I Got Laid Off From My Tech Job

Unemployment: Day 1

Jack Ross
3 min readNov 29, 2023

Well… It finally happened.

Yesterday, I was laid off from my Data Engineering Role at VMware…

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Over the last year, VMware has been slowly acquired by hardware giant Broadcom.

And like all of Broadcom’s other acquisitions…

This one ended in blood. 🩸

I’m not sure of the exact numbers but along with myself, I believe around 15,000 other people are scheduled to be laid off too. We knew this was coming for a while based on Broadcom’s track record but it’s been a dark time for many of us.

Seriously… This was my DREAM job.

I worked harder to get this job than I’ve ever worked for ANYTHING in my life. I beat out PhDs, learned a coding language in a weekend, and spent YEARS of my life just waiting for the opportunity to be a part of it.

Yesterday was honestly devastating.

BUT, I’m a believer in the stoic philosophy that reads as follows:

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Jack Ross

Data Engineer • YouTuber • Digital Nomad. Leveraging the internet to create a life with more freedom. 💻✍️🎥 Subscribe: www.TheJailbreak.io