Software engineer loses job at Google in March — ‘I still haven’t told my parents’

What would you do if you got fired as a software engineer at 22? Would you tell your parents immediately and then return to the job portal to search for a new job? While most people would do that, Jason Zhang was laid off from his software engineering job at Google in March and did not inform his parents.

He also says he is prioritising interview prep over applications when it comes to finding a new job, but he is also prioritising friends.

His job at Google meant he was making more money, and he could start building a better future for his family. He said that when Google hired him at 22, it felt like a huge accomplishment.

“It wasn’t just a milestone for me, but for my family. Both my parents are immigrants, and they did everything they could to provide for me,” he said in an interview with Business Insider. “Then I got laid off.”

A month later, he is not applying for jobs quite yet, but he knows he can’t just ‘chill,’ which some friends told him they are doing.

“Just chill out for a bit and then come back with a fresh mindset to interview prep,” but that’s not his reality, he says.

So he started leaning more into content creation about his layoff experience on Instagram and TikTok.

For now, he’s taking a tactical approach to his career move — aiming for one strong interview that leads directly to a new role, rather than spending time wading through job portals.

He also knows that tech is rapidly changing, and he needs to adapt quickly, learning more about up-and-coming AI tools and prompt engineering.

Google has been on a path of layoffs in 2023, 2024, and early 2026. Interestingly enough, former employees (often referred to as “ex-Googlers”) have taken diverse paths. Some joined other tech giants to pursue completely new careers, launching startups, or taking extended breaks. Other workers who were laid off by Google were hired back in 2025-2026, while some prominent figures were fired by Google and found new homes elsewhere.

One of them is Timnit Gebru, who was a co-leader of Google’s AI Ethics team. Dr Gebru was terminated in December 2020. That was after raising concerns about ethical issues and AI research.

This did not stop her. She became a major figure in AI safety and founded the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR).

There is also Noam Shazeer, who left in 2021 and was rehired in 2024. Frustrated by Google’s slow progress in adopting AI technology, he co-founded Character.AI, a popular chatbot startup.

His return to Google was part of a broader collaboration, as Google signed a non-exclusive agreement with Character.AI to leverage its technology.

As of June 30, 2025, Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., reported a global workforce of 187,103 full-time employees.