After 25 years at Adobe, senior software quality engineer James Strawn was laid off and spent a year struggling to find another job. Facing automated rejections, ghosted applications and few interview opportunities, he eventually left the tech industry and became a school bus driver.

The job pays less than his previous role, but Strawn says he is happier. His co-workers are “caring, kind and down-to-earth”, the children are mostly well-behaved, and he has more time for the people he loves.

In a LinkedIn post, Strawn said he felt “demoralised” by his job search and criticised recruiters who filtered out his applications or failed to respond. He also thanked former colleagues and connections who supported him during the difficult period.

His story is not about losing faith in technology. It is about what happens when decades of experience become expendable. After 25 years of building expertise in the industry, Strawn found it increasingly difficult to convince employers to give him another chance.

“It’s people like you who make me glad I’ll be driving a 40-foot bus instead of a computer,” he wrote, referring to those who pushed him out of tech.

His experience comes amid widespread disruption in the technology sector, with companies restructuring and cutting jobs as they adopt new technologies, including artificial intelligence.

Strawn is now driving children to school. They may never know about his decades-long career in tech. They simply know their driver is reliable, kind and keeps them safe. For Strawn, perhaps that is worth more than a prestigious job title.