I got laid off at Meta despite a glowing performance review. I went from crying in my room to launching my own business — here’s how.

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I got laid off at Meta despite a glowing performance review. I went from crying in my room to launching my own business — here’s how.

Meta laid off Emily Pitcher, a content designer, in 2023, which led her to take her game development passion project on full time.Photo courtesy of Emily Pitcher

Emily Pitcher got a job at Meta straight out of college but was laid off in 2023.

Despite exceeding expectations and receiving other accolades, she couldn’t find a regular job.

She took her unemployment as an opportunity to develop a game and launch her business.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Emily Pitcher, a 25-year-old content creator and game developer from Los Angeles. It’s been edited for length and clarity.

I was valedictorian of my high school and graduated from college with honors. I’ve always valued excellence, so it was such a treat when, just out of college in 2021, I landed a contract

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that turned into a full-time, six-figure job as a content designer around the start of 2022.

I worked on every major surface of

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, including profiles, explore, search, and home. I got to work on features that were used by so many people.

My first annual

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was “exceeds expectations” on all markers, and I was given a raise. I thought I was doing really well at the company. Then two months later, in April of 2023, I was laid off.

For the first time, I realized that hard work doesn’t always reap rewards. Finding full-time work felt impossible, but struggling to find a job pushed me to give

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a shot.

I was laid off via a generic email as part of a series of

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. The message cited that Meta had changing business needs, and my role was no longer needed. I was devastated.

My true passion has always been indie video games, but I planned to stick around in Big Tech for several years before starting my own studio. I thought I had done really well at a big company like Meta. When I got laid off, it messed with my worldview.

I started applying to more

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, and after four months of unemployment, I landed a contract role at Yahoo as a content designer, which kept me afloat. That job ended a few months later, and I was back to being unemployed.

There were so many

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happening at the time.

I had been making some

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promoting my indie game, Gold Lining, which I’d been developing with some friends since college.

In the midst of my unemployment, I was included in Forbes 30 under 30 for my work on the game.

It felt like such a jarring discrepancy. On one hand, I received this esteemed achievement and was being told I was a part of the next generation of changers in the game industry. On the other hand, I was crying alone in my bedroom because I

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. It felt very dystopian.

Story Continues

I thought maybe being on Forbes 30 under 30 would help me get a job, but it didn’t. Nobody cared.

Around this time, I started hating the game I was developing with my friends. We were receiving rejection after rejection from investors, and I found myself trying to appease them at the expense of my own better judgment. I wanted to get back to making games I loved.

I decided to

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project as a way to cope with the anxiety of my two colossal failures — unemployment and a failing game. My honest hope was just to reignite my spark for game development.

I stepped away from Gold Lining in July 2024, and that same month, I came up with the idea to develop Lily’s World XD, a psychological horror game where players investigate a young girl’s computer.

I made a little

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its development, which got over 2 million views. Now, I fully finance myself through content creation about my journey building Lily’s World XD.

I feel so lucky that I’m able to pursue my passion at such a young age, but I still have anxiety every day that it’s all going to stop working out because content creation is so futile.

I’m still learning

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and overwhelm of being my own boss. When I was working at Meta, I’d turn my work brain off after work. Now, I lay in bed at night, still thinking about a bug in my game or stressing about a video that isn’t performing well.

It can be tough, but leaning on my network of fellow game developers and content creators for support has been extremely helpful. I’m taking this as my chance to give my dreams a shot, and I won’t hold back.

Do you have a story to share about being laid off from your dream job? Contact the editor, Manseen Logan, at *****@*****.tld.

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#laid #Meta #glowing #performance #review #crying #room #launching #business #heres

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