By Aaron Mok
Publication Date: 2026-04-07 12:00:00
When Patrick Ciriello lost his job and was unable to find work for almost a year, his family’s foundation collapsed.
“You hear about people who have hit rock bottom,” Ciriello told the Guardian. “Well, I was there.”
The 60-year-old, who has a master’s degree in information management, spent most of his career designing software systems for banks, universities and pharmaceutical companies. But a series of economic shocks – the dot.com crash, the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid pandemic – cost him jobs and sometimes forced him to dip into his savings and retirement funds. Each time he ended up finding a different role.
That changed in early 2023. After losing a job making industrial printer heads, Ciriello sent out hundreds of applications for IT support jobs, customer service positions and even a job in the deli counter at a local supermarket. He didn’t get a single offer.
Even before he lost his job, Ciriello, his wife, their 20-year-old son and their cat were living in motels…
