Fired Microsoft exec explains why he’s finally done with Big Tech

After three stints at Microsoft spanning more than two decades, Joe Friend was fired in May. He’s still figuring out what’s next, but there’s one thing he’s sure of: his time in Big Tech is over.

About six months earlier, Friend, a director of product management overseeing a team of nine, began hearing rumors of a company restructuring that could affect managers. However, he did not believe his specific role was under threat.

But he was wrong. In May, he learned that he and 14 other members of his work group, including four other managers, had been fired.

“I wasn’t entirely surprised by the layoffs. I was surprised to be drawn into them,” said the 62-year-old who lives in Washington state.

Friend said the dismissal was “doubly shocking” because it upended his retirement strategy. He had planned to stay at Microsoft until at least his 65th birthday — a milestone that, under company policy, allows most stock awards to continue to vest even after the employee leaves. Once he reached 65, he planned to either retire or move on to something new. Now that timeline was out the window.

“My plan was to figure out what I wanted to do over the next three years,” he said. “Then all of a sudden I find myself at the door and I have to make this decision now.”

Friend is one of thousands of Microsoft workers who have been laid off over the past year. After cutting about 6,000 jobs in May, Microsoft laid off about 9,000 more in July. A company spokesperson previously told Business Insider that the company was focused on reducing layers of management and streamlining processes.

Google, Intel and Amazon have also announced plans to reduce the number of managers – part of a broader trend dubbed “Great Flattening”. Although layoffs overall remain low by historical standards, tech workers have been disproportionately affected, and the slowdown in white-collar hiring has made it harder for many of them to secure new positions.

In this challenging environment, Friend shared what he hopes to find in the next chapter of his career.

A final goodbye to Microsoft

Friend had transitioned away from Microsoft twice, but this was the first time he didn’t leave by choice.

Friend first joined Microsoft in 1994 as a senior program manager, working on Microsoft Word. In 1997, he and his family moved to Indonesia, where he spent more than six years working for an international NGO – a decision driven by his long-held desire to live abroad and do work he found meaningful.

In 2003, when Friend returned to the United States, he initially considered staying in the nonprofit world, but found it less economically viable in the United States. So he re-entered the tech industry and ended up at Microsoft.

Friend spent the next 14 years with the business, but by early 2017 he was feeling burned out and decided to move on. He said he interviewed with a few big companies, but quickly concluded that none of them were the right fit.

“I finally realized I didn’t want to work at another big company,” he said.

He took a job at the development site Stack Overflow, a move he said gave him the change of pace he was looking for. But Microsoft has come back once again.

Someone Friend knew at Microsoft kept pushing him to join their team. Initially resistant, he eventually agreed to listen to them – and saw the recent internal restructuring in his former line of business as a positive sign.

“I was really impressed with what I saw as a significant cultural shift within the company and agreed to return,” he said.

A friend returned to Microsoft in 2018 and stayed until May 2025, when he learned he had been fired.

Purpose rather than profit

After being fired, Friend continued to receive paychecks until mid-July, when he received a “very comfortable” lump sum severance package that amounted to nearly what he would have earned if he had been employed for the remainder of this year. He said he was fortunate to be in a strong financial situation, which gave him time to think about his next steps.

“It feels like a betrayal, and it impacts me financially, but it’s not going to hurt,” he said of the firing.

Rather than rushing into his next move, Friend met with a financial advisor to see if early retirement would be possible. He began exploring the job opportunities that came his way, but nothing held him back.

Friend now considers himself “semi-retired.” He said in recent months he has focused on helping a young entrepreneur start a small business.

“It’s not about making money,” he said. “It’s about supporting someone who wants to transform their life.”

If Friend retired completely, he thinks he and his wife could be financially successful without major lifestyle changes, but he’s not sure he’d be ready to leave the workforce yet.

What he is sure of is that his next job will not be at Microsoft. He said he believed the company once had an implicit “agreement” with employees: If you performed well, you would be rewarded financially and have job stability. He said he no longer thought it was true.

Friend said some of his concerns apply more broadly to the tech industry, which is why he plans to be very selective about his next role.

“I think I would rather make $50,000 a year doing something I’m passionate about,” he said. “That doesn’t mean I won’t go back to work, but it certainly won’t be Big Tech.”