Laid off from my dream job, what now?

It’s time to say goodbye. Unfortunately I have been the latest victim of layoffs due to reorgs in Microsoft Spain. I have taken some time to process but I won’t lie, It has been really hard to deal with. This wasn’t just a job. This was my dream. And my dream came true. It was a 5 year plan that I managed to achieve in 4. I got to work with some of the best people in the industry and I learnt a ton. I was pushed to my limits and grew in so many ways.

I led the Playwright community to what it is today and created the ambassador program. Created many videos and learning content such as workshops and blog posts, restructured the docs and made them more beginner friendly and spoke at many conferences both in person and online as well as podcasts, and live streams. Grew the Playwright LinkedIn community to over 44k and Discord to over 18k and YouTube to 27k and created videos that reached over 100k views and the Playwright dev.to with blog posts of over 269k views. And probably so much more that I just can’t think of right now.

I worked closely with the Playwright engineers to not just understand everything about Playwright but to also bring back the ideas from the community to the engineers. This led to the creating of UI mode which is still one of my favourite features of Playwright. I also drove the idea for the Playwright MCP and Playwright Agents by constantly experimenting with our tools and pushing my crazy ideas forward. I won’t lie, it wasn’t always easy and I didn’t always win but when an idea doesn’t make it forward it just pushes you to think harder and experiment more.

In less than 4 years of working here I managed to get promoted to Principal which is not an easy promotion at all and all this while navigating pregnancy, maternity leave and raising twins with no daycare. How on earth I did it I sometimes do not know but I had a great team and great managers and they helped guide me and constantly push me to deliver content not just quantity but high quality, and they encouraged me to experiment and continue to learn and grow and dive into AI in every shape and form. Listening and learning from others, building and bringing forward ideas, (and continuing to improve on those ideas if they weren’t accepted) and contributing to the success of others are the keys to my success.

I am super grateful to be able to say that I worked for Microsoft and it is by far the best company I have ever worked for in many ways. Layoffs suck as they are not personal and do not take into account how you performed. You end up just being in the wrong column in an excel sheet that got deleted and there is nothing noone can do about it. And I think that makes it harder to deal with cause there is nothing you can do to fix it or to change it. There is no one to blame, no-one at fault. So you just become one of the unlucky ones and you have to leave the job and team and company you love.

So how am I dealing with it? Like every normal person, I have my up days and my down days. I had days where I couldn’t even go for a run and other days where I needed to run and think. I reached out to friends and my network of people especially when I was having those hard days and that support was so necessary. Not just someone to talk to but people reminding you of how good you are and the hard work you have done and that this isn’t personal. I had many chats with my colleagues and all my managers all the way up the chain who were also surprised and saddened by this news and were also extremely supportive in every way.

It is like dealing with grief and the only way through it is to talk about it and keep moving forward. Yes it’s easy to just lie on the floor and not get up or sit on the sofa and eat chocolate, of which I did both. But it doesn’t get you anywhere so I didn’t lie there for long and I didn’t eat too much chocolate. Instead I focused on what I love doing and so kept playing with my site and other sites and building and trying new things and also taking time to just go running or sit under a tree and just think and process and try to accept this new change being forced upon me. I am very privileged in that I was not financially worried and also not worried about not getting another job. My biggest worry was leaving where I am to go to somewhere and it not being the same as in team collab, ways of working etc. I never expected to ever have to find another job again as I never had any intentions of leaving Microsoft so I was in no way prepared for this at all.

But after weeks of processing and taking time away too I came to terms with it and managed to actually tell people. It’s only when you start telling people does it actually feel real and then you cry but then you start to sleep better and you realise you probably should have told people a lot sooner as telling people really is just you telling yourself that this is reality and that you need to move on. And change is not something us humans are good at. Change is hard especially when it is not our choice or we haven’t planned for it. But with each change, with each new door we open, we take steps in a different direction and we learn and grow in a different way. So it is my turn to start taking steps in different directions. I am not too sure which direction that will be. There are many paths and I just have to choose the right one. But it’s hard cause you can’t see what’s at the end of each path or how windy the path is.

But if there is one thing I have leant from this experience is, at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter cause change is always available if things don’t work out and new paths are always there should you decide to look for them.

If anyone asks me if they should consider taking a job at Microsoft my answer would be “hell yes”. Microsoft is by far the best company I have worked and the most talented people I have worked with. The company culture is like no other I have experienced and how everyone pushes each other to be successful rather than trying to compete or achieve things alone. Team work is essential and so I have been lucky to collaborate with so many talented people and have had such amazing experiences that I will never forget. Working for Microsoft is not easy, it is fast paced, at least it was on my team, and there is so much to navigate and learn and so many ideas that you can bring forward and everyone is willing to listen and let you try them out and support you in whatever you need in order to make it happen. You are never bored, never done and always have many mountains to climb. It is challenging in every way and very rewarding as you do meaningful work that gets seen by so many. Layoffs suck, and layoffs will continue to happen over the years in our field of work. So I am grateful I had the opportunity to work here and recommend it in a heartbeat. But the majority of roles now require you to go back to office so do keep that in mind. A few years ago I would have totally moved to Seattle or San Francisco, the offices are amazing and I have visited both and love going there but right now with 2 small kids it is just not feasible for me to move to the US.

Therefore it is time for me to move on and find a new role in a company that allows you to work remote as spending time with family instead of commuting is import to me and I live on a small island so offices here are pretty limited. I have already started interviewing and hopefully I will have something lined up soon. Not because I need it financially but because I am no good at sitting around doing nothing and because right now we are at the most exciting time in AI advancements and I have never been more exited about working in tech. I got my first job in tech in 1999 but the web was so boring then that I left it to go work on a stage and have fun rather than doing repetitive tasks. Tasks that now AI is doing for us making our jobs much more fun and creative. So I really don’t to take time off, I want to help shape the way we work and share my passion and thoughts and learnings so others can improve their workflow and automate their day to day tasks so they can get time back to to make their jobs more meaningful and do the things they love, such as more sport, or spend time with family.

Thanks Microsoft and everyone I have worked with. It has been a blast. And I super grateful for the time we spent together and for the Playwright community for being so supportive and awesome.