Maddie Macho
- Maddie Macho worked as a recruiter at Meta until she was fired for posting tips for job seekers on TikTok.
- She said her team at Meta barely had enough work to do, and her days were filled with meetings and trainings.
- This is Maddie's story, as told to Insider.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with a 33-year-old entrepreneur and former tech recruiter Maddie Macho. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Meta did not respond to Insider's request for comment on Maddie's story.
A rocky start
When I started my job as a recruiter at Meta in September 2021, I was so excited. I love social media, and Meta had made me an offer I couldn't refuse: $60,000 more than what I was making in my job at Microsoft. My total compensation at Meta was $190,000.
Starting out, the onboarding process was really high quality. But things started to get messy when I moved on to my new team. Everyone was new, including my boss. No one knew what we were doing, everyone was confused, and there was no guidance.
There wasn't enough work to do at Meta
After onboarding, we were supposed to start sourcing new talent, but there wasn't enough to do. My job was to recruit Android developers for Meta, but there weren't enough Android developers out there, so we were all reaching out to the same ones. Our days were filled with trainings and meetings, and our only goal for the week was to reach out to 50 people. At Microsoft, I was reaching out to 500 or 1,000 people a week. My team had days where we just didn't do anything at all.
At one point, I asked to switch teams because I felt like I wasn't doing enough work, but HR told me I couldn't move for at least a year. I hadn't recruited anyone, so I was nervous I wouldn't get paid my bonus, but a coworker reassured me that I shouldn't worry: They hadn't hired anyone in two years and still got their bonus.
I began posting on TikTok
Before working at Meta, I wasn't active on TikTok. I had only posted 3 videos. But I started seeing all of these clips of people who worked at tech companies showing off all the cool perks in their offices. Since I worked remotely for Meta, I decided to make a video about Meta's great benefits package. It happened to go viral, and a lot of people at Meta reached out to tell me they had seen the video. It was nothing but good feedback because I was speaking very highly of the company.
I decided to post about Meta again, this time talking about a company program specifically designed to introduce diverse candidates to a career in recruiting. I thought it was a really great opportunity, and most of my new followers were diverse candidates, so I wanted to share it. This time didn't go as well: my boss called me and told me HR wanted me to take it down. I was so scared. I didn't want to break any rules, so after that, I decided not to share anything about Meta anymore. I was scared straight.
Fired for posting
I still continued to post on TikTok, though. I would post general resume tips and share which companies were hiring or which websites help with salary negotiations. It got HR's attention, and in January, they brought up my TikTok again. This time, I decided to put in my notice and quit, but then they fired me the next week. They told me the things I posted were a conflict of interest.
After leaving Meta in February 2022, I got an offer from LinkedIn the following week. It's a really lovely company with a great culture and amazing benefits, but my TikTok had grown so much that I decided to create my own "reverse recruiting" business. In April 2022, I quit my job at LinkedIn to focus on my own business.
Now I use my experience as a recruiter at Microsoft, Meta, and LinkedIn to advise people on their career strategy, resumes, and LinkedIn optimization. I have a team of 7, and as part of our services, we apply to jobs for our clients and help them with interview prep and salary negotiations. Now it feels like I get to help people and genuinely change lives.