61-Year-Old Indian-American Software Engineer Starts GoFundMe for Rent: The Dark Side of Tech Layoffs
IIT Graduate, 20+ Years in IT, Now Can’t Pay Rent in the US — What Went Wrong? A 61-year-old software engineer with more than two decades of experience is now struggling to pay rent in Dallas. He started a GoFundMe, and he is seriously considering leaving the United States. How did a former tech professional reach this point? This is the story of Gautam Dev, a former techie from Dallas whose decision to quit his job in 2024 turned into a nearly two-year battle to find full-time work. His experience raises difficult questions about age, employment gaps, and job security in today’s tech market. In 2024, Gautam was working as a software engineer for an IT company in Dallas. He was told that he would have to relocate to another state to keep his job. That September, he made a choice many of us might understand: he resigned, decided to stay in Dallas, and began looking for a new role. At the time, it probably felt like a manageable career transition. But he later described that decisio...