Gen Zer’s Meta Job Was ‘Startup Rehab,’ Then She Returned to Her Dream

When Alyson Isaacs joined Meta in 2022, she solely had about $200 in her financial savings account. A six-figure wage provided an opportunity to rebuild her funds, however her final purpose lay outdoors Massive Tech.

After school, Isaacs “utterly drained” her financial savings on a startup she’d co-founded, and located herself grappling together with her subsequent profession transfer. After weighing her choices, she determined to observe the recommendation of a mentor: go to “startup rehab” — in different phrases, take a full-time job.

“You may at all times get a job at a Massive Tech firm,'” mentioned Isaacs, who’s 28 and lives in San Francisco.

About 4 months later, she landed a product supervisor position at Meta within the firm’s Quest for Enterprise digital actuality division. However her entrepreneurial itch by no means left, and she or he finally started mapping out one of the best path again into the startup world.

“There are methods you might be entrepreneurial,” she mentioned of working at Massive Tech, “however it’s very a lot not the identical.”

Over the previous yr, I’ve interviewed greater than a dozen staff who, like Isaacs, selected to stop their jobs at main employers — in some instances with out one other position lined up. Whereas some finally landed at one other massive firm, others stepped away from the company world completely — becoming a member of a smaller enterprise, launching their very own enterprise, pursuing a profession pivot, or specializing in private priorities like parenting.

They’ve grow to be outliers in an economic system the place staff are quitting at one of many lowest charges prior to now decade — a pattern pushed by a hiring slowdown that is left some clinging to their jobs with few interesting alternate options. Those that have known as it quits instructed me they did so for a mixture of causes: considerations about job safety, shifts in office tradition, entrepreneurial ambitions, or a want for extra significant work. Briefly, they wished better long-term company over their careers.

Isaacs shared how she determined to take the leap again into entrepreneurship — and provided recommendation for others dealing with an identical profession crossroads.

Making ready for a return to entrepreneurship

After leaving her post-college startup, Isaacs took a month to reset. She then spent two months interviewing at smaller firms to fine-tune her résumé and sharpen her interview expertise. Ultimately, she utilized for a task at Meta and landed the job. She moved from the Berkeley space to San Francisco and began in Might 2022 — a couple of yr after commencement.

Whereas Isaacs did not have agency plans to return to entrepreneurship, she knew that if she ever went down that path once more, she’d must be financially ready for all times with out a regular paycheck. So she began dwelling nicely beneath her means, together with dwelling in a inexpensive space, going to a primary gymnasium, cooking at residence, and avoiding buying sprees.

“I saved so arduous as a result of I knew that this wasn’t going to be the tip sport for me, and I wished to begin my very own factor once more finally,” she mentioned.

Isaacs additionally ready for a possible return to entrepreneurship by spending about 5 hours per week angel investing, which concerned scouting and backing startups. After a couple of yr of saving, she started making a number of investments, every below $10,000. She mentioned the expertise helped her construct a community in San Francisco’s startup scene and spot gaps different entrepreneurs may exploit — insights that helped form her personal enterprise concepts.

The ultimate part of Isaacs’ preparation was absorbing the whole lot she may from her time at Meta, together with transitioning to a product supervisor place at Instagram — certainly one of Meta’s subsidiaries — in 2024. She mentioned the roles gave her information and expertise that entrepreneurship alone could not present.

“Conventional entrepreneurship was simply flying by the sting of my seat and seeing what labored,” she mentioned. “However I wanted that degree of experience to go farther in my profession.”

The query was when to make the leap and go away Meta. Isaacs mentioned the loss of life of her father in 2024 weighed closely on her thought course of.

“That basically triggered this thought in my mind of, ‘Is being a product supervisor at a Massive Tech firm what I wish to do for the remainder of my life?'” she mentioned. “And the reply was resoundingly no — I wished to do one thing alone and show myself.”

By mid-2025, Isaacs discovered herself considering increasingly more a couple of startup concept within the shopper AI house — and struggling to concentrate on her job at Meta. On July 1, she resigned; the following day, she started working full-time on her startup, which she described as an “agentic AI resolution for private wellness.” The corporate is at the moment in stealth, that means the workforce is not publicly sharing full particulars whereas the product remains to be in improvement. She mentioned she and her two co-founders are testing the product with customers and plan to open a pre-seed funding spherical within the spring.

Recommendation for others weighing large profession strikes

Isaacs mentioned she is aware of many individuals would possibly hesitate to surrender a Massive Tech job. However she believes some underestimate their possibilities of discovering a brand new position or constructing one thing themselves — and find yourself caught in jobs they do not take pleasure in.

“It is type of like courting,” she mentioned, including that when you anticipate a nasty courting pool, “you are going to keep along with your dangerous ex.”

Isaacs mentioned she wasn’t anxious about resigning from Meta, partially as a result of she’s a “tremendous optimist” about her profession. If her startup does not work out, she’s assured in her backup plan — the identical one she relied on after her post-college startup alternative fell via.

“Leaving Meta wasn’t scary for me as a result of I used to be like, ‘I can at all times get one other job in Massive Tech,'” she mentioned.

Isaacs has a number of items of recommendation for different aspiring entrepreneurs. She recommends connecting with as many individuals as attainable who’re related to the enterprise you wish to pursue — and in search of methods to assist them, whether or not via angel investing, advising, or providing help.

“You type of create this flywheel of individuals serving to you when you assist different folks first,” she mentioned.

Moreover, even when your finish purpose is to construct a enterprise, Isaacs mentioned having expertise at a big-name firm may give you priceless credibility as an entrepreneur.

“I wanted to be plain as a founder, and having a big-box title model in your résumé provides you that undeniability,” she mentioned.