Surbhi Gupta appeared on the populars show hosted by Sima Taparia. (Images: Facebook and Instagram)
Surbhi Gupta, an engineer from India, was among the thousands of employees sacked by Facebook's parent company Meta.
Her life had been looking up. She was doing well at work and even forayed into the television and beauty pageants arena. She appeared on the popular Netflix show Indian Matchmaking, hosted by Mumbai-based matchmaker Sima Taparia, who travelled between India and the US to play cupid for successful millennials.
In 2018, Gupta won the Miss Bharat-California pageant, and was crowned by none other than her idol Sushmita Sen.
She worked for 15 years, pursuing her American dream, but now faces uncertainty.
Last month, Gupta received an early morning mail about the layoffs and things happened abruptly after that.
"Initially, it felt like the Titanic sinking because I was losing access to things one by one - workplace, then email, then laptop," he told journalist Savita Patel in an article for the BBC.
Gupta was not immediately told to leave. Her last day at Meta will be sometime in January.
But she is on an H1-B visa and will be allowed to remain in the US for 60 more days after she leaves Meta. She has to get a new job early in March.
Her search for a new role won't be easy since its holiday season and many companies will slow down hiring.
Gupta told Patel her parents keep boosting her morale in tough times.
"They tell me to stay strong because I'm a person who can convert problems into opportunities," Gupta said. "They tell me 'aur kuch accha mil jayega' (you'll find something better)."
Gupta also spoke about the hurdles she was facing in getting a US green card. She said that once she had gone to India for a wedding and got stuck there for months because of some visa-related administrative processes.
The uncertainty resulting from that strained her marriage.
"The visa issues had a very big role in my marriage," she told Patel. "It was not the only reason, but it became one of the major reasons for the break-up of my marriage."
But Gupta is striving to stay focussed on her job search. She said former colleagues were being supportive, introducing her to new opportunities and giving her referrals.
Mass layoffs across the tech sector have created a particularly precarious situation for H-1B visa holders, leaving them scrambling to find new jobs to continue staying in the US.
Many professionals put up LinkedIn posts, in hopes reaching out to potential employers.
Mass layoffs have taken place at Amazon and Twitter too. Companies went on hiring sprees and have now been compelled to trim their workforce in the face of uncertain economic conditions.
Amazon announced it will sack 10,000 employees. Twitter cut roughly half o of its workforce of 7,500 soon after Elon Musk took over. Many top executives were also let go.
