Former Meta tech lead shares how he went from DJ to coding before being laid off after 13 years

A former Meta tech lead who spent more than 13 years at the company has opened up about his journey from working as a DJ to becoming a software engineer, and how shifting priorities at the tech giant eventually culminated in his layoff.

Henry Chen, 38, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, joined Facebook as a contractor in 2012 before moving into a full-time engineering position. He was among the employees affected by Meta's latest round of job cuts on May 20, Business Insider reported.

Chen said he remains thankful for the experience and skills he gained during his time at Facebook and Meta, describing most of his tenure as a positive one. However, he said the workplace changed considerably after the company's major layoffs in late 2022 and early 2023.

Meta's priorities changed after mass layoffs

According to Chen, teams had greater resources and freedom to pursue ambitious projects before the earlier rounds of job cuts. Afterwards, the emphasis appeared to move towards “doing more with less”, he said.

Around a year and a half later, Chen noticed another shift, with the company once again placing greater emphasis on building products and projects. Leadership changes and evolving priorities made it increasingly difficult for teams to understand where they were headed, he said.

His return from paternity leave made the transition particularly challenging. Chen was away from work from August 2025 until towards the end of the year. When he returned, Meta was making much greater use of AI, while teams and leadership structures had also changed.

After four months away, he said, it felt as though the organisation he returned to was very different from the one he had left.

On May 20, Chen was informed that his employment was ending. Several of his colleagues were also laid off, the report added.

He had started searching for a job before being laid off

The latest layoffs did not come completely unexpectedly, as Meta had already announced that job cuts were on the way. Chen, however, was still surprised that he was among those affected.

During previous rounds of layoffs, he had felt relatively protected because he believed his work was important to the company. This time, although he had no particular indication that his position was at risk, he said the atmosphere felt different.

Chen had actually begun exploring other opportunities in the weeks before the layoffs. Growing uncertainty about his position prompted him to consider whether he was ready to move into a new phase of his career.

After losing his job, however, he decided not to immediately jump into another role. Meta's severance package, which reflected his roughly 10 years as a full-time employee, gave him enough financial breathing room to take some time off.

With his children's summer holidays also beginning, Chen chose to spend time with his family, unwind, and postpone his job hunt for roughly a month.

From DJ to Meta tech lead

Chen's career in technology was not something he had originally planned.

While studying at San Jose State University in the early 2010s, he intended to pursue a career in education and become a teacher. He eventually left university before completing his degree for personal reasons.

Around the same period, he began working as a DJ. After spending several years in the field, he started considering alternative career options.

His background with audio and video equipment eventually helped him secure a contract position in AV engineering, where his work involved checking conference rooms.

The job happened to be at Facebook.

Chen initially viewed the position simply as a way to earn money while deciding what he wanted to do next. He joined the company in 2012 without expecting it to become a long-term career.

But as Facebook expanded, so did his responsibilities. He moved from inspecting conference rooms as a technician to handling increasingly complex work, including setting up conference rooms and their technology.

In 2015, he became a full-time operations engineer responsible for collaboration technologies used in Facebook's conference rooms.

Learning Python changed the course of his career

As Facebook's expansion accelerated around 2017, the number of conference rooms and the technology supporting them also increased.

Chen began teaching himself Python despite having very little previous programming experience. He wanted to find more efficient ways to deal with the challenges created by the company's rapid growth, Insider reported.

One script he developed significantly reduced the time required to update conference room technology. The project proved to be a turning point.

Over the following years, Chen moved into software engineering, working on the technology powering Meta's conference rooms. He eventually progressed to become a tech lead.

After 10 years without an interview, he is preparing again

When Chen restarted his job search in June, he found himself considering several possibilities.

One option was to remain in the collaboration technology field, where he had spent much of his career. He was also considering broader IT positions at smaller companies, as well as software engineering roles that would allow him to continue developing the programming skills he had built over the previous decade.

However, Chen had not gone through a job interview in about 10 years. Recognising how much the technology industry had changed during that period, he decided to prepare before submitting applications.

Although he had spent years developing software at Meta, he said some of the tools and systems he had worked with were specific to the company.

To close that gap, he began revisiting software engineering interview concepts and working on his knowledge of industry-standard system design. He is currently designing and building a software system from scratch with assistance from a coach who specialises in system design and software engineering interview preparation.

After roughly a month of preparation, Chen has now begun actively looking for opportunities. His search includes browsing LinkedIn, contacting people in his professional network and submitting job applications.

Despite being laid off, he said he remains optimistic about finding his next position.