Former employees of Google, Meta, Microsoft and Intel revealed how sudden layoffs affected their finances and identities despite earning six-figure salaries. One worker sent over 8,000 job applications, while others struggled for months to find new roles. The experience pushed them to reconsider long-term careers in the tech industry.

A Google job. A Meta badge. A two-decade career at Microsoft or Intel. For years, these were shorthand for having 'made it' in tech. But four professionals who once held exactly that kind of security say losing it upended their finances, their sense of identity and everything they assumed about job stability.

The layoffs came without warning

Business Insider has interviewed four tech professionals from Meta, Google, Intel, and Microsoft who were laid off. Brittney Ball, 37, spent nearly five years as a documentation engineer at Meta, earning around $180,000 a year. She had taught herself to code using library resources and free online tutorials, and getting hired at Meta felt like validation of that effort. The news of her layoff reached her while she was dropping her children off at school.

Jason Zhang, 25, had worked as a software engineer at Google for three and a half years, pulling in more than $200,000 annually, and expected to stay with the company long-term. He learned he had lost his job in a meeting with his manager and HR.