How I quickly found an engineering job at Meta after a big layoff
What specific incident at Cruise led to Vishwanath Eswarakrishnan's layoff and the layoff of other employees?
Vishwanath Eswarakrishnan's layoff from Cruise occurred after a Cruise robotaxi was involved in a pedestrian accident in San Francisco. This incident led to the company laying off 24% of its workforce.
How did maintaining relationships with recruiters help Vishwanath Eswarakrishnan secure a new job after being laid off?
Maintaining relationships with recruiters played a crucial role in Vishwanath Eswarakrishnan securing a new job after being laid off. By consistently responding to recruiters' reach-outs on LinkedIn and keeping in touch with them, he ensured that they remembered him when he was actively seeking new opportunities. As a result, when he was laid off, recruiters from prominent companies like Airbnb, Meta, Uber, and Snowflake reached out to him with job opportunities. This not only expedited his job search but also limited the number of companies he had to apply to on his own. By nurturing these relationships, Vishwanath was able to quickly find and secure a software engineer role at Meta within a month of being laid off.
How did Vishwanath Eswarakrishnan manage his job search and interview process while dealing with personal life events, such as the birth of his second child?
Vishwanath Eswarakrishnan managed his job search and interview process while dealing with personal life events by focusing on what he could control and staying organized. He updated his LinkedIn profile to reflect his availability for new opportunities and began receiving messages from recruiters2. He maintained relationships with recruiters by responding to their reach-outs on LinkedIn, which helped him land interviews with top companies like Airbnb, Meta, Uber, and Snowflake.
To stay calm during the process, Vishwanath focused on preparing for interviews and practiced his coding and system-design skills. He also kept a calendar where he noted all his interviews and the names of the recruiters, which helped him plan his days effectively. This organization was especially helpful when he had to give interviews at the hospital during doctor visits for his newborn child.
Additionally, Vishwanath's experience and skills in various domains within software engineering made him a good fit for different job openings, increasing the chances of recruiters approaching him. By focusing on being a good engineer and continuously learning, he was able to impress interviewers and secure a job at Meta within a month.