Meta sacks Indian woman within 9 months of hiring, shares ordeal on social media

Meta on Wednesday announced it would be cutting thousands of employees as part of an ongoing series of layoffs at the tech giant – among them is an Indian woman residing in the United States. The woman took to the social media platform X to seek opportunities, and her comment section was soon flooded with messages from founders and CEOs of several small AI startups.

What did she say about her visa status?

The woman clarified that she was working in the US on an H-1B visa – a visa that allows highly skilled workers to live and work in the US for up to three years at a time – and noted that her new employer would need to sponsor her visa, if she qualifies.

What was her role at Meta?

The Seattle-based Indian woman was hired as a research scientist by Meta in February this year but was laid off after nine months.

“I was impacted by Meta layoffs today,” she wrote. “As a Research Scientist working on LLM post-training (reward models, DPO/GRPO) and automated evaluation pipelines, I’ve focused on understanding why and where models fail and how to make them better.

“I’m looking for opportunities; please reach out!” she requested.

“I'm on H-1B visa and need visa sponsorship (and possibly an I-140 application),” she added.

The woman added that she was still listed internally at Meta, as she had two months to transition to a new team. “I'd like to stay in the Greater Seattle area if possible,” she said.

Within a short time, her post went viral, amassing numerous comments.

Who reached out to her?

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 are scaling up at Prime Intellect.”

How many jobs are being cut at Meta?

Mark Zuckerberg’s AI Superintelligence Labs plans to lay off around 600 employees with the aim of being more competitive, Bloomberg reported, citing an internal memo.

Employees of Meta’s AI unit were informed of their job cuts on 22 October, according to the memo. Notably, Meta’s newly formed TBD Lab group, which includes many of the highly paid recent hires, has not been affected.

What did Meta’s AI chief say?

Meta Platforms’ Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang wrote in the memo that the move aims to increase efficiency and reduce bureaucracy.

“By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more load-bearing and have more scope and impact,” he wrote.

Why is Meta laying off 600 employees?

Meta is cutting around 600 jobs as part of a restructuring that affects three divisions of its four-part artificial intelligence (AI) unit, according to a report by Axios. The layoffs will impact the company’s legacy AI research team, as well as product and infrastructure groups working on AI initiatives. However, Meta’s newly formed TBD Lab — a high-profile team focused on developing cutting-edge AI models — will remain unaffected.

Which teams are impacted?

Employees from the affected units were informed early on Wednesday, with notifications going out before 7 am, Axios reported. CNBC added that some staff were placed on a “non-working notice period” until 21 November, during which they can look for other roles within Meta.

What support is Meta offering?

Those leaving the company will receive at least 16 weeks of base pay as severance, along with an additional two weeks for every year of service, excluding the notice period. A memo sent to employees stated, “During this time, your internal access will be removed, and you do not need to do any additional work for Meta. You may use this time to search for another role at Meta.”