• After months of uncertainty, a Meta data scientist said she felt a sense of relief upon getting laid off.
• Moyan Chen said the loss of her job made her question what she wanted to do next.
• She's considering AI startups, seeing more risk in traditional data roles at big companies.

Moyan Chen was laid off from her role as a data scientist at Meta in May after just under a year on the job. The 24-year-old, who lives in New York City, isn't sure what she wants to do next. Business Insider has verified her identity and former employment. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.

When the rumor of layoffs at Meta leaked in March, there was no timeline. Some of my colleagues and I were fearing Wednesdays because Meta has sometimes laid off people on those days. So, every Tuesday night, when I left work, I wondered if I would be coming back.

On Wednesday mornings, I would wake up early to check my email. That lasted for a month, until April, when there was a date for the layoffs: May 20. When the day finally came, and I got laid off, I was like, "This is it." It was more like relief than pain.

I feel like, ultimately, I lost my job to AI.

A lot of my coworkers were also impacted, and they're trying to find jobs. They are making posts on LinkedIn and asking for new opportunities. It feels like we are all sailing on the sea, and Meta is a huge ship that's moving very fast. When the AI storm comes, is your next move to jump to a smaller, slower ship?

Some people I worked with were saying it's better to find a job in finance because it takes longer for them to adopt AI. But ultimately, is the same thing going to happen to you?

A switch in my career path

After I got laid off, I wasn't that nervous, because I'm single and have no family in the US. My parents have been wanting me to go back to China anyway. That's the worst-case scenario because I love the US and the energy of New York City.

I don't know if I plan to find another job at a big company. I have interned at three of them, and now I don't want to climb the corporate ladder. I used to wonder, "How am I going to feed myself if I don't work for a big company?" That's why I didn't resign from Meta. I kept working, and I worked hard.

Now I feel like it's not safe anymore, like I can get laid off at any time. Meta has been very generous with severance, so I have a couple of months to figure out what I'll do next.

I don't think this layoff is a bad thing for me. It's more like a switch in my career path. It's making me see that I could live a different life, and it's probably better than the corporate life.

I'm still in a transition period and don't have all the answers. Seeing how AI is changing things, it makes me rethink the type of job I might want. I've started creating content online to document my career journey and what I'm learning about AI. I'm also interested in exploring career coaching to help people who are experiencing this transition brought about by this new technology.

The longer-term risk

Whatever I end up doing, I expect AI will have an impact. At Meta, I was a data scientist working on Instagram. For that kind of job, the more repetitive tasks are definitely going away. So, writing queries and spending time creating visualizations — these things have already been replaced by AI in Big Tech.

If you only know how to code, that's not enough. If you're just writing SQL queries, using Python, or tracking and analyzing metrics, it's not a very promising career anymore. There will still be a role called "data scientist," but they will need to know more about other functions. There is this emerging trend that requires us to have broader skills and knowledge because of AI.

It got to the point where I wouldn't check AI-generated queries because they have gotten so accurate. I thought that if AI made a mistake on a specific task, I would make 10. For big, ambiguous projects, AI would still make a lot of mistakes, but for specific tasks, it was super accurate. It's very much like a talented individual contributor.

I'm less interested in AI as a stand-alone technology and more interested in how it changes the way people work and build products. If I come across a team that aligns with my interests and values, I would seriously consider joining an AI startup.

Those companies can be risky, but staying at a big company doing traditional data analytics and reporting jobs just feels like I will be left behind. That's riskier in the long term.

Do you have a story to share about your career? Contact this reporter at tparadis@businessinsider.com.

• Mark Zuckerberg's email struck an empathetic tone. He also said he didn't expect more companywide layoffs in 2026.
• Layoff anxiety can hurt worker productivity and morale, thereby carrying a real business cost.
• Workplace observers say his focus on stability suggests he recognizes the impact of prolonged uncertainty.

Mark Zuckerberg is signaling that Meta employees can stop looking over their shoulders.

After long emphasizing cost-cutting, management flattening, and "Year of Efficiency" rhetoric, the Meta chief struck an empathetic tone in his post-layoff email to employees on Wednesday — emphasizing stability, conceding communication failures, and promising to "do right by people along the way."

In his internal email to staffers, he thanked the roughly 8,000 workers who were being let go and emphasized his desire to provide "as much stability as possible" to those who remained.

It was a reminder that layoff anxiety carries a real business cost.

To that point, Zuckerberg said that he doesn't expect further companywide layoffs in 2026.

While that doesn't rule out smaller-scale cuts, the message followed weeks of grueling uncertainty for staffers waiting to learn whether they still had jobs.

Zuckerberg's email — a shift away from the more hard-charging tone he adopted post-pandemic — suggested he recognizes that prolonged uncertainty can weigh on employees and, ultimately, the company itself, workplace observers told Business Insider.

