While the artificial intelligence (AI) boom continues to heat up, some tech professionals who once commanded annual salaries of $300,000 to $400,000 now find themselves struggling to land a job. Some have submitted 120 resumes over two months without receiving a single offer; others, such as a Chinese couple—both PhD holders—have faced successive layoffs. Formerly employed by high-tech companies, they are now forced to seek new career paths, with the wife primarily staying home to care for their children.
According to a report by the California Post, Yang Jin, a PhD in biology, was laid off by a biotechnology company in 2024. Her subsequent job applications to dozens of companies yielded no response. Yang noted that while the initial assumption was that one could simply find a new job in the same field after a layoff, the reality proved far more complex; employment gaps on a resume make the job search significantly harder.
Yang observed that laboratory work in the biotech sector is increasingly affected by automation. She described how robotic arms can now perform manual tasks previously handled by humans, reducing the demand for personnel. Currently, Yang stays home to care for her children while teaching herself to develop AI applications, hoping this will lead to a new career direction.
Her husband, Xingtao Zhao, holds a PhD in machine learning and worked as a software engineer at Google for over a decade. Feeling he could not remain in the same environment or comfort zone indefinitely, he left Google to join an augmented reality (AR) startup, only to be laid off later. Zhao targeted companies specializing in autonomous driving and AI models, undergoing 10 to 20 interviews, yet none resulted in a job offer.
Today, Zhao leverages his AI expertise to engage in quantitative stock trading. He collaborates with a long-time friend—who also faced a layoff and possesses financial industry experience—with the friend handling trading strategies while Zhao builds the models. As AI coding tools become widespread and more people enter the field of quantitative trading, Zhao’s competitive edge has begun to narrow; nevertheless, he remains optimistic, believing that while AI may eliminate many traditional jobs, it will also create new opportunities.
This Chinese couple is not alone; other highly educated tech professionals are facing similar predicaments. A machine learning PhD holder left Amazon to launch a startup, only to see the venture fail. Faced with the prospect of re-entering the job market, the scientist—who requested anonymity—submitted 120 applications over two months without receiving a single job offer. One company even put him through six rounds of interviews before ultimately rejecting him.
The scientist noted that he has children to support and a monthly mortgage to pay; his savings would last only a year, and the family currently relies on his wife’s job for health insurance. His wife has suggested that if he remains unemployed, they will need to apply for social assistance. Former Google employee Basem Istanbouli pointed out that while the public often assumes tech workers receive hefty severance packages after layoffs, his own payout was modest. He stated that without a partner to share living expenses, he would not have been able to afford to continue living in his current city.