By Jacob Zinkula
Publication Date: 2025-12-22 10:05:00
This “as I said” essay is based on a conversation with Clair Todd, a 40-year-old job seeker from New Hampshire who worked as a Site Reliability Engineer for Oracle until she was fired in 2023. Business Insider confirmed her employment based on documents. This essay has been edited for length and clarity.
I started at Oracle January 2020 as a site reliability engineer. In November 2023 I started hearing this my Oracle colleagues were dragged into Zoom meetings and told they were fired. I hoped I wouldn’t be next, but I was. My entire team was laid off.
I didn’t start looking for work right away because I had received a severance package and I had heard that it was difficult get a technical position during the holiday season. I took some time to rethink what I wanted out of my career and began my job search in February 2024.
I was initially optimistic since most of my previous job searches hadn’t lasted too long. As the months went by it became clear…
