Life after Google: Eight laid-off employees talk about how they got fired, what they did next and what their advice is for others

Many workers Business Insider spoke to said the layoffs caught them by surprise or that they expected it to affect only low-performing employees. Google said it provided affected employees with employment support and invited them to apply for open positions at the company. Some interviewees told BI that they found few vacancies.

After their release, the paths of these former Googlers went their separate ways. One ran for city council, the other got a job at Trader Joe’s. Some went on to work for other large technology companies, and some started their own businesses. While many looked back on their time at Google and felt their layoffs were a blessing in disguise, others expressed disillusionment with Google’s leadership.

Here are their stories

Joni Gordon, 36, a lawyer

She worked at Meta before joining Google as head of the privacy program eight months before the 2023 layoffs.

My husband and I were sitting in a coffee shop when a notification appeared on his phone that Google was laying off 12,000 people that day. We’ve both been through layoffs before — my husband works at Amazon and I worked at Facebook before Google — so the layoff news didn’t surprise us, we’re used to it. I’m sure it’s not about me, I thought. But then I tried to log into my computer and my password was rejected.

I quickly realized that there is a positive side to this opportunity. I had six months of severance pay. Before that, I had never taken a break—I had been working like crazy since graduating from law school in 2012. I rested and spent more time with my children. We took a family vacation. I started doing Pilates and went back to therapy. I used this time as a real creative vacation to recharge my batteries for the next stage of my career.

Three months later, I started looking for a job. I rejected the offer of the consulting firm because that world did not suit me. I was approached by several large law firms, and I accepted contract work at one of them while continuing to look for work. I started working in data protection at Cruise, a self-driving car company, the same week my layoff from Google expired. But after a few months I was fired again.

I dived into the job search again and have been working at Amazon since December. So far so good. The people here are very nice and friendly and I love my team. I am eight months pregnant and plan to take maternity leave, but after that I will return to work. I also recently started a coaching business and will be launching a new podcast next year.

I’m cool with how it all ended. My advice to people is if you’re going to be in tech right now, you can’t take yourself too seriously. I have a great sense of humor and it helps me overcome many things. Because my husband and I both work in technology, people think we have to live the life of luxury, but we don’t. We share a Toyota and live with the knowledge that we are very lucky to be in a job we love, but it could all be gone tomorrow.

Lois Kim, 55, is from Seoul

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

As a longtime Googler who worked for the company during the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008, I felt safe. At first I thought the layoff email I received was a scam. When reality started to set in, I got really angry because I was so devoted to Google. I loved working there and I am proud that I work there. I went through the five stages of grief and asked myself: «Why me?». I fell into depression. I looked at my empty calendar and felt rejected, like no one needed me.

I started thinking about how I could use my severance pay as an opportunity. I decided to take an «academic leave» and wrote a list of things I’ve always wanted to do: work at Trader Joe’s, be a barista, work at In-N-Out Burger, drive Lyft or Uber, take care of pets, bartend. It made me feel truly rejuvenated.

The first weekend I applied at Trader Joe’s. But on the first day, I had a hard time getting in the door. I was a director in a large company, published twice and participated in a popular 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 that I had to overcome.

By May, I was working three jobs up to 70 hours a week—Trader Joe’s, Starbucks, and Lyft when I had time, and I was also taking care of pets on a one-off basis.

I decided to write a book about my experience to motivate other people who were in the same situation as me. Being fired is painful, especially 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 the most of your time and then move on.»

After 18 months, I returned to Korea to become the Chief Brand Officer at Hanmi Group, a pharmaceutical company. A lot has changed in the five years I’ve been away, but I’m using my 30 years of experience working in international companies and learning a lot from local companies. My experience in customer service and marketing at Trader Joe’s and Starbucks also came in handy. I hope to retire in the US. Trader Joe’s has a very good internal transfer system, so I would like to work for two years in San Francisco, then Idaho, then Florida, and so on, so I can explore the States while making money.

I miss Google a lot, but more so the early days when the company was like a family. The company grew and grew and we had to get rid of some parts and focus on efficiency.

I did a good job of getting over the layoff quickly and moving on. Looking back, I wonder why I didn’t take a break to travel, but I know I would have been too busy to enjoy it. If I were to share advice with friends going through the same thing, I would tell them not to worry, especially about things they can’t control. Maybe the future is already here, even if you don’t know it.

Software engineer (anonymous)

The senior software engineer, who was fired in January 2024, got another job at Google a few weeks later. He asked to remain anonymous to protect his jobs.

I was really happy at Google. For the most part, I think they have the right balance of productivity and work-life balance. At another fast-paced high-tech job I worked at, I had to take sick leave due to depression; it seemed to me that everything was moving with the speed of a glacier. At Google, I didn’t feel overwhelmed, but at the same time I felt like I was contributing. It was definitely my favorite place to work.

