I was laid off after 25 years at Adobe. After a soul-sucking tech job search, I became a school bus driver.

James Strawn made a career pivot into school bus driving after a tough job search for tech work.

Courtesy of James Strawn James Strawn was laid off after 25 years at Adobe.

He looked for tech jobs, but once unemployment benefits stopped, he broadened his search.

He made a career pivot to driving a school bus for at least a year.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with James Strawn, a 56-year-old former senior software quality engineer in Colorado, who worked at Adobe for 25 years before being laid off in June 2025.

After a difficult job search , he landed on a completely new career path: being a school bus driver.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I had every intention of retiring from Adobe on my own terms, aiming for age 59 ½.

I always pictured what I would say at my retirement event.

Adobe had other plans.

I worked at the company for 25 years For the first eight years, I worked at the headquarters in San Jose.

I was hired in 2000 as a contractor, and they made me a regular employee later that year.

In 2008, the company let me work remotely, so I moved to the Colorado home that I'm still in.

It was a good job, one that I loved most of the time.