Crossing a mountain pass in my 1984 Toyota Tercel, it was a beautiful, sunny winter day, but coming around a bend I hit an ice patch and immediately started sliding off the road. It was next to a cliff, with no guardrail, and it was a slow-motion freak out. The car came to a stop just before going over. My girlfriend didn't even have room to get out on her side.
Thanksgiving is, without a doubt, my favorite holiday. Taking a day to pause and take time away from the daily grind to share a delicious homemade meal with family and friends has always filled me with gratitude. And this year, as my entire family gathers at my son's house in Durango, Colorado, for my granddaughter Kelly Jo's first Thanksgiving, I am particularly thankful.
I started there in November 2006, when there were only around 10,000 employees, and became an executive - the director of American media relations - in 2022. Google's amazing; I bleed Google colors. I loved the impact I was having, the future of opportunities I saw for myself, and the feedback I was getting as a leader. I'm also the breadwinner for my family.
I met my wife while working at Target, marking the beginning of what became a decadeslong career in retail. Over the years, I moved into leadership roles at several major brands before eventually joining a senior living company in a senior role. Then, in August 2019, I got a call that changed everything: I was being let go. At the time, my wife, Danielle - who'd also built a successful career - was home full-time with our four kids.
Jeremiah Burke (51) said he wanted to join the gardai when he was younger but missed the opportunity. He said he recognises it is going to be a "tough job", but said: "You're never too old. "If you're able, why not? Give it a go. I'd say to anybody out there, if you want to go for it - go for it." He added: "I've done it, anyone can do it."
Before having children, I worked as a journalist for years. I loved my job, and after my daughter was born in 2021, I returned to work full time at a magazine. My monthly salary just covered her childcare fees with little left over. This meant my husband had to cover all other living expenses, with only tiny contributions from me. When we had our second baby, a son in 2023, something had to change.
When I quit my $250,000 corporate HR job last year, I thought finding another job would be no big deal. I was out of touch with the reality of the job market. I hadn't applied to a job in a traditional way in over a decade because I'd always been recruited. Now that it's rounding up on a year of unemployment, I wish I could go back and shake myself.
One professional who followed a decidedly squiggly career pathway before doing a six-month bootcamp in 2020 is Lucy Ironmonger, a tech lead at fintech Zuto, who studied English with creative writing at the University of Birmingham 13 years earlier. While there, she found a bar job and, due to her love of music, seized the opportunity to run the establishment's music night every Tuesday.
Life has shifted in a way I couldn't have predicted - Ruff Puff Bakehouse and Ruff Puff Brownies have taken up so much of my time, but in the best possible way. They've reminded me of a talent I'd neglected, and given me a new respect for the craft that first set me on this path all those years ago,
After graduation, I applied for jobs in New York and got hired as an investment banking analyst. When I asked my boss if I could take one acting class a week, she told me I wasn't committed enough. Another time, as Hurricane Sandy approached and courier services were suspended, she insisted I hand-deliver a contract across the city. The group head ultimately suggested we fax it instead, sparing me the trip through the storm.
At Amazon, I was on the Amazon Q Developer team, building their AI coding assistant. You'd think being at the center of Amazon's AI developer tools would be exciting, but it was actually deeply frustrating. It was apparent to anyone outside the Amazon bubble that we were losing the AI game badly. The leadership was constantly playing catch-up because there was very little true product vision. They kept saying they wanted to move like a startup, but then had the risk tolerance of IBM.
"It's hard," Elyse said. "It's really, really, hard, ridiculously hard. You have to love it. For me, it's much easier than for some. I'm much happier doing those hard things, trying to find somewhere to live every month, figuring out travel arrangements and dealing with things like getting robbed at gunpoint. That's much easier and fulfilling than having a 9-to-5 job where I'm in one place all the time. Being in one place makes me feel like I am going to go insane."
In April, I went through my third tech layoff in two years, and it was the straw that broke the camel's back: I was leaving tech behind. I just got married this summer, and it made me think about what I want my life to look like in five or 10 years. I had thought about leaving tech to go into education before, but it was hard to justify leaving when I was making up to $110,00 a year with just a bachelor's degree.
I set aside extra money for my kids, mortgage, bills, and car payments. My original goal was to reach $12,000 in savings. That way, when I started my coaching business, I could jump right into it without affecting my family financially. I ultimately reached about $10,200 before my exit. I'm glad I did that because it gave me some peace, and I wasn't thrown into a scarcity mindset when I left.
Now, he's living in Seoul andbuilding a business that aims to create a community for the Korean diaspora like him. Getting here required leaving behind everything he knew. By his mid-20s, Cho felt like he could see exactly what the next 20 years of his life would look like. Good pay, long hours, and climbing the corporate ladder in finance. "I felt like a dead person," Cho, now 28, told Business Insider about his job at Goldman Sachs.
Living in Austin with its booming tech scene and rich culture significantly advanced my career. I found amazing opportunities and made wonderful friends in the city.
