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Hemant Virmani was fired from Amazon during the October 2025 round of layoffs.
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He’s using this time to learn new AI skills while applying to engineering roles — and exercising.
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His teenage daughter inspired him to stay positive, keep calm and focus on the future.
This essay, as stated, is based on a conversation with Hemant Virmani, a 47-year-old technology professional based in Washington. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Amazon was part of my daily life for 11.5 years and suddenly it was gone.
There is no right or easy way to do layoffs. I have seen my team members laid off in 2023 and I know how difficult it is. However, when I received an email in the middle of the night in October 2025 saying that I had been fired from my position as a senior manager of software development, I was shocked.
Watching my teenage daughter navigate her own predicament taught me the greatest lesson about how to move forward well. I am now applying for jobs and working to improve my AI qualifications so I can be proactive, not reactive, in the tech industry.
Only time will tell if this layoff is a blessing in disguise, but for now it has made for a refreshing change.
I had two amazing meetings with senior management after the layoff
I’ve enjoyed my time at Amazon and I really feel like it’s a place for great people. The number of quality minds in the office, brainstorming ideas and solving a custom problem, was amazing.
The morning after my layoff, I had a mandatory 30-minute meeting with my manager, and it actually went really well. I talked about getting fired, and he offered me support. He conveyed everything to me in a very positive, human way and was really affirming.
Also, an old manager met me at a local coffee shop the next day to hang out and check my mood. I think he wanted to get the layoffs right, which is not easy to do.
My daughter taught me to take layoffs positively
I felt attached to the layoff in the early days; however, I knew there was no way I could control what happened – I could only control how I reacted to it.
My daughter is in her last high school and last year she had an adverse situation that required recovery. How she reacted during that difficult time inspired me. Her mental model was, “Challenges must not stop me from showing up for myself or others.” Her positive attitude inspired me to do the same.
I learned from her that I need to take this layoff with positivity, keep calm and focus on what’s next.
It’s refreshing to think about what’s next after my layoff
A few weeks later I lost my father and spent the next month in India supporting my family. It took me about a month to settle my mind, reflect on what I wanted next for my career, and help my daughter finish her college essays.
It was a very refreshing change to think about what I want next in my engineering career. I am less focused on the size or name of the next company I work for and more on what I would do there. I’m looking forward to leading the engineering department for something that has a big impact on customers. Right now, I don’t think this can be done without AI, so I’m working on improving it.
I’m learning new AI skills that I haven’t had time to leverage at Amazon
I want to be proactive, not reactive, about the AI skills I will need in the future. My team at Amazon has used some AI tools, so I’m familiar with some, but I’ve only been able to spend a fraction of my workday using them. Now, I’m building those skills.
I started working on an AI hobby project a few weeks ago to get hands-on with AI and get more grounded in the reality of what the AI landscape is like right now. It was different, and a refreshing change, to build something myself rather than study it, read about it, or work on a team developing it.
I’m applying for jobs and focusing on my health
When I had a job, it was easy for my first priority to be work. Now I make sure my top priority is my health. I went to the gym four or five days a week and refined a health plan to follow even after I start working again.
Once I’m done at the gym, my time is split 50/50 between learning AI and applying it to jobs or networking. I am applying for Head of Engineering positions where I would have significant impactful initiatives, averaging 2-3 applications each week.
I posted on LinkedIn about my layoff and received so many supportive comments, messages, and calls from people – some I hadn’t spoken to in decades. Someone from college I haven’t spoken to in over 25 years reached out and was so nice. It’s like we never disconnected. I also received more information about my post that I am following.
Getting fired can be a blessing in disguise
As of now, I have some worries about when I will find my next job, but this time has given me the opportunity to work on things that I couldn’t do before. I make sure to spend this time with a lot of positivity, not letting negative thoughts come.
My advice to anyone experiencing layoffs is to realize that layoffs are not about you. It is an environment that causes layoffs. Second, now that this has happened, you cannot go back and change it. Look forward to what you can do next. How you react is very important.
Have an Amazon layoff story to share? If so, please contact the reporter at tmartinelli@businessinsider.com.
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