I was laid off from my product management job at Microsoft at 25. It may have been the best thing for me.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kosi Pierre-Louis, a 25-year-old in Seattle. Pierre-Louis was let go from his product management role in May, when Microsoft laid off about 6,000 workers; the company laid off 9,000 more workers in July. This essay has been edited for length and clarity.

When I look at my big passions — tech, music, and visual arts — all of them come down to invention.

I studied computer science and visual media at Duke. I always wanted to get into tech. When I learned about the role of a product manager, I thought, "This is really cool. This is directly aligned with what I would do if I went into the corporate world."

I applied and was accepted to Microsoft as a product manager intern during my junior year. I got a return offer from the internship for a hybrid role in Seattle in 2022.

When I got the role, I was really excited. My team was working with Security Copilot, which is basically a space where you can look at your entire security ecosystem in one place. I sometimes like to think of it as the ChatGPT of security within Microsoft.

I was ready to take it on and learn as much as I could.

The work started out very rewarding

When I joined full time, we hadn't even gotten the product to general availability (GA), when all Microsoft customers can use the product.

My team moved and worked like a startup — the team was newer, so we were still establishing a workflow. We had to move with speed, but we had the requirements of Big Tech, so we didn't have as much leeway for mistakes.

It was very fast-paced, and my work had an impact. It was great. I was at the forefront of the AI movement.

As my responsibilities picked up, things became very stressful

I worked long hours. When we were about to launch GA last spring, there was a point where I had 6 or 6:30 a.m. meetings with international teams. As a new PM, I didn't know how to set boundaries for a while, and that included taking meetings at earlier times than I needed to.

It was intense but rewarding — until it wasn't. The stress came on slowly and all at once due to the increased pressures of AI requirements and wanting to stay at the forefront of our space.

We continued to pick up more while also wanting to maintain the same level of integrity. I was a high performer, and I thought as long as I was doing my work, I was good.

I was laid off on May 13. I didn't expect it at all.

I got on a call with my manager, who delivered the news and told me they were sorry. When I heard this, part of me was happy — I had been so sick that week. I needed to go back to bed.

Then it hit me. I was shocked. I thought, "Did I really just get laid off? Me? After the work I put in?" I was working in AI and security — I thought I had the most job security on the planet.

For the following days, I rested. If I wanted to make the most out of my time, I needed to be healthy again, and I wasn't healthy. I was ignoring my basic necessities. Maybe this was the world saying, "Take a break, rest. Figure out your life a little bit."

I never saw Big Tech as the be-all, end-all

This layoff has been quite the experience. I've been taking it in stride, but I've also realized how much it has affected me. I'm far more stressed than I thought I'd be.

I made a post on LinkedIn about getting laid off, and it went viral. I've gotten a crazy amount of support from people. I've received a lot of advice from people who've experienced layoffs, both within and outside Microsoft. They told me it was not my fault.

It also made me realize that layoffs are far more common than I thought, and a lot of people that I admire have actually gone through some type of layoff in their career. Sometimes, layoffs are the best thing that can happen to you.

I'm responsible right now for myself and myself only

A layoff forces you to take life on. I don't have children, I'm not married, and I don't own a house, so I could just get up and go anywhere and restart my life if I wanted to.

I'm only two years into the real world. There's plenty of time to pivot, especially given that I was feeling very stressed and not necessarily fulfilled at Microsoft anymore.

I'd always envisioned myself pursuing my passions. This is a moment for me to do that.

With music, I have a talent here

Music is fueling me. I'm doing pretty well for someone who worked a 9-to-5. If I put a lot of eggs in this basket, I could make this a career.

I'm not actively applying for jobs right now. That doesn't mean I wouldn't go back to corporate, but now I'm opening my life up to other things. I could look at startups that are more aligned with what I like to do.

The blueprint for stability and success is changing nowadays, so I'm creating my own blueprint now. This feels like a plot twist, and plot twists are very exciting.

Have you been laid off from a Big Tech job? Reach out to this editor at [email protected].