Ex-Snap Employees Describe ‘Overwhelming’ Outreach From Big Tech Recruiters

Top of the morning, readers. I’m your host, Jordan Parker Erb. Remember a few weeks ago when Snap shocked employees by laying off 20% of staff?

Well now, some of those laid-off employees are having trouble keeping up with demand from recruiters — and some say they’ve received reachouts from more than 70 companies.

Before we get started: Jack Dorsey will be deposed today as part of Elon Musk’s $44 billion Twitter court battle. Here’s what you’ll want to know ahead of his questioning.

Now, let’s dive in.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. Download Insider’s app here.

1. Laid-off Snap employees describe “overwhelming” recruiter outreach. After the company laid off a staggering 20% of its staff, some former workers’ inboxes are filled with messages from Facebook, Netflix, and TikTok recruiters.

• Snap conducted layoffs in early September after implementing a hiring slowdown earlier in 2022. Amid the mass layoffs, some teams got slashed by as much as 40%. 
• As former employees found themselves without jobs, some told Insider they’ve fielded dozens of messages from recruiters. One said they had over 100 new LinkedIn connection requests, and around 75 invitations to interview with recruiters.
• Another laid off worker said the lucrative perks that lured them into the industry simply aren’t worth the instability for now — and that they aren’t “looking to jump right back into tech at all.”

What laid-off Snap employees told us.

In other news:

2. Meet Dylan Field, the 30-year-old college dropout who built Figma. Insider sat down with Field, his peers, and his colleagues about his journey, lessons he’s learned, and how he’ll lead Figma through Adobe’s $20 billion bid to buy the design software startup. Read more from our chat with Field.

3. Rockstar Games confirmed a massive hack. After a trove of 90 unreleased “Grand Theft Auto VI” videos was leaked, the company confirmed it “suffered a network intrusion.” What we know about the hack.

4. Top investors shared their picks for the most promising fintechs. Insider asked more than 40 investors to nominate the fintechs they think are disrupting the world of banking, trading, and investing. Meet their choices for the 61 most promising startups.

5. California is taking “aggressive action” to protect kids online. A new bill signed last week will prohibit companies from tracking children’s geolocation data and force websites to use the highest privacy settings available as a default for underage users. Everything we know about the bill. 

6. Major tech companies are interested in building a new tool for the US Army. Firms like Salesforce, Oracle, and IBM have expressed interest in building a prototype that would manage the deployment of troops, and the supply and distribution of missiles, guns, tanks, and other weapons. What we know so far. 

7. Some iPhone 14 Pro users are having issues with the phone’s camera when using social media apps. Users on Twitter, Reddit, and TikTok have posted videos showing their cameras physically shaking and rattling when using apps like TikTok and Snapchat. Apple said it’s releasing an update to fix the issue next week. Get the full rundown here. 

8. A Sequoia partner reveals tips for landing a spot in the firm’s new ultracompetitive accelerator. Sequoia Capital introduced a new program this year, Arc, to help founders build their startups. Partner Jess Lee shared four do’s and don’ts for founders who hope to be selected for next year. Read her advice here.

Odds and ends:

9. Walmart introduced a virtual fitting room feature. Users can now try on more than 270,000 items on their own bodies — but they’ll have to strip down to underwear or tight-fitting clothing first for the feature to work accurately. How the virtual fitting room works.

10. We listed the best iPhone 14 accessories you can buy right now. From MagSafe chargers to a wallet that you can find with your phone, these are the seven best iPhone 14 accessories on the market. 

Event invite: Join us Tuesday, September 27 at noon ET for an editorial bootcamp, in partnership with Indeed, covering how small businesses are developing innovative talent acquisition strategies. Sign up here.

What we’re watching today:

• Dreamforce, Salesforce’s annual user and developer conference on cloud computing, kicks off today. 
• Politico is hosting an event titled “Writing the Rules of Crypto” at 4 p.m. ET. 
• SkyShowtime, a new streaming service, will become available in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. 
• Elevate Festival, a tech and arts event, starts today in Toronto.
• JCON, the international Java community conference, is happening in person and online. 

Keep updated with the latest tech news throughout your day by checking out The Refresh from Insider, a dynamic audio news brief from the Insider newsroom. Listen here.

Curated by Jordan Parker Erb in New York. (Feedback or tips? Email jerb@insider.com or tweet @jordanparkererb.) Edited by Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.