{"id":492194,"date":"2026-05-19T10:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T10:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/492194\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T10:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T10:43:08","slug":"engineering-analyst-got-a-google-job-within-90-days-of-aws-layoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/492194\/","title":{"rendered":"Engineering Analyst Got a Google Job Within 90 Days of AWS Layoff"},"content":{"rendered":"

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Charles Broomfield<\/a>, a 25-year-old engineering analyst at Google, based in Washington, D.C. His employment and identity have been confirmed by Business Insider. This story has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n

\n Loading audio narration…\n <\/p>\n

I graduated from a tiny liberal arts college called Knox College. The downside is to that that there is a much smaller alumni network. The benefit is that I suspect the likelihood of them being willing to help out is much higher.<\/p>\n

I was a computer science tutor there. That ended up being an advantage because I got to work with a lot of people who are now at great companies and were willing to help me out. I started working at a government research company after college, and went over to Amazon<\/a> Web Services in the summer of 2025. Then, in late January, I got laid off<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In April, I accepted an offer for a job at Google<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I treated my job hunt like a job<\/p>\n

Before I joined Amazon, Andy Jassy had made comments<\/a> about how Amazon would have fewer people in the future because of AI. I became increasingly nervous that my team wasn’t aligned with the strategy.<\/p>\n

I started applying on January 24, but I was given notice of my layoff a few days later. I was pretty confident that my team would be affected, but I didn’t want to leave before getting 90 days’ notice and severance.<\/p>\n

I found it really hard to go from working at a company with a pretty famous work culture, like AWS, to a complete hard stop. So when I was laid off,<\/a> I figured I’d put all my energy into something productive.<\/p>\n

It was definitely nice to get an extra hour or so of sleep, but I tried to maintain a sense of structure during my job hunt. I’d usually spend the first half of the day reaching out to folks and finding positions. I wasn’t going through every job posting and hitting apply because I don’t want to interview for something I’m not genuinely excited about. I was picky.<\/p>\n

Doing eight straight hours of applications is pretty brutal, so I’d usually work out or cook to break things up in the middle of the day. Then I would spend another three- or four-hour stretch in the evening tailoring applications.<\/p>\n

Referrals make a huge difference<\/p>\n

After being laid off from AWS, I applied to 42 positions, 26 of which I had referrals for<\/a>. I interviewed for six of those jobs.<\/p>\n

A previous colleague reached out and encouraged me to apply to Google. I applied to three positions, and was quickly rejected from the two I thought I was most likely to land. But about a week after I applied, the recruiter for the third position reached out. The next week, I passed the technical screen. Then I had three interviews over the next two weeks and received an offer a few days after my final interview.<\/p>\n

I think a lot of people get referrals wrong. I did a lot of LinkedIn outreach, but it was really ineffective. I always start with my warmest audience. So I begin with friends, and then I expand. I even consider somebody who went to my college a little warm, because I went to a tiny school.<\/p>\n

Since I’ve\u00a0worked at companies that did large layoffs<\/a>, a lot of people I worked with ended up at big companies, and that helped with referrals.<\/p>\n

Your network isn’t just the people you talk to every day. It can be anyone that you’ve met who you’ve made a positive impression on. I have a list of people that I reach out to whenever I have a major career update, but there’s many other people who I only stay in touch with through social media.<\/p>\n

Leaving a friendly or supportive comment can go way further than people realize. The best connections are sometimes friends of friends or random acquaintances, not your closest friends or family.<\/p>\n

Savings gave me peace of mind<\/p>\n

I’m super passionate about early retirement, frugality, and building financial freedom<\/a>. I save everything I can, and I’ve been doing that since college.<\/p>\n

The craziness over the last year made me realize how grateful I was for those savings because of the peace of mind and flexibility it gave me. I really feel for people who are counting on their next few paychecks, or for folks whose visas are tied<\/a> to their work. It’s harder to operate when you’re stressed. Desperation doesn’t help. So my buffer definitely made me more relaxed.<\/p>\n

Networks are more powerful than job boards, but I suggest people start building their networks<\/a> now rather than wait until they need help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Charles Broomfield, a 25-year-old engineering analyst at Google, based…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[74],"tags":[1463,214742,8742,2006,11408,18,214743,3263,214740,19,17,214741,1599,1218,237,15339,7531,82,4287],"class_list":["post-492194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-amazon","tag-aws-layoff","tag-comment","tag-company","tag-day","tag-eire","tag-engineering-analyst","tag-friend","tag-google-job","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-knox-college","tag-lot","tag-network","tag-people","tag-position","tag-referral","tag-technology","tag-week"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116600832588435923","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}