I Hope There's a Silver Lining

November 10, 2025 · 1 min read

I got laid off from Amazon last month. I’m writing this from a coffee shop in Seoul, which is not where I expected to be processing any of this. Six years on Route 53, and I walked out without another job lined up. I still can’t decide if that’s a relief or a failure.

I’d been updating my resume since January. Applying to Meta from my desk. Grinding LeetCode while waiting for builds. I kept a Google Doc with behavioral questions that I visited close to fifty times over several months. I was getting ready for something without admitting it to myself.

The last day was quiet. Turned in the badge, returned my laptop, walked out of the Seattle office. No party, no speeches, no big scene. They gave me a severance and thanked me for my time. I did the same.

I don’t have a grand thesis about what it means. The job was good. The pay was good. The people were good. But six years is a long time, and maybe it was time whether I was ready or not. Getting laid off made the decision for me.

What comes next, I don’t know yet, but now I have to figure it out. In the meantime, I’ve gotta enjoy my trip here in Korea.