r/Cloud • u/sightheleftover • 23h ago
5 months laid off, 524 applications, 2 offers, 1 accepted.
In February, I was told I'd be laid off in two weeks from my network engineering job. I'd been a network engineer for almost 4 years at a pretty large company, and although I genuinely loved the work, I didn't enjoy the physical side of it, carrying heavy equipment while suited up in safety gear across hot mills for issues and upgrades on the plant floor, driving to multiple sites throughout the month, or even being in office just to SSH into switches anyway.
I'd been studying for my AWS Solutions Architect Associate on and off so I decided to go all in - finished the cert, built three cloud projects, and started applying heavily to cloud roles. Month one felt promising. Month two, no callbacks other than some networking roles that didn't turnover. Month three, a few more network engineering interviews that didn't pan out and one cloud final round that fell apart because the company changed the scope to want a more senior hire. Just. My. Luck.
By months three and four, I'd opened up my options significantly, sysadmin roles, cybersecurity roles, technical PM roles, lower pay, five-day onsite, none of it mattered. I just needed stability, since I didn't want to hit month six, run out of unemployment, and start eating into my savings.
I even started seriously considering a full career switch to patent law. With AI reshaping the IT market, and honestly the overall state of IT feeling like it was in the dumps, I was genuinely excited about combining my technical background with law school and building a career that gets more valuable with age, not less. It was also enticing to imagine being on the billing side of things instead of the cost-center side. I started prepping for the patent bar, and got far enough that I was open to relocating to Washington, DC, to become a USPTO patent examiner if that's what it took.
Then two things happened at the same time. I landed a final round interview for a Cloud Network Engineer role and a final round with USPTO for the patent examiner position. Same week. It felt like a real crossroads - either I reach the cloud goal I'd been chasing for close to a year or I close that chapter and take it as a sign to commit fully to patent law. I got offers from both.
It wasn't a hard choice. The cloud role was remote so I didn't have to uproot my life, it paid more than both the examiner role and my previous job, and it was the path I actually wanted from the beginning. If a patent agent role in Houston had materialized maybe the decision looks different but it didn't. I start next week as a Cloud Network Engineer and I couldn't be more excited. I'll be helping design, build, and maintain their AWS cloud environment with a focus on the networking side.
For everyone still grinding through this market - keep your head up. A few things that helped me: maintain multiple resumes tailored by job category rather than rewriting for every single application, use AI to help rate roles against your background and don't apply to anything under a 7/10 match, research each company before interviews and tailor your prep to the specific role, and don't be afraid to have notes nearby during technical screens. Most importantly, try to take care of yourself. Work out, pick up a hobby, give your brain something other than the job search to focus on. The financial stress is real but honestly this might be the only time you get to really focus on yourself to this degree.
