McLean Connection

Shallon Elizabeth Brown, who holds a doctorate in information systems engineering, is the author of “Impossibly Hard: What’s Driving High Turnover in Tech?” The Reston resident’s book, released Feb. 22, examines the systemic forces behind industry job losses and their hidden costs.

In a Feb. 20 interview with The Connection, Brown said she never envisioned that her “career insurance” — including 22 years of experience and a Ph.D. — wouldn't prevent her from cycling through jobs and depleting her savings. She said that a “lucrative” career in IT promises great salaries, prestige and independence, but there are real risks.

Brown, a former chief technology officer at North Studio and consultant to the IRS, Johns Hopkins

University and the U.S. Department of Education, said she wishes someone told her 20 years ago that tech isn’t a stable, lifelong career path. The reality of constant churn is something she clearly didn’t anticipate when she entered the field. She didn’t know about the financial precarity despite high salaries, the mental health strain and burnout, the unequal impact on women and minorities, the opaque, AI-driven hiring wall and the constant skill pressure.

“I live alone with the dog. I lose my job in a contract, unemployment doesn’t cover 50% of it. I’m bankrupt and go back to live with my parents. I’m 42 years old,” Brown said.

Brown once assumed tech would be like other highly skilled fields — a long-term, stable career without mass layoffs. She expected the Reston-Fairfax region, the "Silicon Valley of the East," especially the Dulles technology corridor, to be the place where her tech career would finally be secure.

“What attracted me to this area was the tech and all that comes with that … and I don’t see a sustainable future here, because of the affordability crisis and because of the high turnover in tech,” Brown said. “And this ‘despite doing everything right.’”

Brown rattled off her data points: The job turnover rate among software engineers stands at 69%. “They will leave the current job they’re in within two years or less,” she said. As for the likelihood of unemployment, “As a result of that, one out of every two of us will find ourselves on unemployment in any given year.”

She connected points about women and minorities, especially Black workers leaving the tech field. “Seven out of 10 women now that get into tech will not stay there more than 10 years. They will switch fields because it is so intense,” Brown said.

She spoke about her own career volatility. “I’ve worked at 54 web companies … over the course of my 22 years,” Brown said. 

She contrasted Black representation in the population with that in tech. “Tech right now, on average … African Americans… we are 13.3% of the population. We are less than 3.7% of the technology field, and that includes here in Reston and Fairfax. And I find that appalling …”

Brown stressed heavily that it is not a talent problem but an opportunity problem. Instability falls hardest on women and Black workers. Women are often pushed out within a decade, she said, and Black workers are both severely underrepresented and more likely to be laid off or left behind because they may lack the informal networks that can protect others.

Tenures are tied to the “buddy system.” 

“If you’ve been in an underserved community, you don’t have… a lot of those bindings. You weren’t on the golf course … with the director … so you don’t have those entrapments to keep you glued, or … to quickly find something else comparable,” Brown said.

Brown believes the general public and even elected officials’ unawareness of tech’s instability is the issue. She believes the first step is to make both insiders and outsiders understand how extreme turnover and instability in tech jobs have become, and how they affect mental health, families and communities.

Second, she says, there must be policy and safety-net changes. She argues that unemployment no longer covers basic living costs in places like Fairfax County and says the system must be strengthened to keep pace with today’s churn. “I really think we need to strengthen the unemployment system and make it a priority, because if you don’t, then success is going to be a fleeting memory for a lot of us here,” Brown said.

Third, Brown calls for reforms around contracting, hiring and AI. There is an overreliance on short-term contracting or gig-style work that bakes in instability, she says. The use of AI in hiring can block qualified people — especially recent grads — from even getting through online filters. Implicitly, she argues for more humane, less automated and more equitable hiring and employment practices with real, not “fluff,” DEI and opportunity-building. Most importantly, Brown wants to equip students entering tech with realistic knowledge.

Brown called her book a “survival guide.” She said job instability is not a personal failure; it is built into the system. Tech employees absolutely must learn to collect references early, prepare for frequent job changes and protect themselves, financially and mentally. According to Brown, “We’ve got some of the highest rates of mental health crises, we've got some of the highest suicide rates. We’ve got some of the highest burnout factor rates.”

Brown said she is scheduling events and book signings. “Impossibly Hard” is available on Amazon.