After spending three decades at Hewlett-Packard (HP), May Lee had expected to continue working at the company for several more years. But when she was laid off, the sudden career setback pushed her to consider a completely different path, one that took her thousands of miles away to Antarctica.
Lee, 59, joined HP as an intern in 1987 and had planned to remain with the company for around five more years before the layoff changed her plans. In an as-told-to essay published by Business Insider, she described how an unsuccessful job search eventually led her to take up seasonal work in Antarctica.
