This is huge: @Microsoft is willing to depart with a portion of 60,000 of their employees who have experience level of 70 or below (junior to mid level) Qualifying employees must decide whether to take the offer in early December, and those participating will leave on Dec. 31. I believe that opportunities elsewhere and inaction inside companies will make a lot of talent movement in the next few years. Poor judgement can leave companies stranded without good talent. My 30+ years of experience in this industry makes me say confidently that companies should try their best to retain and retrain their workforce rather than lay off people and then hire people with newer skills. This move affects around 27% of Microsoft’s total workforce of 223,000 people. It’s given that a subset of this pool will accept this offer. In April, $MSFT announced a first-ever voluntary retirement program that around 7% of U.S. employees were eligible for. Then, in July, Microsoft announced plans to lay off 4,800 employees. A detailed report from @jordannovet, who covers Microsoft for CNBC is here: cnbc.com/2026/10/26/microsof… ____________________ Microsoft experience levels: - Entry-level / New grads learning the ropes. - SDE II (L61-L62) – Mid-level owning features and growing fast. - Senior SDE (L63-L64) – Leading projects and mentoring others. - Principal+ (L65+) – Shaping tech strategy and big company goals. #Microsoft #TechCareers #SoftwareEngineering