《Tears! 40-year-old senior engineer unemployed, smoking in garage until dawn, afraid to go home💔》

A friend worked at the same company for 15 years, grinding from an inexperienced apprentice to a technical backbone, holding an intermediate engineer certificate and a first-class constructor certificate. He endured countless all-nighters and rushed project nights, thinking his technical skills would sustain him, only to be knocked back to square one by "optimization layoffs."

With 70-year-old parents needing medicine and medical care upstairs, and a third-year junior high school child needing tutoring fees downstairs, the monthly mortgage of over 4,000 is suffocating. Job hunting revealed that 40-year-old engineers have long been abandoned by the workplace—small companies think he's too old and expensive, large companies want young people who can work around the clock, and over a decade of professional expertise has become a "stumbling block."

Afraid to tell his parents about unemployment for fear it will make them sick; afraid to cry in front of his child, worried it will affect his exam preparation; can only sit in the garage with the lights off, smoking one cigarette after another, looking at job postings on his phone, feeling more and more panicked the more he looks. Some people advised him to "humble himself by delivering takeout or driving for ride-sharing services," but can over a decade of engineering skills really be discarded just like that?

Middle-aged men's helplessness is always swallowing broken teeth. At 40, unemployed—is resignation really the only option? Are there other 40+ engineers who lost their jobs? How did you transition, how did you get through?

Speaking of this, I really empathize. In less than a year, I also transitioned. I'm also an engineer, not particularly successful, but at least I took the step and implemented it! So I feel that the old saying "learn a trade and eat for life" no longer applies. No technology can sustain you forever. When people move, they live. Only by keeping pace with society's rhythm and finding new directions can we avoid being eliminated by society!