My inbox is filled with friends and colleagues looking to discuss life after Big Tech. It’s no surprise that older workers seem to be disproportionately affected by recent layoffs in Seattle as tech companies (Amazon, Meta, Expedia, etc.) are rolling out layoffs driven by over-hiring in the pandemic, the shift to AI and performance-related house cleaning.
Most 50-somethings who just got laid off from Amazon are in full frenzy mode. They are hit by the shock of a broken promise. They worked their butts off to get into Big Tech. They have been paid handsomely for 10, 20, or 30 years. And now they find themselves on a list and a Zoom meeting with an HR admin doing mass layoffs. Kids are in college or headed there at $60-100k per year. Health care costs are running $2-3k per month for the family. You stretched to buy that Seattle or Bellevue home with the $5-6k monthly payment. Aging parents need support. Your spouse is asking how he or she can help.
Panic. The instinct is to move fast, fill the calendar, make something happen. Send out resumes. Call back that recruiter from six months ago. Network like crazy. Hit LinkedIn. The adrenaline rush to figure it out right now.
My advice: Stop. Take a breath.
At 50+, this isn’t just another job transition. This may be your last chapter. You’ve got one more career opportunity and maybe 25-to-30 healthy years left, if you’re lucky.
Time is the most precious resource. Why would you spend any of them doing something that doesn’t light you up?
People come out of big tech companies — Amazon, Microsoft, Google — with incredible skills and experience. They can do almost anything. And that becomes the problem. When you can do anything, how do you choose?
Find the horizon with the Four Elements
Every business needs a strategy. You are now a “business of one.” It’s important to do the hard work to figure out where you want to go before you hit the road and start driving. There are many ways to determine your goals and priorities in life. I am a big fan of Career Coach Tim Butler from Harvard Business School and his latest book called “The Four Elements.”
The framework is simple but powerful:
Step 1: Find your flow
Think about three times in your career when you were completely engaged. Lost track of time. Felt like you were doing exactly what you were meant to do. Write down what made those moments special. Synthesize the commonalities into one sentence.
Step 2: Identify your signature skills
What were you particularly effective at? Not what your job description said you should be good at – what actually energized you and created impact? Think of three times when you were maximally effective. What patterns do you see?
Step 3: Define your ideal environment
Come up with five adjectives that describe where you feel at home at work. Then write the opposites. For me? Playful vs. Serious. Team vs. Individualistic. Mission Driven vs. Bureaucratic. Those polarities tell you a lot.
Step 4: Map your constraints (Horizons)
Who needs you right now? Spouse/kids/parents/siblings. What are your financial obligations? Mortgage/college/parents/children. What matters most in this next phase of life? Money? Giving back? Spirituality? Friendships? Travel?
Step 5: Brainstorm with AI
Take the data from Steps 1-4 and have a conversation with your favorite LLM. Mine is Claude, but this exercise works with ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot. I also uploaded the swaths of personality tests and work output that I have been most proud of in my career (strategies, business plans, presentations, execution reports). My personal project on Claude now knows me, my strengths and weaknesses better than anyone on the planet (save my wife ☺).
When I did this exercise and looked at my answers, a pattern emerged. I thrive in rapid-growth, high risk environments with strong teams, focused on customer value, with lots of freedom to experiment and execute. I need work that feels mission-critical. And at this stage, I want to work on things I’m curious about, with people I like, with a strong social purpose.
Career Sprints: Test before you commit
After you’ve done the soul searching, here’s the next part most people skip: run experiments.
I call them “career sprints.” Come up with a thesis – two or three directions you might want to go. Then figure out low-cost ways to test them before you commit to another five years.
Want to buy a home services business? Find someone who runs one and offer to work for free for three months. See if it actually gives you energy or if it just seemed like a good idea.
Thinking about working in retail? Same thing. Use your severance to do full-time work either free or paid and go deep enough to know if you’d want to spend the next five years doing it.
I did this in 2015. I got tired of selling ads and software in online real estate. I wanted to find my purpose. I thought maybe I wanted to work at a nonprofit, so I spent three months at a large homeless shelter. Loved the mission and the people. But the work? Too slow and not enough strategic execution. I felt like was just turning the crank and I wasn’t excited enough about the day-to-day work. Then I tried venture capital for six months (my third time in VC). VC involves lots of meetings, lots of ego, and lots of social events. Personally, I really like building new businesses and working with a team to charge the hill. I like being on the field and not on the sideline or in the owner’s box. So investing wasn’t a fit for me.
Those experiments saved me from making expensive and time-consuming mistakes. (Or at least making those mistakes as I have made plenty others).
At 50+, with kids launching and maybe 5-to-15 good working years left, you can’t afford to waste time on something that doesn’t energize you. You could probably slot back into a product management role without thinking too hard. You could go make bombs or drones. There’s demand for all of it.
But is that how you want to write your last chapter?
If you’re laid off at 50+, here’s what I’d do:
1. Take 30 days minimum (90 is better) to clear your brain
Don’t take meetings. Don’t send resumes. Don’t start networking. Don’t take that recruiter call. Just let yourself breathe. Give yourself the grace of not having it all figured out immediately.
2. Do the Four Elements exercise
Get the book or use the free exercises online. Upload your answers into Claude or ChatGPT and have a conversation about it. AI isn’t going to tell you what to do, but it’ll help you see patterns you might miss.
3. Come up with a thesis
Based on what you learned, what are 2-to-3 directions that actually excite you? Not what makes logical sense. What makes you want to wake up in the morning?
4. Run career sprints to test your thesis
Before you commit, find ways to experiment. Work for someone in that space for free. Shadow people. Get your hands dirty. See if it gives you energy or drains you.
5. Set the strategy, then get tactical
Once you know the direction, then you can update the resume and start networking with purpose.
When you’re 50+ and laid off, people treat it like a crisis.
You’ve been given a gift — the chance to reset, to choose differently, to not just optimize for salary and title but for meaning and energy and the kind of life you actually want to live. Take the time. Do the work. Figure out what chapter you want to write before you start writing it.
And if you found this helpful, consider reaching out to and helping a friend who has been laid off recently or is going through a hard transition.
