Has anyone else in Tech been laid off in the last 6 months and having trouble finding a new job? I have over 20 years with a telco company

How do you deal with the feeling that your entire professional output is meaningless? I’m watching my company ignore every single one of my user-centric findings. They pay me to conduct deep-dive interviews and usability tests, but at the end of the day, the CEO just goes with whatever gut feeling he had. It’s soul-crushing.

I’m a 35-year-old in Seattle, and I’m genuinely terrified that I’m already becoming too old for this industry. I looked around our all-hands meeting yesterday and realized that except for upper management, almost everyone on the engineering team is fresh out of college age. They can pull all-nighters without blinking, while my back hurts if I sit in the wrong chair for two hours. Are we all just silently sliding toward an expiration date once we hit our late 30s? How do you stay relevant?

I just referred my brother in law to the same team I’m on. HR told me that was against policy. I was shocked. Has anyone heard that before? Again, I just sent a referral link and email. I didn’t demand them to hire him. I won’t even be on the hiring process.

I’ve been WFH from a different country for three months without telling HR, and the anxiety is finally starting to eat me alive. My VPN is holding up, and my manager hasn't noticed that my home office background is just a stock photo. The tax implications are probably a nightmare, but my quality of life has doubled since I left the Bay Area. Is it better to ask for forgiveness if I get caught? Should I just keep going?