"You do need to try to create some psychological safety for people who are there, because layoffs are extremely distracting," said Amii Barnard-Bahn, a C-suite coach and consultant.

'We won't always get this balance right'

Wednesday's cuts were the latest challenge for a workforce that has spent years navigating repeated rounds of layoffs, heightened performance scrutiny, and persistent questions about whether AI would take their jobs.

It's a theme that has played out across tech, as companies increasingly tie cuts to AI and leaders warn about a white-collar bloodbath.

In 2025, the CEO told staffers in an all-hands meeting to "buckle up" for an "intense" year ahead. Some of Meta's layoffs have come with an added sting: Last year, the company also said it was cutting some 4,000 workers who had failed to meet expectations.

By the time the latest round arrived, the accumulation of uncertainty had drained some employees and left them wishing they were let go.

Meta didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Zuckerberg's Wednesday message hit on the toll that uncertainty around staffing levels can take: "We won't always get this balance right, but I care deeply about this so we'll keep adjusting and work hard to do right by people along the way," he wrote.

It's not clear how effective Zuckerberg's softer tone might be, though he had little choice but to try to reassure those left standing, said Pav Stojkovic, an HR consultant and former chief people officer at several companies, including The Athletic.

Zuckerberg's approach is a departure from one he'd used previously. In 2022, for example, Zuckerberg told Meta staff he was upping performance goals to get rid of employees who "shouldn't be here."

By "turning up the heat a little bit," Zuckerberg said at the time that he hoped some workers would "decide that this place isn't for you, and that self-selection is OK with me."

Last year, Meta directed managers to place a higher proportion of employees in its bottom review rankings. Zuckerberg has a long-standing history of ratcheting up the pressure at Meta, reinforcing a blunt, survival-of-the-fittest culture at the social media giant.

The billionaire CEO is far from alone in embracing a sink-or-swim philosophy as AI reshapes the workplace.

A focus on execution

Zuckerberg's note comes at a transitional time for the industry. Excitement over the possibility of AI has mixed with fears over efficiency-driven job cuts and the encroachment of automation on workers' livelihoods.

As Meta reshuffles roughly 7,000 employees to focus on new AI initiatives, Zuckerberg needs a workforce concentrated on execution amid the AI arms race.

"Success isn't a given. AI is the most consequential technology of our lifetimes. The companies that lead the way will define the next generation," he wrote.

Barnard-Bahn said it's likely that productivity at the company took a big hit in the last month, as workers worried about whether they or their colleagues would be cut or reorganized.

By providing workers with a higher degree of job security for the next six-plus months, Zuckerberg might be offering employees something that Big Tech competitors have not.

"Meta has the talent, the infrastructure, the apps and distribution, and the business model," Zuckerberg wrote. "We have a lot of work ahead, but what's on the other side is going to be extraordinary."

• On Tuesday, Meta advised some employees to work from home. The next day, the company began layoffs.
• Getting laid off remotely offers privacy, but can feel isolating — for affected employees and survivors alike.
• Would you rather find out about layoffs in an office or while working remotely? Take our survey.

Getting laid off sucks, yet how it happens matters, too.

On Tuesday, Meta told some employees to work from home the next day, ahead of the company's latest round of layoffs. The move touches on an anxiety familiar to many: not only whether you'll get cut, but how — and where — you'll find out.

Six years on from the start of the pandemic, many desk workers remain in hybrid roles. That's shifted the mechanics of layoffs. What was once typically handled in a conference room or the boss's office might now unfold on a screen or by email.

As more companies trim their workforces, the question is carrying greater weight. It may not have an easy answer.

"You can have poor execution in person. You can have poor execution remotely," said Sarah Rodehorst, cofounder and CEO of Onwards HR, which helps companies manage severance and offboarding.

At home vs. IRL

Being at home can allow people to process the news on their own terms — without the risk of crying in front of colleagues. It can also pose fewer security concerns for companies worried about employees lashing out on their way out the actual door.

Making cuts from afar can also make it easier on managers, who don't have to directly face the person they're letting go, said Ben Hardy, a clinical professor of organizational behavior at London Business School.

"It's a bit like divorcing someone through text message," he said of cutting jobs where one person delivers bad news to many others. It's too impersonal, Hardy told Business Insider, for an intimate topic. One-on-one communication is better, he said.

Getting laid off in-person might mean trying to hold it together in front of colleagues, yet it can also give people a chance to say goodbye to coworkers and make plans to keep in touch — or gather afterward to commiserate.

Ultimately, what matters most is handling layoffs with empathy and preserving the human element, said Rodehorst.

Calling someone into an office only to lay them off might not always be the best decision, she told Business Insider.

"Remote can actually preserve some privacy," Rodehorst said.

