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This essay is Lucas FrischmannThe 34-year-old former Snap employee is from Los Angeles. Edited for length and clarity.
I completed a 3.5 year training as a media designer and engineer and have been working in tech since I was 15 years old.
I then began my career as a software engineer before holding various roles at Twitter (now X), Meta, and Snap. At Twitter, I was a Senior Product Manager from 2016-2017, and then at Meta, I held a Global Product and Program Management role for 4.5 years from 2017-2020.
I joined Snap as a technical project manager in May 2022 after three years of self-employment and was laid off in February. My feelings about being laid off quickly shifted from initial shock to recognizing opportunity.
We were finally able to stop, recharge, and realize travel dreams that had been put on hold due to the pandemic and previous commitments. The trip also reminded us of the importance of face-to-face social interaction in an increasingly digital age and sparked some new tech ideas.
I was informed of my dismissal during an early morning video call and left the country a week later.
My manager broke the news to me in an early morning video call. It felt like a dream come true, and my initial reaction was one of positive anticipation, even though the challenges my colleagues faced weighed heavily on me.
I had been hoping to take some time off for a long time, but since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has put my specific plans for an Asian tour on hold. Though it was scary, this layoff coincided with my long-held desire to explore and connect more deeply with the world with my wife, who is also experiencing a similar layoff from her job at Twitch.
We terminated our lease, stored everything, and left just a week and a half after receiving our termination notice.
Snap offered me severance pay, but I was ready for a change.
Thanks to advance planning and savings, we weren’t worried about immediate financial stability, job security, or even retirement itself.
Snap’s support was within industry standards and allowed us to embark on this journey of self-discovery and exploration shortly after receiving notice. We could not have quit so soon without the support of our friends in LA who helped us in many ways.
These friends helped us store our valuables in their homes, helped us move, checked in regularly to see how we were doing, and even let us know where we were staying before we left and when we should return.
Our travels have taken us to Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia, Korea, Italy, and European countries such as Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Each destination has been a journey of learning and exploration.
Traveling has broadened my perspective on the world, other cultures, and the way technology connects people.
Our trip was an opportunity to network, learn from diverse business cultures, and understand the global technology landscape.
For example, Bangkok offers a unique perspective on work-life balance and the pace of business that is quite different from experiences in the U.S. or Europe. The business culture there has a much more “laid back and go with the flow” feel, whereas in the U.S. there is a strong focus on execution, momentum, and getting business done more efficiently and quickly.
Currently, I provide my expertise and experience to companies facing technology, product, program, or operational challenges. I have been using this travel time to reflect and observe how people use and live with technology. Reflecting on our modern lifestyles, I realized how many people are “misusing” their smartphones.
Instead of using the internet to gain knowledge and improve their lives, people often waste their time on irrelevant content just for entertainment, which is generally not a bad thing, but it seems out of balance for most people.
My business idea — LATELINK — It was partly inspired by what I observed during my travels. It was wonderful to reunite with so many friends and see how paths change, but also very sad to realize how quickly we lose contact with old friends.
This travel period is not just a vacation, it’s a search for new adventures and opportunities.
While they initially wanted to build an app that would allow users to connect locally in places like coffee shops, they shifted their focus to building a kind of personalized customer relationship management (CRM) system that would help maintain meaningful relationships beyond social media and provide valuable tools for individuals as well as businesses.
Fewer and fewer people in my friend group are using social media, and my current project aims to maintain meaningful relationships through regular check-ins and updates.
The idea came to me when I was struggling to maintain all my connections: I met an old work colleague while traveling, and it turned out we had never met even though we had lived in the same city for two years.
Traveling has also helped me broaden my horizons and see the bigger picture, not just in the technology tunnel. For example, I am looking to invest in tourism real estate projects, something I never thought of before. My focus has been 100% on technology.
Looking back, I see this layoff as a crucial, positive turning point for me.
It was an opportunity to grow and explore, and it also allowed me to engage with the world in new ways, like going to a coffee shop during the week and talking to people.
Traveling with my wife has been challenging for both of us. We don’t have a formal plan, just a rough checklist that we try to complete for now, but that makes us adventurous and adaptable.
I am excited to see where this world and my own path of exploration will take me.
If you’ve been laid off from a tech company and would like to share your story, email Manseen Logan at mlogan@businessinsider.com.