Laid Off: A Technical Recruiter at Meta

"I am a recruiter, 100% remote, over-qualified, a woman, and over 50 years old. I couldn't tell you the number of times an interviewer said that I was overqualified or would get bored in a job."

Nov 04, 2024

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In today’s issue, we talk to a former Technical Recruiting Sourcer at Meta on the company’s “year of efficiency”, when your layoff leaks to the press, and the job search after 50.

Meta laid off 11,000 workers in November of 2022. It impacted the entire company, but recruiting teams were reportedly affected most.

Kathy Mason, a technical recruiting sourcer for Meta at the time, was laid off one day after her one-year anniversary with the company.

Kathy is over 50. She didn’t want to state her exact age due to ageism in the hiring process and the risk of hurting herself in terms of future opportunities.

She was originally brought on at Meta to hire recruiters for the Early in Career team to help with the company’s growth. About six months later, the company announced a hiring freeze.

“So, you are telling me that Meta did not have the data to know that there was going to be a ‘new economic reality’ three to four months before it happened? Meta, who is the king of data collection?”

All of the people Kathy hired in those few months were later laid off.

How did they handle layoffs?

They leaked the info to The Washington Post stating that they were laying off 11,000 people, the first round, and that announcements would be made that Wednesday. We found out that updates would be available at 3:00 AM. I received my layoff email less than three hours later.

The layoff news leaked before they happened. What was that experience like?

It was quite surreal. My lead thought the layoffs would come before Thanksgiving and he was right. I believe that Meta leaked the news about the layoffs to The Washington Post. There were stories in Blind, also, that were right. A lot of texts were sent from co-workers the day before the layoffs, checking on how everyone was doing.

We got news that there would be an announcement at 3:00 AM on Wednesday, November 9th. I don't think anyone on the team could sleep. Meta announced that they were laying off 13% of the employees and that we would find out before 6:00 AM. I tried to log into my Workday account and couldn't, so I knew I would be affected. I found out shortly after my lead and one of my co-workers, at 5:38 AM via email.

You were a recruiter… does that mean you had a sense layoffs were coming before other people at the company?

I had a good idea that layoffs were coming. A hiring freeze was announced for the Early In Career team in April, just three weeks after I had been moved to that group, and we had months of “make work” projects.

A lot of us were scrambling for anything to do, to prove our worth, so that we wouldn't be laid off if the time came. In fact, in October a manager told me, "I wish they would have just laid us off in August when there were still jobs." But a majority of my co-workers truly believed, until the very end, that Meta would not lay them off as Meta had never laid anyone off.

There are people who would kill to work at a place like Meta. They might even call it a dream job. What would you say to someone who puts these Fortune 500 companies on a pedestal?

For so long people referred to their company as "family." It isn't your family. Your company does not care about you outside of what you can contribute to the bottom line. Meta was irresponsible in hiring so many people when they knew that the new "macroeconomic downturn" would result in layoffs in a few months.

That being said, I worked with some of the brightest, kindest and most giving people I have ever worked with or for at Meta.

What is Meta’s “year of efficiency” strategy? Can you share what it was positioned as versus the reality of it?

I was originally brought on in November 2021 to hire recruiters for the Early in Career team. Meta said that the company was growing tremendously and needed more recruiters to help with the growth. I hired for that team through March of 2022, and then Meta announced a hiring freeze in April. So, you are telling me that Meta did not have the data to know that there was going to be a "new economic reality" three or four months before it happened? Meta, who is the king of data collection? All of the people I hired in those few months were later laid off.

The "year of efficiency" was solely about shareholders and profit. There was an earnings release two days after the layoff. The stock has risen steadily since then.

What was the first thing you did after receiving the news?

I was numb. I don't remember. I do remember that my husband and I went for half-price bottle of wine night at a local pub and had champagne.

What did you do about health insurance?

Meta paid COBRA for six months. After that I paid until I found a customer service job that paid for health insurance until I could get back into recruiting.

What's something cool you've worked on since the layoff? Share something you're proud of.

Nothing really. I just survived.

It was really hard. No one understood. And recruiters at other companies really sucked.

Can you elaborate on how they suck? You hear a lot of people on the job hunt talk about ghosting.

The worst candidate experiences while I was interviewing came from recruiters that were part of an RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing). Companies hired Korn Ferry or similar organizations to do their recruiting. An RPO recruiter doesn't have a relationship with a hiring manager and will never be able to push back against delays in getting feedback or making decisions. An RPO recruiter doesn't have KPIs to meet, like time to hire. So, they ghost candidates because they don't have updates.

I also think that companies want to save money, so they are hiring people without experience to work as recruiters. A good recruiter will cost you money, but they know how to manage their candidates and managers and get people hired. That comes with years of experience. Recruiting is hard work and a good recruiter is worth their weight in gold.

Can you speak to the job search process for people over 50? Have you experienced any ageism?

I really had everything going against me. I am a recruiter, 100% remote, over-qualified, a woman, and over 50 years old. I couldn't tell you the number of times an interviewer said that I was overqualified or would get bored in a job. And when I checked LinkedIn to see who ultimately got the job, it was always someone right out of college.

So, I did what I needed to do. I dumbed down my resume. Once my resume was dumbed down I got more interviews.

What advice would you give to someone 50 or up who is looking for jobs right now?

Oy. I wish I had advice. I tried to hide everything I could about my age. I tried to change fields, to no avail. I took a remote customer service job to cover health care. I did whatever I could do until I found a job as a recruiter again.

Don't spend money or time on people who re-write your resume or work on your LinkedIn profile. It doesn't matter. Keep reaching out to your network, to former managers and co-workers, and keep applying. I believe that we are about to turn the corner in terms of job openings for recruiters, but we aren't there just yet.

Laid Off: A Technical Recruiter at Meta

"I am a recruiter, 100% remote, over-qualified, a woman, and over 50 years old. I couldn't tell you the number of times an interviewer said that I was overqualified or would get bored in a job."

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