This as-told-to essay is based on an interview with Nerine Mak, a 33-year-old former senior commercial counsel for TikTok who’s traveling the world on a motorbike. It has been edited for length and clarity
I’m the eldest of five children. Our house was full of sibling squabbles, lots of negotiation, and mediation, which is probably why I joined the school debating team. A legal degree was a natural progression.
I moved to Australia for college, then returned to Singapore, where I began working as a legal counsel at Ernst & Young in April 2017.
Eighteen months later, I became the regional legal counsel for Sephora. I’d only been there for nine months when, in July 2019, a TikTok recruiter approached me.
I stayed at TikTok until I turned 30, when I quit to travel the world on a motorbike.
I wasn’t looking for a new role
I decided to go and meet them for interview practice. I knew TikTok was a social media app, but that was about it. When I found out that ByteDance was a major tech company with educational and B2B products, as well as TikTok, I was seriously impressed.
I interviewed for a legal counsel role that’d support the revenue-generating business in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Within 48 hours, the recruiter called me to say I’d passed the first interview, and my second interview would be the next day.
I started taking the process very seriously.
Over the next three weeks, I had five rigorous rounds of interviews
My first interview was with the hiring manager, then I was interviewed by three people from different business units, and finally, my last interview was with an HR member.
I was still learning a lot at Sephora and wasn’t ready to leave, but the opportunity at TikTok was just so appealing.
When I told my parents I was going to work for TikTok, my dad didn’t really have that much confidence in the company. Initially, I was nervous about the idea of joining, too, because when I asked about my specific job scope, it was still rather unknown.
I joined TikTok in November 2019 at age 26
I received a welcome pack with backpacks, laptop bags, stickers, and stationery.
At the time, we were working in a coworking space. In my previous roles at Sephora and EY, we collaborated, but at TikTok, the collabs were more dynamic, frequent, and face-to-face.
My day-to-day involved more meetings, whereas in my earlier roles, independent work carried greater weight.
I thought there wasn’t enough structure, but I learned to appreciate the flexibility
Each day, I’d have meetings from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., then I’d still have up to three hours of work left before I finished for the day.
The most challenging year I had was 2021. One of my projects was to launch the TikTok Shop in Indonesia. It was the first to launch globally, so countries like the UK and the US saw my project as the blueprint.
I burned out at least three times that year. Of course, it was very rewarding once launched and turned out to be very successful. My team grew to 10 lawyers, and we’d have weekly catch-ups on ByteDance’s all-in-one platform, Lark.
Long before I joined TikTok, I knew I would leave
At 23, I told myself I’d leave my job by 30 to pursue my own growth and discovery. I knew that traveling the world would give me the kind of life lessons my job couldn’t give.
After 18 months, I started playing around with the idea of van life. In March 2021, a friend referred me to a mechanic, Haren, whom he knew and who could share some car maintenance tips.
Haren and I started dating and decided to travel together. Within three months, I decided to swap the van for a motorbike, and we agreed to leave our jobs and ride off-road bikes from Singapore to Europe.
In August 2023, after four years, I resigned from TikTok
I left in November 2023. At first, they tried to talk me out of leaving, but I was transparent about my dream of exploring the world. We made sure we had a solid budget, so we didn’t have to worry while traveling.
Two months before we were about to leave, my father said, “I’ve bought a bike and Mummy and I are coming too.” They decided to ride from Singapore to Germany and meet us on the way.
Haren and I set off on January 20, 2024, at 5:30 a.m. I couldn’t sleep the night before. When I woke up, my family prepared a farewell party, and our friends arrived on bikes to ride with us to the border.
My parents joined us on May 5, 2024, on the border of Laos and China. We traveled through China together and then met up again in Poland to travel through the Baltics before we rode to Norway. They’re now back in Singapore.
We’re now in Africa
We’ve now ridden off-road from Singapore through China and across Afghanistan.
My day involves leaving the guest house by 11 a.m., riding for two hours, and going sightseeing during our lunch hour. We usually stop riding just before sunset.
We try not to be rigid with our plans because a lot of the joy and surprises we get come from interacting with locals. They’ll invite us into their homes for dinner or to their farms to ride on their horses.
I can see why people would say it’s a pity I left TikTok
It was a very promising role, but I knew I had to do this for myself. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is to be optimistic. Your closest people might have doubts about your plans, but you have to follow your heart.
I’ve been taking on ad hoc legal work for friends who have small businesses. We plan to travel through February, then park our bikes for the next eight months due to family commitments. I’m also thinking of taking this opportunity to get either full-time or part-time legal work.
I would still like to grow my legal skills. That would be a way to bring in income to fund future journeys as well. The freedom I get on two wheels is my passion and will stick with me for the rest of my life.
