I was laid off from Microsoft after 2 years. Here’s why I didn’t freak out — and I’m absolutely better off.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Raheel Khawaja about being laid off from Microsoft in March 2023. Business Insider has verified Khawaja’s former employment and financials. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

The layoff took me completely by surprise, but when I got an invite for a 15-minute meeting with my manager and someone from HR, I’d been around the block enough to know where it was headed.

I didn’t freak out because I knew I had money coming in, thanks to the early mornings, late nights, and weekends I’d spend building income streams separate from my salary.

I saw Microsoft as a long-term home

I was born and raised in Pakistan, but I moved to Australia for my undergraduate degree. After graduating, I started work at Citibank.

I joined PwC as a consultant and moved to Seattle in 2013. I primarily advised large tech clients. For a long time, I worked with Microsoft.

I worked at PwC for more than a decade. It was a large organization, and I was ready for a change. A job came up at a smaller, boutique consultancy firm.

Within a year of taking the job, an opportunity to work directly for Microsoft came up, and I jumped at it in 2021.

My intent was to stay there as long as I could and make it my home.

My day-to-day involved meetings and calls, and I worked on building a new team as part of the business transformation. Soon after I was hired, there were budget cuts. Then, in 2022, there was a restructuring, and I moved teams.

These were normal business challenges that employees face as businesses evolve. I had intended to keep growing my career at Microsoft, but life took a different turn.

I wanted to build generational wealth

I come from humble beginnings in Pakistan. My parents taught us to think of our immediate family as well as the generations to come. This mentality is at the core of our community.

I wanted to build something that could be classified as generational wealth, and maybe even multigenerational wealth. This desire motivated me to do a little bit more than just my day job.

A steady paycheck is a safety net, and we easily get comfortable with it. But from my research, I quickly realized that a single stream of income was not reliable enough.

I’d always been interested in personal finance and how entrepreneurs diversify their income streams. Once I started working, I started investing in stocks and the equity markets.

I knew the market could drop just as fast as it went up, and I wanted to have more of a hedge in place, something to offset a market downturn.

I started educating myself on real estate — how to invest in a deal, how to underwrite it, and how syndication works. Syndication is where a group of investors pools their capital to invest in something.

I started hanging out in those circles of local investors, learning and making investments. I met a lot of like-minded people who wanted to invest passively while managing full-time jobs. My first investment, with some of those friends, was in an operating business

I was doing this alongside working. In the early mornings, I reviewed investment decks, private placement memoranda, and sponsorship documents. In the evenings, I met with peers to discuss investment opportunities.

There was no schedule; sometimes it was super late or super early, and you would react whenever the deals came in. I was killing myself working a full-time job and doing as much as I was doing on my investments.

There’s no work-life balance, but I’m in the driver’s seat

When the layoff came, it was a major dent in my pocket. The steady paycheck was gone. But by then, I had some investments bringing in income.

I considered applying for other roles at Microsoft, but l decided that I no longer wanted to be a W-2 employee, and I would focus on my ventures instead. My wife supported it.

I enjoyed working on my own ventures. I finally had the time to focus on growing them. Knowing my efforts directly affected my family’s well-being added a deeper sense of purpose that pushed me to stay focused and make better decisions.

Now, I run Pebble Ridge, a private equity firm I started while at Microsoft. We focus on syndicating commercial real estate assets, specifically self-storage facilities and industrial warehouses. I’ve also recently launched a second venture — an insurance agency.

There’s no real work-life balance because we’re in growth and hiring mode, but there’s more work-life integration. Being able to control my time is a game changer.

If I need to take Friday off and catch up over the weekend, I can. I can even take a break to play racquetball during the day.

Even with this work-life imbalance, I’m really enjoying what I’m doing. I liked my work at PwC and Microsoft, but there’s a special level of satisfaction in building something of your own.

Microsoft is doing layoffs again

After my layoff, I can say I’m absolutely better off.

It’s subjective, of course, but I’m in a better position now regarding work satisfaction and how I can use my time than I was during my time at Microsoft.

Two years have passed, and Microsoft is conducting layoffs again. If anything, it’s a reminder that no company is too big or too successful to let people go.

Nobody is ever secure. If you plan ahead and take proactive steps — like building a second income stream — then, God forbid a layoff happens, you’re prepared.

There are downsides, including sacrificing cash from your lifestyle in hopes of future returns, and increased time and energy demands.

Still, it can be well worth it if done right.

I took control over my professional life and finances. The layoff happened, but despite that, I’ve landed in a good spot.

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