Laid-off Amazon engineer in New Jersey landed a job in 2 weeks — how she did it

Iren Azra Zou, 27, said she was laid off by Amazon in October and landed and accepted a software-engineering offer two weeks later to start in December. She said rumors the day before made her uneasy and she woke to a 6 a.m. automated text telling her to check email; she told her husband and messaged coworkers and was shocked when some "rock stars" on her team were also cut.

She had previously been laid off in 2024, which shaped how she approached this one. Zou said she was mentally and financially prepared: she and her husband had saved aggressively, and that financial cushion helped her stay calm. She stuck to daily routines — coffee, exercise, and sleep — to avoid letting everything feel chaotic.

After taking a day or two to reflect, she narrowed her target to a smaller company with remote flexibility and more visible impact, noting her prior commute to the New York office had been draining and that she wanted more diversity than her Amazon team had. She said her active LinkedIn presence helped: the day after her layoff, the chief technology officer of Double Nickel reached out after seeing her post and, as a former Amazon employee, encouraged her to apply.

Zou interviewed, received an offer, and accepted; she agreed to work hybrid for onboarding and transition to remote work around the end of February, and said she is happy with the role so far.

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