A United States-based Indian is among the 600 Meta employees affected by the recent layoffs in the company’s AI division. The Meta employee took to the social media platform X to seek other opportunities and was immediately flooded with messages from founders and CEOs of several smaller AI startups.
The employee clarified that they were working in the US on an H-1B visa.
Meta layoffs
Meta will lay off 600 employees from its ‘bloated’ AI unit, the company confirmed to CNBC on Wednesday. The layoffs were announced in a memo from Meta’s chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang.
Employees in Meta’s AI infrastructure units, Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research unit (FAIR) and other product-related positions will be impacted by this latest round of job cuts.
(Also read: Anger bubbles as Meta lays off 600 from its AI division: ‘The billionaire forgets…’)
“Looking for opportunities”
The US-based Indian employee who was affected by the layoffs had been hired by Meta in February this year. They were laid off within nine months.
The former Meta employee took to X to announce their termination and seek other jobs.
{{/usCountry}}The former Meta employee took to X to announce their termination and seek other jobs.
{{/usCountry}}“I was impacted by Meta layoffs today,” they wrote, and further explained the work they had done at Meta while requesting that anyone with suitable opportunities reach out to them.
Working on H-1B
The laid-off Meta employee revealed that they were in the US on an H-1B visa.
An H-1B visa allows highly skilled workers to live and work in the United States for up to three years at a time, with a possible extension of another three years.
Within minutes, the comments section was flooded.
Violet Herod, founder of Beauvette, wrote: “So sorry to hear that. I sent you an email to reach out.”
Microsoft employee Varsh Sridharan said, “Feel free to DM if you find relevant roles at Microsoft. We are hiring for applied scientists across orgs”.
Vincent Weisser, CEO of Prime Intellect, wrote: “Let’s chat! exactly what we scaling up at Prime Intellect”.
(Also read: Indian-origin founder offers staggering salary to laid-off Meta employees: ‘Hiring in San Francisco’)