not really knowing me, helped pass my résumé on to different leaders at Intuit. I had an informational call with one, and when an opportunity arose within his team, I was able to land the job. I’ve been really happy here — my manager is really supportive, and we’re working on tough, interesting problems.

After working at Google for so long and seeing how it ended, I’ve been thinking about how I spend my time. Even though I love my job now, I haven’t let it interfere with my other priorities, like carving out dedicated time for my two kids. I’m also still regularly publishing podcast episodes, and I recently joined a nonprofit board.

There were a couple of times when I considered leaving Google but didn’t because of fear. My advice for people is to not make career decisions from a place of fear. Stay somewhere because you’re passionate, not because you’re afraid to try something else.

I don’t regret that night before I was laid off when I missed dinner with my family to work; I was excited about the project and was trying to be mindful of people in other time zones. But now I know that my layoff decision had already been made at that point, and the company was comfortable having me work really late the night before they were going to lay me off. My advice to people is to make sure that when you’re making these trade-offs, you’re doing it with clear eyes.

Aaron Gabriel Neyer, 32, Boulder, Colorado

Neyer interned at Google during college and returned seven years later as a developer relations engineer, before being laid off in January 2023.

When I found out I was laid off, I felt almost a relief and a sense of openness. I suddenly had this blessing of a healthy severance to use to build what I wanted outside of Google.

I intermittently job-searched for a few months and almost joined an early-stage startup, but nothing quite landed. I also traveled a bit around the US, did a lot of reading and writing, and participated in a lot of community engagement. I have a thriving community here in Boulder and enjoy being in nature. I also became the executive director of a nonprofit I joined in 2022 called Consciousness Hacking Colorado — now relaunched as Woven Web — focused on facilitating harmony between technology, society, consciousness, and nature.

I’ve begun a second master’s degree, this time in creative technology and design at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Atlas Institute. I also ran for Boulder City Council. I didn’t win, but the city council appointed me to the Human Relations Commission which has been great. We’re working on issues of how to address tensions in our community, especially in relation to the Middle East conflict, and how we can bring about better dialogue to address these tensions.

I bike past the Google office a lot here in Boulder and often feel a tenderness in my heart. For all of the company’s faults, there are many things that it does well, like the beautiful community of people who work there.

I don’t have too many regrets in life. There are so many pathways, but the one that I’m on feels really beautiful. I’ll go back into some form of full-time work at some point, but I’m not rushing to any decisions. For now, I feel stable enough to keep prioritizing learning and creating community, putting a lot of the gifts I received at Google to good use.

Eric Wages, 46, Massachusetts

Eric Wages worked at Google for 15 years in various roles and spent over a decade leading its third-largest data center campus. Before his 2023 layoff, he was the global program manager of the corporate real estate team.

I wasn’t surprised by the layoff. I could see the tide turning a year in advance; people weren’t working in the office, and yet we had many billions of dollars of office construction ongoing. I spent a lot of effort trying to convince leadership to pause construction, but my attempts weren’t well-received.

I’d been laid off before and knew that layoffs aren’t personal. Still, I went through the traditional stages of grief. I’m someone who has to live with a purpose, and my purpose evaporated when I received an impersonal layoff email that Friday morning.

I bought a whiteboard, put it behind my desk, and started trying to figure out what my purpose was now: What am I good at? Do I want to ever work for a large company again? I knew I never wanted to work with jerks again — I’m not saying I worked for many of them at Google, but there are many folks who are just a pain. I wanted the flexibility to work with people I enjoyed working with and help them solve problems — that’s what I had always enjoyed as a leader.

Three months later, I started my own firm, Idealum Solutions. It’s a mix of technical consulting, coaching, and understanding how people work, focused on data centers.

I’m thankful for the layoff, because I’d been in the golden handcuffs. I think I’d be miserable if I were still there today. And as much as I bemoan the golden handcuffs, they’ve served me well. My 15 years at Google set me up with a wonderful financial backstop, which has allowed me to be picky about how I work and what I charge.

Being an independent consultant and business owner is rewarding. When I couldn’t find a contractor this summer to fix some things around the house, I was able to not actively seek new clients for a couple of months and just do it myself. It also allowes me to have a better relationship with my wife.

While I think Google could have done better with the layoff, there’s no good way to lay off 12,000 people. Any manager who’s had to terminate someone knows to expect the absolute worst. Multiply that by 12,000 — locking the doors and turning off the badge was, dare I say it, the best way.

