The Tech Industry’s Silent Crisis: Seasoned Professionals Face Unprecedented Job Struggles

In a jarring reversal of fortune, veteran tech professionals are discovering a harsh new reality in 2025. After decades of being courted by recruiters amid talk of talent shortages, many seasoned experts now find themselves struggling through prolonged unemployment. Jonathan Duncan exemplifies this troubling trend. After dedicating 21 years to Microsoft in various leadership roles, he was laid off in May. Since then, he’s applied to approximately 200 positions using every recommended strategy—customized resumes, networking, internal referrals—yet has received “not a squeak” in response. Duncan’s experience isn’t an anomaly but rather reflects a fundamental shift in the industry that has left countless experienced professionals questioning their value and future prospects in a field that once seemed to offer limitless opportunity.

The numbers paint a sobering picture of this transformation. While 2023 saw nearly 265,000 tech workers laid off, 2024 experienced about 153,000 cuts, and 2025 has already witnessed more than 114,000 job losses according to Layoffs.fyi. Major Seattle-area tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon continue announcing significant workforce reductions while simultaneously investing heavily in AI infrastructure and emphasizing “efficiency.” Laura Close, CEO of Close Cohen, a job search and executive coaching firm, observes that leaders who built entire careers on organizational growth are being “mowed down right now in stunning numbers.” The “super high-value professionals” her firm works with are now taking 12-18 months to find new positions. As Indeed economist Allison Shrivastava bluntly states, “If you’ve been trying to get a job or change jobs in a tech-related field, you’re probably really, really struggling.” The golden age of quick turnarounds has ended, replaced by a prolonged, often demoralizing job search process.

What makes this situation particularly troubling is how it intersects with age-related bias in the tech industry. “What we’re seeing right now is ageism on steroids,” Close remarks, noting that in tech, such discrimination often begins surprisingly early—around age 40. The industry has long equated youth with innovation and stamina, but this bias has intensified during the current contraction. Decades of expertise have paradoxically become liabilities rather than assets for many job seekers. Duncan has observed concerning trends like “underleveling,” where senior director roles are being posted at lower levels than before and manager positions offered at what used to be individual contributor levels. His conclusion is stark: “I think the days of high-paying tech jobs are drying up.” While Shrivastava suggests the current layoffs likely represent a correction from post-pandemic over-hiring rather than purely an AI restructuring story, The Wall Street Journal has reported that many companies are betting that AI will help them grow—without growing their headcount.

For affected professionals, the financial and psychological toll comes at a particularly vulnerable life stage. “I consider this the most expensive time of my life,” Duncan explains, with one son in college, another starting next fall, and the new challenge of pricing family health insurance plans for the first time. When laid off, he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in unvested Microsoft shares that were earmarked for his children’s education. This financial pressure compounds what Nancy Poznoff, an executive coach at Close Cohen, describes as an identity crisis for many laid-off executives. “They’ve been high performers their whole career. They’ve followed all the rules… And now they’re suddenly having this identity crisis on top of it, because a lot of them have been at their company for so long, they have this fear around, ‘How do I operate when I’m not at [my company]?’ Like, ‘Who am I?'” The combination of financial stress and ego devastation creates a perfect storm of anxiety for professionals who believed they had reached a secure stage of their careers.

The environment within tech companies has also fundamentally changed. Duncan still maintains contact with former Microsoft colleagues and describes the internal stress as “brutal.” Angus Norton, who previously held executive positions at both Microsoft and Amazon, recently wrote about the psychological impact of perpetual layoffs on remaining employees: “It creates a hierarchy of fear. Everyone becomes a potential target. Everyone knows someone who was let go despite stellar performance. The message is clear: no one is safe.” Inside these organizations, budgets have been slashed across all categories—training, travel, team-building activities. When people leave, their positions remain unfilled, and each quarter brings new demands to return unspent funds. This atmosphere of constant uncertainty and scarcity represents a profound shift from the growth mindset that once characterized the industry.

The current situation raises important questions about the tech industry’s future and its treatment of experienced talent. While companies rightfully pursue innovation and efficiency, the wholesale devaluation of institutional knowledge and proven leadership abilities seems shortsighted. The industry that once prided itself on disruption now appears to be disrupting the careers and livelihoods of the very professionals who helped build it. For individuals like Duncan, the path forward remains unclear. Despite his extensive experience and successful track record, he faces an employment landscape that seems increasingly indifferent to such qualifications. As tech continues its evolution toward AI and other emerging technologies, the human cost of this transition deserves greater attention. The industry’s long-term health may ultimately depend on finding a more balanced approach—one that embraces innovation while still valuing the wisdom, perspective, and proven capabilities that experienced professionals bring to the table. Until then, many seasoned tech workers find themselves navigating uncharted waters, their decades of dedication seemingly counting for little in a rapidly transforming marketplace.