Manual QA, about to be laid off. Next steps?
I have about 15 years in at my current company, and some of us are being let go soon. Primarily a cost saving exercise. It's a manual testing role, and 100% wfh. Make approx 90k/yr. 100% manual testing at the moment, although we've slowly started incorporating some Python scripting into the mix to automate some aspects. I'm also responsible for developing test plan documentation as well.
I'm quickly approaching 50, and not sure I'm excited to continue in a QA role somewhere else for the next 15-20 years. It's not that I'm opposed to it, but not sure what other avenues I could explore either while keeping a similar salary, and ideally, the flexibility of wfh and a new overall challenge. My wife works in a hospital, and I have a 7 year old in 2nd grade, along with a 3 year old in daycare, so the wfh has been a lifesaver with regard to drop off and pick up of those two. Neither of us has any remaining family that could help in that regard.
Technical writing perhaps, although I think I'd get bored quick doing that.
I have some very limited Python experience, but it's pretty basic. I did some work with VB 20 years ago, but honestly, I've forgotten all of that at this point, so my dev background is exteremely thin. Admittedly, nobody saw this coming, and stupid me for not taking initiative to learn new skills, but I was naive, and complacent. Overall, I was always treated fairly, and the flexibility were the two things that really drove the complacency.
In essence, I am not sure I have much of a choice, but to hope I can find a manual QA role somewhere else, at least in the short-term, and try and develop some skills in the interim to make a jump somewhere else at a later point, but figured I'd toss the question out there to see if there are some avenues or ideas I haven't thought of yet.
Not really sure how much time I have left...nobody really knows at this point yet. Could be until the end of 2025, or could be within the next 3-4 months. We're supposed to be given some more guidance in the next couple weeks in that regard.