I went from wedding DJ to Meta engineer, then was laid off after 13 years. My last years there brought constant change.0

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• August 9, 2026

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Henry Chen, a former Meta tech lead who was laid off in May. He’s 38 and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. The following has been edited for length and clarity. After I left college, I worked as a DJ for a few years, taught