A Much-Needed Career Break

Written By Stephanie Mansueto

Around the six-year mark with my previous employer the growth I wanted just wasn’t there, and worse, I didn’t know what my next step would be. I sat in that comatose state for 2 years while I aggressively paid off my grad school loans and slogged my way through my daily tasks. I showed up, did the work, and while I continued to perform, you could hardly say I was present. I also started to become disgruntled with my job which was a disservice to my employer. Being a recruiter and career coach, I spend most of my days on LinkedIn and saw the onslaught of layoff posts from desperate, overqualified job seekers still searching for a job after months or even years of searching and interviewing. Many would happily do my job with a heap of gratitude.

My employer was good to me. I had work-life balance, my PTO requests were always accepted, my co-workers were enjoyable for the most part, BUT the opportunities I wanted for growth weren’t there; it had become a revolving door with company leadership; and I was starting to question the company culture and its sustainability. Why waste my and my employer’s time? The writing was on the wall – it was time to get out.

Further, my depressive situation with my job started to seep into my personal life. I wasn’t as motivated to hang out with friends, San Diego – one of the coolest and most beautiful cities in the country – became boring, and I would struggle to get out of bed for my usual weekend outdoor adventures. Things needed to change both personally and professionally.

A Series of A-Ha Moments

In August 2023, I took a two-week solo road trip from San Diego to the Pacific Northwest U.S. I camped, hiked, swam in lakes, walked through farmer’s markets and museums, visited old friends, and made new ones. I thought to myself, I want more of this. I also listened to Rick Rubin’s audio book, The Creative Act, which made me realize I could use more creative moments in my life, and my career. My career had become almost my entire identity and my life was functioning on auto pilot.

Shortly after my road trip, Molly Graham’s blog post How to take time off and use it well popped up in my LinkedIn feed. I consumed tons of podcasts and articles, and had many conversations about sabbaticals and career breaks over the next few months, and her post is still one of the best out there. I urge you to read it.

 Around the same time I had a conversation with a friend about taking a sabbatical when she asked me, “do you even want to go back to your job after your time off?” I couldn’t have responded “hell no” any faster.

Challenging Limiting Beliefs and a Cultural Reckoning with Career Breaks

I was raised by Baby Boomer parents with a scarcity mindset so having financial and job security was a paramount tenant in their parenting, and the fear of not having another job lined up triggered fears of failure, irresponsibility, and falling behind my peers who were leveling up and taking on leadership roles, buying bigger houses, and taking fancier vacations.

Would my resume be passed over by recruiters at the sight of an employment gap? Would they think I was another casualty of a recent layoff, or worse, that I was fired?

Early in my career, sabbaticals and career breaks were for senior professionals that needed to take a short break from work because of a personal or professional priority – a medical diagnosis, taking care of a sick family member, starting a side hustle, writing a book or publishing research. It was something you had to EARN and it had to be relatively short and NECESSARY, and with the understanding you would return to your job.  

Career breaks were viewed as a blemish on your resume that you hid or brushed under the rug during an interview. I certainly didn’t feel like I was deserving of one. At 40 did I really earn one? I don’t have kids, and generally, from the outside, my life is pretty easy, and my job was low stress. Who am I to be burnt out at this age? We often talk about career burnout but rarely do we talk about “boreout” – burnout from being underutilized and bored. After working several jobs at 60 hours/week in my 20s and early 30s, how could I walk away from the coveted 40 hrs/wk chill job? This is what we millennials have strived for. I’d be an idiot to give this up.

I had to do quite a bit of unlearning around the notion a career break had to be earned, and that some of life’s best pivots come from taking a leap of faith. It helped reading personal accounts from professionals in their 30s and 40s that took career breaks especially from childless women. I needed to hear and see other women like me doing the thing I wanted to, unapologetically.  The data also supports the normalization of career breaks: Sixty-two percent (62%) of employees have taken a career break, and eighty-four percent (84%) of millennials expect to take a career break.

The odd thing is, as a recruiter and career coach I saw and spoke with tons of candidates over the years who took career breaks and sabbaticals and never once did I think less of their capabilities or experience. Rather, I was impressed with their maturity and their ability to know when to prioritize their personal life over their career. I was impressed by the lessons learned and jealous of the experiences gained from these breaks. If I felt this way about complete strangers, why couldn’t I give myself the same latitude?

