Three years ago, Daniel DePaolo was working as a software engineer on Sports Illustrated’s web team.
“The company was a pretty good size, pretty good benefits and pay, and I was like, wow, this is great,” he said. “Maybe I could support a family, maybe have a second kid, and live some sort of ideal American dream.”
It was a short-lived fantasy. Sports Illustrated went through a major layoff, but DePaolo landed on his feet at a startup a few months later. Then, after six months, he was laid off again. This time, it took longer to find a new job. He ended up in a position that he said burned him out. DePaolo decided to quit. It was a risk, but it in his 20-year career as a software engineer, there had always been work for people with coding skills…