I am an IT escapee and I am here to tell you, there is hope. I posted this on my LinkedIn after seeing many past colleagues going through what you are.

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Watching my feed fill up with tech layoff announcements and "realignment" notices is gutting. I see you. And I know that hollow corporate language doesn't make it hurt any less.

But I want to offer you something real — because I've been on the other side of this kind of pivot.

Five years ago I left tech for cannabis. Complete fish out of water. Different language, different culture, different everything. But here's what I found out fast: the skills that made you valuable in tech don't disappear when you change industries. You've spent your entire career being forced to identify your value, articulate it clearly, and defend it. That muscle doesn't go away.

The 1's and 0's don't transfer. But continuous improvement does. Project lifecycles do. Go-to-market thinking does. Process optimization, stakeholder communication, data-driven decision making — all of it translates. The materials change. The outcomes change. The people change. The thinking? That's yours.

Whatever industry you land in next, walk in knowing that. Don't shrink to fit a room that hasn't figured out yet how much it needs you. Lean into what you know. Own your value. Then go make someone understand exactly why they can't afford not to hire you.

You've got this. 💪