- James Strawn, ex-Adobe engineer, became a school bus driver after tech job search failed
- Strawn was laid off in August 2025 and faced frustration and discrimination finding new tech work
- He accepted a lower-paying bus driver job but values the kindness of colleagues and job enjoyment
After spending 25 years working in the technology industry, a former Adobe software quality engineer has started working as a school bus driver after struggling to find another tech job. James Strawn, who is based in Colorado, was laid off from his role as a Senior Software Quality Engineer at Adobe Digital Video in August 2025. Since then, he has been searching for another position but says the experience left him frustrated and demoralised.
After more than a year of searching, he decided to take a completely different path and accepted a job as a school bus driver with his local school district. "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," he wrote in a post on LinkedIn.
The new job comes with a significantly lower salary than his previous technology role, but Strawn said he is looking forward to the change. He described the work as enjoyable and said he has found his new colleagues "caring, kind and down-to-earth."
"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," he added.
See the post here:
Strawn also thanked former colleagues and LinkedIn connections who supported him during his difficult job search.
"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. It's people like you who make me glad I'll be driving a 40-foot bus instead of a computer. 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," he added.
His post struck a chord online instantly, as people called out layoffs in tech and the ageism plaguing corporate culture. One user wrote, "Driving a bus is just as important as your job at Adobe and as long as you do it with passion, you may impact someone in a way you didn't anticipate. The corporate world is losing great people and we will see it in the generations to come."
Another commented, "Children deserve the best. Keeping kids safe in their travels is a high calling. I hope you find additional ways to invest in yourself as well. In this life we have one body, and everything seems to demand we spend time and energy elsewhere. Money is limited. Hopefully you have what you need to sustain."
