I’ve been in tech for about eight years now.
Not long enough to be a legend.
Not short enough to be naive.
I’m somewhere in the middle—experienced enough to know how things work, but still early enough to feel like I should be optimistic. Lately though, optimism has been getting harder to hold onto.
A video about someone being laid off after 25 years in Big Tech popped up in my feed recently. I clicked on it casually. I didn’t expect it to stay with me.
But it did.
It Wasn’t the Layoff That Hit Me
People get laid off. I know that. We all do.
What unsettled me wasn’t the event—it was the tone. No anger. No rant. Just someone calmly realizing that a huge part of their life had been built around something that could disappear overnight.
Then I read the comments.
People older than me. Younger than me. From different countries. Different industries. All saying variations of the same thing:
There is no such thing as job security.
I’ve heard that phrase before. But this time it didn’t sound theoretical.
Eight Years In, I’ve Already Seen the Cracks
In eight years, I’ve watched:
- Smart people get laid off without warning
- Entire teams disappear after reorgs
- Work shipped offshore with little concern for quality
- Urgency manufactured around things that barely matter
I’ve seen people stay late not because they had to—but because they were afraid not to.
I’ve done that too.
And the uncomfortable truth is this:
the company moves on fast.
Projects get renamed. Dashboards get archived. Slack channels go quiet. It’s like you were never there.
That realization messes with you.
The Part No One Talks About Enough
A lot of people in the comments talked about family.
Kids growing up while they were on calls.
Missing birthdays. Missing dinners. Missing themselves.
One line stuck with me:
“The only people who remember you worked late are your kids.”
I don’t even have kids yet, but that sentence landed hard.
Because if this is what people realize after 20–30 years…
what am I trading away right now without noticing?
Tech Is Still Good—But It’s Not Sacred
I still like tech. I like building things. I like solving problems.
But something feels different now.
Engineering doesn’t feel like the stable, respected path it once was. Salaries are high, yes—but expectations are higher. And stability feels… fragile.
AI. Offshoring. Cost cutting. Constant layoffs.
None of this is personal. That’s the problem.
You can be good. You can be loyal. You can be dedicated.
And still be “too expensive.”
Watching Older Engineers Changed Something in Me
What really shook me was hearing from people in their 40s and 50s.
Some sounded tired.
Some sounded relieved.
Some sounded free.
A few even said being laid off ended up being the best thing that happened to them.
That’s confusing when you’re still climbing.
If the destination isn’t safety…
what exactly are we rushing toward?
I’m Not Quitting. I’m Recalibrating.
This isn’t a resignation letter.
It’s more like a quiet adjustment.
I’m starting to believe:
- Work should not define my entire identity
- Money is important, but time is rarer
- Health is not something to “deal with later”
- No job deserves my full humanity
I don’t want to wake up one day shocked by realizations I could’ve made earlier.
Maybe This Is What Growth Looks Like
Eight years in, I don’t have all the answers.
But I know this:
I don’t want to live on a treadmill forever—running hard, going nowhere, afraid to stop.
If this industry has taught me anything so far, it’s this:
Make good money when you can.
Save.
Learn.
But don’t confuse a job with a life.
Because when the job ends—and it will—
life keeps going.
And I want to still recognize myself when it does.
