This as-told-to essay is based on conversations with 49-year-old Damon Duncan, who is based in Atlanta. His identity and salary have been verified by Business Insider. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I was laid off from my job as a sales engineer in April 2023. That was the last job I had in my career field.

It’s now been over two years since I worked in the technical sales field. I took a couple of related roles after my company went through a merger, but was laid off for a second time in August 2024 and was unemployed until I took a drastic step back — both in position and pay.

I went from being a sales engineer, an architect, and an account executive to working at a consulting firm in an entry-level cold-calling job.

The majority of the people I work with are fresh out of college. When I sit with them in the common room, they’re like, “This is my first big boy job fresh out of college,” and I’m sitting here, almost 50 years old, with a child about to go to college.

It came with a massive pay cut

I am now making about one-third of what I made at my sales engineering job. At my former job, my base salary was $148,000, but now it is $52,000.

The layoff cost us a lot of money, and because of it, we don’t travel anymore. Our credit also took a massive hit during this time, and we weren’t able to cosign on a loan for our daughter to go to college. So she decided to take a gap year and start at a local tech school while she builds up savings and credit to be able to take out loans and transfer.

We’ve had to cancel a lot of services. Typically, we could hire somebody to do some of the bigger things, but now I have to do them on the weekend.

So now, instead of spending my weekends with my family, I spend them fixing things around the house, like rebuilding a staircase, working on cars, painting rooms, replacing light fixtures, AC plugs, light switches, and other such projects.

We couldn’t afford to fix my daughter’s car, so we had to get rid of it. Now we’re down to two cars instead of three. We have to carpool a lot, which isn’t a big deal, but it does inconvenience us from time to time. My company also required us to be back in the office, so now I have to drive an hour to work and back. So, I’m on the road two hours a day.

It has affected my family immensely.

I no longer understand the market

I am trying to get back into the field that supported me for the better part of 20 years, but nobody is hiring or interviewing me.

Since being laid off in 2023, I’ve applied to hundreds jobs. I did get one offer last year, but it was rescinded because of company changes. Other than that, I’ve had interviews, but I’ve never gotten to the acceptance round.

I still apply to anywhere between two and five jobs a day.

No matter what I do to my résumé or how much outreach I do, it feels like it doesn’t matter. I’ve been doing everything that they tell me to do, and I might as well be throwing darts at a piece of paper, hoping they land and don’t fall. I don’t understand the market anymore. It doesn’t make any sense.

I’m doing this job because I have bills to pay and I have to provide for a family. So, I’m kind of stuck where I am until I can hopefully find another job.

I have a feeling that people think I’m too expensive because of my experience or that I’m going to leave the minute I find something better. They don’t realize that I’m applying to the job not only because it’s a job in my field, but also because I see it as a possible career.

I don’t need a job. I’m not 20 years old anymore. I need a career. I’ve got three kids, one of whom is about to go to college and two more on the way. I got my daughters’ weddings to pay for in the future. I’m going to be working until I’m 80. I need a career that’s stable.

There may also be some ageism at play here. But the older people have the wisdom and the experience. They’re not sports bikes. They take time. And the older people like me, the Gen Xers, they’re willing to be scrappy and do the work. I’m working an entry-level job and I’ve got 24 years of experience. If that doesn’t prove how scrappy we are and how willing we are to get the job done and to work, I don’t know what does.

Have you struggled to find a job? We want to hear from you. Reach out to the reporter via email at aaltchek@insider.com or through the secure-messaging app Signal at aalt.19.