This narrative, shaped from an as-told-to conversation with Arlina Yang — a junior at the University of California, Davis — presents the deeply personal journey of a young immigrant navigating ambition, disillusionment, and perseverance in the often unpredictable world of technology careers. The interview was thoughtfully edited to ensure clarity and concision, and Yang’s employment background has been verified by Business Insider.
In 2019, Yang arrived in the United States, leaving behind her home in Taiwan to pursue a degree at UC Davis. As a student from a university not traditionally seen as a “target school” for elite corporate recruitment, she viewed employment in Big Tech as a lofty dream, an accomplishment seemingly beyond reach. Coming from an immigrant family with limited familiarity with the technology sector, she lacked the career mentorship and generational guidance that many of her peers took for granted. Her parents, unfamiliar not only with the nuances of the tech industry but also with the labyrinthine nature of job applications, could offer minimal professional direction.
Determined not to let this absence of support hinder her, Yang learned to chart her own course. She actively sought out university career counselors, initiated conversations with classmates who seemed more experienced, and turned to social media creators who shared professional advice. Yet despite these efforts, she quickly discovered the limitations of secondhand wisdom — guidance could only go so far when no one else had walked precisely the same path she was carving for herself.
After many months of effort, Yang secured a highly coveted internship in software and digital media communications at Tesla. For her, this moment carried enormous symbolic weight. It felt like tangible proof that she had finally earned validation within a space where she had once doubted her belonging. Being the first member of her family — on either side — to work for a world-renowned company filled her with pride and excitement. She could not wait to share the news with her parents, viewing the internship as both a personal triumph and a family milestone.
However, the celebration was short-lived. In April of the following year, she received an unexpected call informing her that the offer had been rescinded. The entire summer 2024 intern cohort had been eliminated amidst sweeping layoffs, which also displaced more than 14,000 full-time employees. Shocked and distressed, Yang immediately phoned her sister to share the devastating news that she would no longer have a summer position. Panic set in as she realized the internship recruitment cycle had already concluded — few opportunities remained open so late in the season.
Later that day, she found herself sitting for hours inside a Peet’s Coffee, attempting to process what had happened. There, fueled by determination and caffeine, she spent nearly six hours retooling her résumé and applying to every conceivable opening she could find on LinkedIn. Yet the hardest conversation still awaited: telling her parents that her long-anticipated role at Tesla was gone. Although they would never blame her, she felt an acute sense of disappointment — a painful internal guilt that she had somehow let everyone down.
Her mind swirled with countless “what ifs.” Could she have performed better? Could more effort or earlier networking have changed the outcome? But reflection eventually revealed a truth she needed to learn: some events lie entirely beyond personal control.
The experience, although painful, became profoundly transformative. Yang discovered a depth of resilience she had never before recognized. The layoff forced her to confront doubts about her self-worth and to redefine how she measured success. Prior to Tesla, she had submitted around 250 job applications; following the rescindment, she sent out another 250, undeterred. When no alternative internship materialized, she viewed the empty summer not as wasted time but as an opportunity for introspection — a chance to examine which aspects of her journey she could shape versus those determined by external factors.
Through that reflective process, she developed a new sense of agency. While she could not control the existence of corporate layoffs, she realized she retained full authority over how she chose to respond. Turning adversity into purpose, Yang founded *Career Now*, a newsletter designed to assist students who lacked the kind of career coaching and institutional support often available to peers from more privileged backgrounds. Her goal was to level the playing field for those constrained by familial duties, part-time work, or systemic inequities that made career preparation a luxury rather than a given.
The impact of Career Now quickly grew beyond her expectations. Instead of contributing to a single corporation’s objectives, she was now directly helping a community of over 73,000 students. Every day, she shares resources, advice, and internship leads that might otherwise go unnoticed, using her own setbacks as fuel to empower others. Through consistent posts and encouragement, she helps her audience rediscover motivation and agency in their professional pursuits.
Recently, Yang has expanded her involvement in the academic and tech ecosystems. She now serves as a campus ambassador for Notion and balances part-time work as a content marketing intern at Siemens during the academic year. Looking toward the near future, she plans to study abroad in Europe, continuing to document her recruitment journey and ambitions for a social media internship in the summer ahead.
Reflecting on her experience, she acknowledges an indisputable reality: in the modern economy, no job carries absolute security. The integration of artificial intelligence has changed the recruitment process dramatically, causing many résumés to be filtered out before ever reaching human readers. The Big Tech landscape, once equated with stability and prestige, has proven volatile. The mass layoffs that stripped her of her internship were merely an early indication of an ongoing industry shift — one in which automation and restructuring render entire departments, and even early-career roles, replaceable.
Ironically, she now views the timing of her layoff as a blessing in disguise. Experiencing professional loss as an intern, she reasoned, spared her the heavier consequences she might face later in life as a full-time employee with greater obligations, such as mortgage payments or dependents to support. She encourages other students to interpret layoffs not as definitive endings but as moments of redirection — pauses that invite growth, reflection, and ultimately, renewed purpose.
Through her journey, Arlina Yang offers a compelling example of how disappointment can metamorphose into inspiration. Her story underscores that success is not measured solely by the attainment of coveted titles or affiliations but by the courage to adapt, rebuild, and share wisdom so others may thrive. For those whose paths have been temporarily derailed, her message resonates profoundly: a setback is not the finale of a dream but the beginning of a new and more self-defined chapter.
Sourse: https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-internship-rescinded-big-tech-effect-career-switch-2025-11
