Apple leadership made the decision to “wind-down” the Titan program. All of us on T172 were told in an all hands meeting on Tuesday, February 27, 2024.
Initially I had feelings of relief, some uncertainty, and excitement. Relief that the leadership finally made a decision and we had clear direction regarding the project’s future. Our project had been furiously working on short term deliverables while having no long term clear direction or vision for almost two years. While it wasn’t the decision I had really hoped for, at least it was a decision. Uncertainty arose despite having considered this outcome or some variant of it many times in the past, and despite a desire to do something new and recently coming close to quitting the project on my own when considering a move to Boulder, CO. I suppose it’s natural to feel some uncertainty with a major change such as an 8.5 year chapter of my career coming to a forced and abrupt end. Excitement largely due to the days that followed. I continued going to the office, as did a large proportion of others and it was a super interesting time. With nothing to do everyone was reflecting on the project, discussing possible futures, and for some, already working to navigate new projects and roles within Apple. Perhaps a third or half of the staff had been reassigned to support generative AI efforts at Apple. For some perhaps this was a natural fit, however for those closest to me, they had no idea what they were supposed to do or how their work would fit in. I think some of this feeling continues even to the time of this writing, about a month and a half after the shutdown.
After the second week post announcement the office population was shrinking. Around this time people seemingly had settled in to their new reality. Many of those on visas were mostly putting full time effort or more on finding a new job with hopes of staying in the US. Some had more or less vanished, with no comments online or office visits since the announcement. I was enjoying the time off actually. Still going to the office mostly to chat and workout, and casually responding to recruiter emails.
In the following weeks we traveled first to Northstar near Lake Tahoe for a few nights, followed by a mid week trip to Sequoia National Park. Mostly this was a time of leisure and enjoyment. The weather in the San Jose was turning warmer with fewer rainy days and signs of Spring were everywhere on trees, in gardens within the neighborhood, and in the fragrant smells traveling on the breeze. The smell of spring on a warm day is one of the most refreshing sensations.
I did have one notable night with little sleep and a surprising amount of anxiety about the future, but this was quickly quelled the following day and I’m happy to report that it was the only time of real anxiety and discomfort related to this event so far. I’m still being paid through May 27th and should I not find and start a job prior to then, I’ll be eligible for severance equal to 22 weeks of my base pay as a lump sum. Even without all this I feel we’re well prepared so the generous severance only provided freedom and more fun during these unexpected weeks of free time.
A few weeks in I had an internal opportunity with Behnam, my manager. He was planning to take a new role within the accessories group as a systems team manager and he wanted me to join as a V&V strategy lead. I went as far as an interview with the director of the team but ultimately decided I wasn’t interested in working on accessories and told Behnam as much. By this time I had also applied for a role in the Boulder, CO office and given that the accessories role was moving quickly, I wanted to have the chance to see if the Boulder opportunity would pan out. It turns out running multiple job opportunities in parallel can be a bit stressful. It requires some negotiation and strategic delay in order to pace all the conversations together. Given the nature of my relationship with Behnam and his new role, the accessories opportunity was moving faster than the rest. I’m happy with the decision but it feels strange saying no to an objectively stable and financially rewarding opportunity.
In addition to these two opportunities I’ve had conversations or interviews with Archer (evtol), Joby (evtol), Rivian (ebike), Zoox (AV), and Ford (EV). I’ve also applied to a total of one Bay Area job Figure AI (robotics), two roles in Boulder and enquired about one job description sent to me in slack about a supposed role. As of this writing, I have zero formal offers but I’m confident one is available from Rivian and I have a commitment for a verbal offer from a quality role in Boulder. I declined continued interviews at Archer. Though their office and lab tour was impressive I just don’t want to work there. They are largely targeting the <20 mi commutes and the amount of resources and energy expenditure related to evtol for a <20mi commute seems disproportionate to alternatives. It seems silly actually, though the technology and challenge are appealing. However, I’m still interviewing at Joby, their office is in Santa Cruz after all. I’m also interviewing at Zoox, for the only people manager position I’ve interviewed for and I did not pursue Ford, primarily due to my lack of interest in the legacy automaker and EV space.
One surprise from all this has been that with the exception of the Boulder roles and Figure AI who I didn’t hear back from, all of these conversations have resulted from inbound recruitment. I’ve been genuinely surprised by this and it’s been a confidence boost. I haven’t looked for a job in my whole career with the exception of post college graduation and this experience leads me to think that perhaps more proactive job hunting career changes may be worthwhile in the future.
There is still a lot of uncertainty about the near future. I’m close to the final stages for the quality role at Apple in Boulder but nothing there is finalized. If this works out we’ll be moving before the summer comes and if not there is much more uncertainty. We don’t want to remain in San Jose for the next 10 years, but we’re unsure of the next alternative. We could move independently to Colorado, Santa Cruz, or further up the peninsula. We could also travel around the world for 3 months before kindergarten. So time will tell, and I’ll post and update when I know more.