Because of my history of depression, I feared that I would be suicidal if released, so I developed a clear plan of action with my counselor. When the release did happen, I felt terrible—my worst fears had come true. If I were at the beginning of my career, or if my child and wife were not dependent on me as a breadwinner, I would probably think, «Great! Good vacation and generous severance pay. But I was very worried 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 my severance pay.

I already had my resume ready and a contact list of people I could contact right away, and I went into cortisol-fueled search mode. I asked many people I know for referrals and applied everywhere, both internally and externally.

I checked Google’s internal job site every day, but there weren’t many open positions. I also applied to all relevant LinkedIn EasyApply jobs. I spent the rest of my time troubleshooting LeetCode and reviewing past projects.

A few weeks later I got a response from one of my Google apps and set up a video call. A few days later, the manager told me that they wanted to hire me. My biggest priority was to get the job, so I accepted, even though I had interviews at other companies. Working at Google also had certain advantages, such as a competitive salary, the opportunity to develop relevant skills and prove your qualifications in the future.

When I go back to Google, I feel more anxious and find it harder to focus. Before the layoffs, I had a sense of security, like I was working in a really good industry that paid well and had a lot of mobility.

Now, I constantly feel the fear that the industry will shrink and become too competitive, or that companies will decide to take advantage of AI to cut costs. And I’ve lost faith in Google’s leadership. The real responsibility for the layoffs lies with senior management, all the way up to top management, and I feel there is little to no accountability for that.

However, I believe that returning to Google was the best risk-free decision. My plan worked and I think I did the best I could.

Sylvia Duran, 40, from San Diego

Duran worked at Google for nearly nine years in various positions, including positions from first chief of staff to vice president of operations. During the pandemic, she also headed YouTube’s Mexican office. Before leaving in 2023, she headed the strategy and operations department for the Latin American and Canadian markets.

The night before I was fired, I skipped dinner with my family to attend a strategic conversation with the marketing team based in Singapore. The next morning before breakfast I tried to check my work calendar, but it wouldn’t load. People were nervous about the cuts, but thought it would only affect low performers. But it wasn’t like that.

When I realized that my role was eliminated, I started to cry. I gave everything to the company, as many of us do, and there was no way in my head that I would be fired.

I gave myself the weekend to grieve. One of my best friends came from Seattle to support me. Three days later, I started hosting a podcast, an idea I had been harboring for a long time. I put my head down and worked on him like it was a full time job; I liked it. It was therapeutic. I talked a lot with the guests about childhood circumstances and how they affect our careers and decision-making. I came from a working-class background, and with my Ivy League education, I saw how easy it was to get caught up in thinking that I couldn’t go to another job because what would that say about me? I was lucky that I had enough severance pay to last me almost until the end of the year.

I became more active on LinkedIn and told people I was looking for a job; I used to be a very closed person who didn’t like to ask for help. A friend of a friend, despite not knowing me, helped get my resume out to various executives at Intuit. I had a conversation with one of them, and when there was an opportunity to get a job in his team, I was invited. I’m really happy here — my supervisor is very supportive and we work on complex, interesting problems.

After working at Google for so long and seeing how it ended, I thought about how I spend my time. Although I love my job now, I don’t let it interfere with my other priorities, such as spending time with my two children. I also continue to publish regular podcast episodes and recently joined the board of a non-profit organization.

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

I don’t regret the night before I was fired, when I missed dinner with my family because of work; I was excited about the project and tried to be considerate of people in other time zones. But now I know that by then the decision to fire me had already been made and it was convenient for the company that I worked very late the night before I was going to be fired. My advice to people is to make sure that when you make these trade-offs, you do so 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 fired in January 2023.

When I found out I was being fired, I felt almost a sense of relief and a sense of openness. I was suddenly blessed with a healthy breakup that could be used to build what I wanted outside of Google.

I’ve been job hunting on and off for a few months and almost joined an early stage startup, but nothing worked out. I also traveled a bit in the US, read and wrote a lot, and participated in community activities. In Boulder, I have a thriving community and love being outdoors. I also became the Executive Director of a non-profit I joined in 2022 called Consciousness Hacking Colorado (now relaunched as Woven Web) focused on promoting harmony between technology, society, consciousness and nature.

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

I often ride my bike past the Google office here in Boulder and often feel a tenderness in my heart. For all the company’s flaws, there are many things it does well, such as the wonderful community of people who work there.

I don’t have too many regrets in life. There are so many paths, but the one I’m on seems really beautiful to me. Someday I will go back to work full time, but I am not rushing into any decisions. For now, I feel stable enough to continue prioritizing learning and community building, using much of what I learned at Google.

Eric Wages, 46, Massachusetts

Eric Wages worked at Google for 15 years in various positions and for more than ten years led the company’s third largest data center campus. Before leaving in 2023, he was a global program manager for the corporate real estate team.

I was not surprised by the dismissal. I could see the situation changing even a year before; people didn’t work in the office, but we continued to build multi-billion dollar offices. I spent a lot of effort trying to convince the management to stop construction, but my efforts were not well received.