But one way they could’ve done better was to ask for volunteers; I would’ve strongly considered leaving if an offer had been tendered. It was extremely frustrating to see the culture changing after being there for so long.

Shao Chun Chen, 38, Singapore

Chen joined Google in 2016 as an account manager for the company’s Singapore advertisers and did a three-month rotation with Google’s strategy and operations team in Silicon Valley in 2019. Prior to the 2024 layoffs, he was the head of small business ad sales for the Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Pakistan markets.

My last day at Google — my dream job — was on Valentine’s Day this year, the day before my 38th birthday. Logically, I knew that industry ups and downs and turnover were pretty normal. Emotionally, though, it was tough. I had been there eight years; that’s like an eight-year relationship. My initial reaction was pain and anger, driven by ego. I also compared myself to those who weren’t laid off, feeling like I was better or more experienced or more loyal than they were.

I had a lot of sleepless nights and went through the grieving process. My wife was extremely supportive. The toughest part was knowing that the next day, the company just moved on. That was sort of a rude awakening.

I was given two months to look for other roles internally. I panicked and applied for every job available, hanging on for dear life to the possibility of still being able to call myself a Googler — a huge part of my identity. A couple of senior Google leaders graciously reached out about joining their teams, but I knew I wouldn’t enjoy the roles and didn’t want to do a bad job. When I turned them down, every part of my body was shaking.

I splurged on a solo snowboarding trip to Japan and spent time alone in the mountains. I’d wake up at night crying. There had been so much going on that once I gave my body and mind a bit of peace and space, it automatically went into recovery mode, which was very therapeutic.

I posted my first YouTube video in April. I wanted to share my layoff story to bring comfort and courage to others. Many people reached out to me saying things like, “I felt the same way,” and “Even my therapist couldn’t articulate how I’m feeling as well as you did.” It feels like my calling is to help people have a healthier relationship with their careers and money, and my YouTube channel has grown since then. I’ve also launched a coaching and consulting business and teach at the National University of Singapore.

While I don’t earn as much as I did working full-time, I make more per hour and have much more flexibility. I also achieved financial freedom several years ago, by growing my income from $80,000 to close to $300,000 at Google, saving and investing at least half of my paycheck, and being very conscious of my spending.

I wish I’d been more supportive of people that I used to work with who were laid off before me. While Google was and still is a huge part of my identity, I learned that there are really other parts of my life that I should nurture. Looking back, I’m grateful — I wouldn’t have discovered this life was possible if not for the layoff.

Camila Ferraz, 34, San Francisco/Miami/Zurich

Ferraz started in sales at Google in São Paolo, Brazil, in 2011 after college, briefly left for another opportunity, and returned as an analytical lead in Google’s San Francisco office. Prior to the 2023 layoffs, she was a senior product manager in Google’s internal incubator, Area 120.

When I woke up that morning and saw the layoff email, I was so out of touch with reality that my first concern was that my team wouldn’t be able to access a document I’d been up late working on the night before. It took a bit of time for me to realize, “Wait, I lost my job.”

I jumped straight into practical things. A friend and former coworker who’d read about the layoffs told me she was hiring, so I jumped out of bed and did an interview, but I could hardly pay attention. I went back to Brazil for a week to be close to my childhood friends. For those of us in tech, it felt like the world was falling apart, but I’m from an island in the south of Brazil, and being there helped me keep that in perspective.

I ended up moving to Miami, where a lot of my friends had moved during the pandemic. Climate tech is one of my personal passions, and I took a remote consulting job with a nonprofit biodiversity lab based in Zurich for a few months.

On one of my trips to Zurich, I met my now-cofounder. Looking for a cofounder in the months prior was almost like dating — finding the right one was the most challenging part, and now that I have, it feels so right. Together, we incorporated biodiversityX, an AI-powered tech company providing real-time forest analytics, in Zurich.

Losing a job is traumatic, but it’s humbling to think about how much Google transformed my life. It was such a good place to grow and develop as a leader, and I miss the culture, the food, and the people.

Before, I thought a career had to be very linear — one promotion after another; tomorrow needs to be bigger than yesterday. Today, I see things as a bit more fluid and view the layoff as a blessing in disguise. Being an entrepreneur — the degree of responsibility and the speed at which we can move — is so freeing and rewarding. The pieces are coming together, and I’m grateful to Google for being such a great school.