Of course, layoffs generally feel awful in any case. Some workers have pushed back at cuts via video, saying that it feels impersonal.

What do you think?

How do you feel about where layoffs should take place? Take our poll.

• Some of the most common career advice doesn't always hold up.
• You don't necessarily need to find your passion or ascend the corporate ladder to like what you do.
• Because finding a job can be tough, it's important to think about which pieces of advice to follow.

Your boss might prefer a version of you that isn't entirely authentic.

One of the many pieces of career advice that emerged years ago — when the market was far friendlier — is the idea that we should bring our whole selves to work.

That doesn't always work, and it's starting to look a bit threadbare with age, especially because in many industries, employers are being more selective in their hiring.

"If you love wearing tight little leather outfits that are strapped on, I don't want to see that," said Margie Warrell, a leadership consultant and author of the book "The Courage Gap."

"That's not appropriate," she told Business Insider.

The whole-self idea is just one example of bumper-sticker wisdom meant to guide us through our careers, but that often doesn't hold up.

Here are six bits of trite work advice — and what to think about instead:

Find your passion

The impulse to align your work with what you love makes sense. Yet, feeling like you have to "find your passion" can also set you up to fail.

"That's probably as vague as it gets," said Jochen Menges, a professor of human resource management and leadership at the University of Zurich. "It's not an actionable goal."

He told Business Insider that a better approach would be to set goals centered on the emotion you want to feel in your work, such as pride, even though you might not experience it every day.

"If I align my emotional needs more with what I do — with my career prospects — then I'm a lot better off," he said. That, in turn, will accelerate your career, Menges said.

Make it a numbers game

When you're looking for a job, it can be tempting to click apply as many times as possible to increase your chances.

It's an understandable impulse. It feels good to do something tangible when so much of the search process is out of your control.

In a recent survey by the hiring software maker Greenhouse, 53% of recruiters said they review fewer than half of the applications they receive. The survey involved more than 600 recruiters and hiring managers.

While the spray-and-pray approach is tempting, it's generally not the best move. Networking to make connections inside an employer can often be more effective, recruiters say.

If you have a list of places you're targeting, you should network before the job gets posted, career coach Laura Labovich told Business Insider. That's because once a job listing is live, recruiters and hiring managers aren't likely to do more than point you to it.

Climb the ladder

The idea of ascending a corporate hierarchy has become outdated for some workers, said Christian Tröster, an Academy of Management scholar and a professor of leadership and organizational behavior at Germany's Kühne Logistics University.

Instead, he said, people might want to consider what he called a "protean" career — one that changes shape over time.

Tröster said that rather than ascending a ladder, a better aim for many workers would be to become "psychologically successful."

"The ultimate goal of your career is feeling proud and accomplished," he said.

One reason you might not want to scale the ladder is that a push by some leaders for "flatter" organizational structures — and the elimination of middle management — can mean there aren't as many rungs for ambitious workers to grab hold of.

"Careers today are no longer linear," Warrell said. Instead, workers might opt for a lateral move, a side gig, or a so-called portfolio career, where you take on multiple jobs to earn a living while maintaining flexibility.

Warrell said that workers who chart their own paths are often more fulfilled than those who try to grind their way up an org chart.

Don't jump around

Career advice once often included the suggestion that workers avoid changing jobs for at least a year to avoid appearing uncommitted to an organization.

While a string of frequent job changes can raise concerns among prospective employers, Warrell said prohibitions on job-hopping have often softened.

She said "smart" job changes — even in relatively quick succession — that indicate you're taking on extra responsibility and developing new skills can add polish, not tarnish, to a résumé.

"It can be seen as a sign of ambition, adaptability — not instability," Warrell said.

Focus on hard skills

Technical mastery — especially in hot areas like artificial intelligence — can take you far and leave you with your pick of jobs. Yet it's not the only route to career success.

AI is already taking on some of what software engineers do, for example. In surveys, employers often say they're after so-called soft skills, like communication and teamwork.

Menges said one reason soft skills are important is that humans will still be needed to evaluate what AI produces.

To help do that, he said, workers will need to rely in part on emotion for guidance. Menges said that in the 20th century, workers were often told to suppress their feelings at work.

"Now, you've got to bring those emotions back, because whatever AI does needs evaluation, and that evaluation comes down to how we feel about what appears on our screens," he said.

Bring your whole self to your job

While it might have been well-intentioned, critics have long found the idea of showing up at work as the unvarnished version of yourself to be problematic.

Ella F. Washington, a professor of practice at Georgetown University, previously told Business Insider that a better way to think about the idea is to bring your whole professional self to work.

That might mean working with people you might not like. Or, Warrell said, it could mean pushing through a bad mood.

"If one part of your whole self is that you're short-tempered and grumpy in the morning, don't bring that self to work," she said.

An earlier version of this story appeared on March 3, 2025.