After building a robust career in tech, including 25 years at Adobe, a software engineer found himself facing a difficult job search after being laid off. He struggled to find a job for a year, and then left the industry and now works as a bus driver. His new job pays less, but he feels content and has ‘caring’ co-workers.This isn’t a story about burnout or disillusionment with technology itself. It’s about what happens when loyalty meets efficiency, when an entire industry decides institutional knowledge is disposable and then makes it nearly impossible for experienced people to land elsewhere.
From Silicon Valley to school bus
Representative image
James Strawn spent over 25 years at Adobe as a senior software quality engineer. However, he was laid off last year, after more than two decades of institutional knowledge and dedication. While most of us assume that a senior engineer would easily find a job after that, for Strawn, that wasn’t the story. Automated rejections, ghosting recruiters and a lack of responses made him rethink his whole career. In a post shared on LinkedIn, Strawn revealed that he felt ‘demoralised’ and ‘discriminated against’. So Strawn made a choice that would have been unthinkable to him a year earlier. He became a school bus driver.The job certainly pays less and is perhaps less glamorous compared with his Silicon Valley position, but he is happy. His co-workers are nice to him, and he has time for the people he loves. After all, that’s what matters, right? “Next week I start my new, and hopefully final, career as a school bus driver for my local school district. It pays a lot less than my previous job, but it’s fun, the kids are good (mostly), and my co-workers are caring, kind, and down-to-earth,” James Strawn said.He also expressed gratitude to his former co-workers and LinkedIn connections who reached out to him during the challenging time. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart. It’s people like you who make me glad I had such a long career at Accolade and Adobe.”
A message to previous employers and recruiters
James Strawn also had a message for his former employer. “To those at my previous employer who passed me over, brought me down, and ultimately laid me off: thank you as well, but only because you showed me the door to a better future,” he said. The man also added that it was because of them that he decided to quit his career in tech. “It’s people like you who make me glad I’ll be driving a 40-foot bus instead of a computer.”Addressing recruiters and potential employers, he added, “And to the potential employers and recruiters who blindly filtered out my applications, ghosted me on direct inquiries, or never even bothered to show up for interviews: I hope this industry can find its way back to treating people better.”The rapid rise of artificial intelligence has fuelled some of the most recent layoffs in the tech industry. Strawn’s layoff is not uncommon. His story points to something the industry needs to reckon with. Strawn didn’t leave because he’d stopped believing in technology or grown tired of problem-solving. He left because the system that employed him decided 25 years of expertise was expendable and then made it nearly impossible for him to find work elsewhere.Strawn is driving kids to school now. They probably don’t know he spent decades building the software that powers the creative industry. But they simply trust him, know the bus is safe, and know their driver is kind. Maybe that’s worth more.
