Laid off after 25 years at Adobe, US techie starts career as school bus driver

James Strawn said he would begin work as a school bus driver after a long search following his lay-off from Adobe. His LinkedIn post drew reactions from others who described similar struggles in the tech job market.Laid off after 25 years at Adobe, US techie starts career as school bus driver (Photo: James Strawn/LinkedIn) After more than a year of struggling to find work in the high-tech industry, a techie based in the US has started a new career as a school bus driver.James Strawn, who lives in the Greater Colorado Springs Area, shared his story in a post on LinkedIn.Speaking about his difficult job search, Strawn said he was “demoralised and discriminated against” by the high-tech industry. He also looked back on his long career at Accolade and Adobe. Strawn worked as a senior software quality engineer at Adobe from April 2000 to August 2025.“After a long, difficult year-plus of looking for work and being demoralised and discriminated against by the high-tech industry, I'm glad to share that my next chapter has begun,” Strawn said. He said he would start his “new - and hopefully final- career” as a bus driver for his local school district the following week. Although the job paid considerably less than his previous role, Strawn said he was looking forward to the change, describing it as fun and praising his future colleagues as “caring, kind, and down-to-earth.”Strawn also thanked former co-workers and LinkedIn connections who had reached out to offer encouragement and support during his job search. He said their support made him glad he had spent such a long time at Accolade and Adobe. He then addressed those at his previous employer who he said had “passed me over, brought me down, and ultimately laid me off.” Strawn said he was thankful only because they had “showed me the door to a better future,” adding that he was glad he would be “driving a 40-foot bus instead of a computer.”Strawn also criticised potential employers and recruiters who he said had blindly filtered out his applications, ignored his direct inquiries or failed to turn up for interviews. He expressed hope that the tech industry could “find its way back to treating people better.”Read the post here:In the comments section of the post, several said they were facing similar challenges in the job market. One user said driving a bus was “just as important” as working at Adobe and could allow Strawn to impact someone’s life in ways he might not anticipate. They also argued that the corporate world was losing talented people and that the impact would be felt by future generations.One of the professionals described a similar struggle, saying they were driving for Amazon Flex for $20 an hour despite having 13 published books. They said they had submitted thousands of applications and attended hundreds of interviews over the past three years without finding a job, adding that recruitment in the industry needed to change.The discussion also highlighted concerns about the financial impact of declining high-paying tech roles. A LinkedIn user said they were nervous about how workers would sustain a life, home and family built around six-figure incomes if such jobs continued to disappear. They hoped to follow Strawn’s career transition and asked him to continue sharing honest updates about how the changes affected his life.Another user shared their own experience of leaving a lucrative tech contract at what they described as a toxic workplace. They later took a frontline medical receptionist role in allied health, where their skills and experience were appreciated, adding that they would never return to their previous career.- EndsPublished On: Aug 17, 2026 18:37 IST