I had been fired before and knew that firing was not personal. However, I went through the traditional stages of grief. I’m a person with a purpose in life, and my purpose evaporated when I received a faceless layoff email that Friday morning.

I bought a board, put it on my desk and started trying to figure out what my purpose was now. What can I do? Do I ever want to work for a big company again? I knew I didn’t want to work with jerks anymore—I’m not saying I’ve worked with many of them at Google, but there are a lot of people who are just unbearable. I wanted the flexibility to work with people I enjoyed working with and helping them solve problems, which is something I’ve always enjoyed as a manager.

Three months later, I founded my own firm, Idealem Solutions Group. It is a combination of technical consulting, coaching and understanding how people work with a focus on data centers.

I am grateful for the release because I was in golden handcuffs. I think I would be miserable if I stayed there today. And as much as I grumbled about the gold handcuffs, they served me well. My 15 years at Google provided me with great financial support, allowing me to be picky about how I work and how much I charge for my work.

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

While I think Google could have handled the layoffs better, there is no good way to lay off 12,000 people. Any manager who has had to fire someone knows to expect the worst. Multiply that by 12,000 and locking the doors and turning off the badges was, dare I say it, the best way to go.

But they could do even better — invite volunteers; I would seriously consider leaving if offered the opportunity. It was extremely disappointing to see the culture change 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 in 2019 completed a three-month rotation with Google’s strategy and operations team in Silicon Valley. Prior to his resignation in 2024, he led small business advertising sales in 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 ups, downs, and turnover in the industry were perfectly normal. However, it was emotionally difficult. I worked there for eight years; it’s like an eight-year relationship. My first reaction was pain and anger caused by selfishness. I also compared myself to those who were not fired, feeling that I was better, more experienced, or more loyal than them.

I had many sleepless nights and went through the grieving process. My wife supported me a lot. The hardest part was realizing that the next day the company just moved on. It was kind of a rude awakening.

I was given two months to find another job within the company. I panicked and applied to every job available, clinging to the opportunity to call myself a Googler—a huge part of my identity. Several senior executives at Google kindly offered me to join their teams, but I knew I wouldn’t enjoy the roles and didn’t want to do a bad job. Every part of my body trembled as I refused them.

I splurged on a solo snowboarding trip to Japan and spent time alone in the mountains. I woke up at night and cried. There was so much going on that as soon as I gave my body and mind some peace and space, it automatically went into recovery mode, which was very therapeutic.

I published my first YouTube video in April. I wanted to share my story of liberation to give comfort and courage to others. Many people have come to me saying, «I felt the same way,» «Not even my therapist could have described my feelings as well as you.» I feel my calling is to help people have a healthier relationship with their careers and money, and since then my YouTube channel has grown. I also started a coaching and consulting business and teach at the National University of Singapore.

Although I don’t make as much as I did working full time, I make more per hour and have a lot more flexibility. I also achieved financial freedom a few years ago by growing my income from $80,000 to almost $300,000 at Google, saving and investing at least half of my salary, and being very conscious of my spending.

I regret that I did not support the people I worked with before and who were fired before me. While Google was and still is a huge part of who I am, I’ve realized that there are other parts of my life that I need to develop. Looking back, I’m grateful—if it hadn’t been for the release, I wouldn’t have known that such a life was possible.

Camila Ferraz, 34, San Francisco/Miami/Zurich

Ferraz started working in Google’s sales department in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2011 after graduating from college, leaving briefly for another opportunity before returning to lead analytics in Google’s San Francisco office. Before the 2023 downsizing, she was a senior product manager at Google’s internal incubator, Area 120.

When I woke up that morning and saw the layoff email, I was so disconnected from reality that my first thought was that my team wouldn’t be able to access the document I’d been working on until late the night before. It took me a while to realize, «Wait, I’ve lost my job.»

I immediately went to practical things. A friend and former co-worker who read about the layoff told me she was hiring, so I jumped out of bed and went to the interview, but barely had time to listen to her. I went back to Brazil for a week to be closer to my childhood friends. For someone 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 it in perspective.

I eventually moved to Miami, where many of my friends had moved during the pandemic. Climate technology is one of my personal passions, and I spent several months working as a remote consultant at a non-profit Biodiversity Lab in Zurich.

During one of my trips to Zurich, I met my current co-founder. The search for a co-founder in the previous months was almost like dating — finding the right partner was the most difficult task, and now that I have found it, I feel that it was the right one. Together, we founded biodiversityX in Zurich, an AI-based technology company dedicated to real-time forest analytics.

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

I used to think that a career should be very linear—one promotion after another; tomorrow must be greater than yesterday. Today, I see things a little more fluidly and see the release as a blessing in disguise. Being an entrepreneur—the degree of responsibility and speed at which we can move—is so liberating and rewarding. The pieces are coming together and I am grateful to Google for being such a great school.

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