Badge Post

There’s a much revered tradition of the “Badge Post” at Facebook/Meta: when someone decides to resign, they post a photo of their employee badge, along with a carefully penned tribute to their time at the company. Here’s mine.

My dear Meta friends – it’s time to say goodbye.

It’s been almost seven years since I joined Facebook with Eyegroove, in the summer of 2016. Our team was tasked with contributing to the first Facebook Blue camera, and building out a shader-based video effects system alongside the company’s other nascent AR offerings. As I continued into other work, I helped to deliver the first iteration of audio effect support in “AR Studio” (now Spark), and was lucky enough to work with some folks on the Sound Design team throughout that project. After a few months of great conversations, I ended up joining Sound Design in July of 2017, and transitioning from SWE into a “Creative Coder” position.

I still can’t believe my good fortune in finding a role that has so consistently connected my engineering mind with my creative spirit, in the company of such inspiring collaborators! Throughout my many years on Sound Design, we’ve shipped diverse AR experiences with creative partners across the company, developed prototypes that paved a delightful path forward for interactive multimedia, and helped our partner engineering teams build ever-better audio technology. It’s been immeasurably gratifying to be a part of all this, and I’m deeply proud of what our team has brought to life over the past half-decade.

Nonetheless, the time has come for me to move on. Meta’s ongoing threats of cuts and restructurings may motivate efficiency, but this whole situation hasn’t been good for my mind, or the collective consciousness of the company. Layoff brain makes everything harder, especially creative projects. Work hasn’t felt nearly as fun for the past few months, and that’s made the immensely challenging decision to leave a little bit easier.

Beyond all that, I’m also looking forward to exploring some new territory! My plan is to take a few months “sabbatical” to dig deeper into solo projects, sharpen new technical skills, and reconnect with my inner optimist. I’m intentionally giving myself the opportunity to experiment with a pathless path, but I’m also excited to eventually find a new community of likeminded thinkers and dreamers, and build something beautiful together.

It’s been an incredible privilege to work with so many brilliant minds and creative powerhouses throughout my time here, and I will miss you all dearly! Please don’t hesitate to reach out, now or ever, to talk about anything and everything. I’m blocking out Wednesday afternoons for Zoom chats over the next couple months, so I hope you’ll stop by sometime. I’d also love to connect on LinkedIn, meet up for coffee in SF, or hear from you by email, phone, or WhatsApp.

My last day at Meta is this Friday, April 7th. Much love and gratitude always!

-Matt