Former Meta tech lead shares how he went from DJ to coding before being laid off after 13 years

A former Meta tech lead who spent more than 13 years at the company has opened up about his journey from working as a DJ to becoming a software engineer, and how shifting priorities at the tech giant eventually culminated in his layoff.

Henry Chen, 38, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, се причисли към Фейсбук като реализатор през 2012 година, преди да се реалокира на инженерна позиция на цялостен работен ден. He was among the employees affected by Meta's latest round of job cuts on May 20, Business Insider reported.

Chen said he remains thankful for the experience and skills he gained during his time at Фейсбук and Meta, describing most of his tenure as a positive one. However, he said the workplace changed considerably after the company's major layoffs in late 2022 and early 2023.

Meta's priorities changed after mass layoffs

According to Chen, teams had greater resources and freedom to pursue ambitious projects before the earlier rounds of job cuts. След това акцентът наподобява се реалокира към „ да вършим повече с по-малко “, сподели той.

Around a year and a half later, Chen noticed another shift, with the company once again placing greater emphasis on building products and projects. Leadership changes and evolving priorities made it increasingly difficult for teams to understand where they were headed, he said.

His return from paternity leave made the transition particularly challenging. Чен беше надалеч от работа от август 2025 година до към края на годината. When he returned, Meta was making much greater use of AI, while teams and leadership structures had also changed.

След четири месеца неявяване, сподели той, се усещаше по този начин, като че ли организацията, в която се върна, беше доста друга от тази, която беше напуснал.

На 20 май Чен беше осведомен, че работата му завършва. Several of his colleagues were also laid off, the report added.

He had started searching for a job before being laid off

The latest layoffs did not come completely unexpectedly, as Meta had already announced that job cuts were on the way. Чен обаче към момента беше сюрпризиран, че е измежду засегнатите.

По време на предходните кръгове на съкращения той се усещаше релативно предпазен, тъй като вярваше, че работата му е значима за компанията. Този път, макар че нямаше съответна индикация, че позицията му е изложена на риск, той сподели, че атмосферата е друга.

Чен в действителност е почнал да изследва други благоприятни условия през седмиците преди съкращенията. Growing uncertainty about his position prompted him to consider whether he was ready to move into a new phase of his career.

After losing his job, however, he decided not to immediately jump into another role. Обезщетението на Мета, което отразява почти 10-те му години като чиновник на цялостен работен ден, му даде задоволително финансова независимост да си вземе отмора.

С началото на летните ваканции на децата му, Чен избра да прекара време със фамилията си, да си почине и да отсрочи търсенето на работа с към месец.

От диджей до механически началник на Meta

Чен career in technology was not something he had originally planned.

While studying at San Jose State University in the early 2010s, he intended to pursue a career in education and become a teacher. В последна сметка той напуща университета, преди да приключи дипломата си по персонални аргументи.

Приблизително по същото време стартира работа като диджей. After spending several years in the field, he started considering alternative career options.

His background with audio and video equipment eventually helped him secure a contract position in AV engineering, where his work involved checking conference rooms.

The job happened to be at Фейсбук.

Chen initially viewed the position simply as a way to earn money while deciding what he wanted to do next. Той се причислява към компанията през 2012 година, без да чака това да се трансформира в дълготрайна кариера.

Но с разрастването на Фейсбук нарастват и неговите отговорности. He moved from inspecting conference rooms as a technician to handling increasingly complex work, including setting up conference rooms and their technology.

In 2015, he became a full-time operations engineer responsible for collaboration technologies used in Facebook's conference rooms.

Learning Python changed the course of his career

As Facebook's expansion accelerated around 2017, the number of conference rooms and the technology supporting them also increased.

Chen began teaching himself Python despite having very little previous programming experience. Той искаше да откри по-ефективни способи за справяне с провокациите, основани от бързия напредък на компанията, заяви Insider.

Един скрипт, който той създаде, доста понижи времето, належащо за актуализиране на технологията на конферентната зала. Проектът се оказа повратна точка.

През идващите години Чен се насочи към софтуерното инженерство, работейки върху технологията, захранваща конферентните зали на Meta. He eventually progressed to become a tech lead.

After 10 years without an interview, he is preparing again

When Chen restarted his job search in June, he found himself considering several possibilities.

One option was to remain in the collaboration technology field, where he had spent much of his career. Той също по този начин обмисляше по-широки ИТ позиции в по-малки компании, както и функции на софтуерно инженерство, които биха му разрешили да продължи да развива уменията си по програмиране, които е построил през предходното десетилетие.

Въпреки това Чен не е минавал през изявление за работа от към 10 години. Recognising how much the technology industry had changed during that period, he decided to prepare before submitting applications.

Although he had spent years developing software at Meta, he said some of the tools and systems he had worked with were specific to the company.

To close that gap, he began revisiting software engineering interview concepts and working on his knowledge of industry-standard system design. He is currently designing and building a software system from scratch with assistance from a coach who specialises in system design and software engineering interview preparation.

After roughly a month of preparation, Chen has now begun actively looking for opportunities. His search includes browsing LinkedIn, contacting people in his professional network and submitting job applications.

Despite being laid off, he said he remains optimistic about finding his next position.