The Plan

Once I mentally committed to a break these were the questions I asked myself and became the basis for my plan:

  1. Did I want to take a sabbatical or did I want to leave my job and take a break before jumping into the next one?

    As mentioned previously, this was an easy question to answer. The circumstances at my current job made it easy for me to happily part ways with my current employer with much gratitude. I knew there were greener pastures ahead. A career break it was!

  2. What did I want to do with my time off?

    I knew I wanted to take a long road trip around the U.S. and do all the summer outdoor things (rock climbing, canyoneering, whitewater rafting, kayaking, hiking, and camping), so weather was a factor especially for those regions impacted by extreme heat and wildfires. I also wanted to leave lazy days for reading in the park, walking aimlessly around new cities and tiny towns, and going to the movies.

    I wanted to take six months off and leave six months for my job search for a total of one year not working full-time, but answering question three dictated I could only take four months off with a six-month job search. I would miss the summer weather window if I stayed at my job longer to save more money, so I made peace with a slightly shorter funemployment break. My state of mental health easily answered this question for me.

  3. How much would it cost and what’s my savings plan?

    I researched cost estimates for all the activities I wanted to do and the locations I wanted to spend time in and built in some buffer budget. I budgeted for private outdoor guides, Airbnbs in more remote areas to save costs on accommodations, increased my car gas budget since I would be doing a lot of driving, and padded my monthly budget with an additional 5% to account for any unexpected expenses.

    This took quite a bit of online research, but I love that stuff, so didn’t mind spending hours going through travel blogs, comparing prices of Airbnbs, and calling outdoor outfitters for quotes. It was an activity that motivated me on days I was struggling to stay motivated at my job.

    I took on additional coaching clients and consultant work to meet my savings target, and I built a small emergency fund that under no circumstances I was to tap into during my travels. It was to stay there in the event my job search took longer than six months.

    *Note: For me, since I’m single and childless and there are several cities I can relocate to, along with the fact I’m a job hunting coach, I felt comfortable with a six-month runway for my job search, but depending on your circumstances you may want to save enough for a one-year search, if possible, especially if layoffs have been prominent in your industry in the past year.

  4. What loose ends do I need to tie up before my break?

    For me, I needed to pay off my grad school loans, so I could embark on this next chapter debt free. I was close enough to paying them off that I made it a priority and a goal so I could breathe a little easier during my trip. I also knew I wanted to give up my apartment in San Diego and sell as much stuff as possible, so I didn’t have to worry about maintaining a home or renting out my place while I was gone.

    For many who plan to travel, this may entail hiring a property management company to rent out your house or enlisting a family member to look after your house, car, pets, etc.

  5. What conversations do I need to have and when?

    Part of my plan included heading back to my hometown and living with my parents  - a privilege I know not many have, but if you need assistance to make it happen, don’t be afraid to ask. When I spoke to my parents about my plan and my reason for taking a break, they were completely supportive of it. It’s also given me the opportunity to spend time with my aging parents without my siblings – a nice and memorable experience not many adult children get to have with their parents.  Even at our ages, we can still drive each other crazy if we spend too much time with each other. We both knew it would be temporary and that made everyone feel comfortable with the situation. 

    For many, this will include having conversations with spouses to ensure you have their support especially if you plan on temporarily going from a two-income household to one. If you plan to travel with your spouse, especially abroad you’ll want to think about home maintenance, and what to do with your car.

    I felt giving a month’s notice to my employer was fair. I had been with the company for almost eight years and I knew no love would be lost at my departure. Plus, work significantly slowed down and a month gave them enough time to start advertising and recruiting for my replacement and conduct a proper handover.

    I let my coaching clients know I would be on the road and provided them with my updated availability while I wrapped up remaining sessions. I updated my coaching website and LinkedIn profile letting any potential clients I wouldn’t be taking on new clients during my break. I chose not to share a network-wide LinkedIn post because I didn’t feel I needed to, but I actually should have. If you’re more of a public figure, you may want to notify your network more broadly of your break and departure from your employer, so you don’t leave people hanging with unread messages. If you have a paid LI membership you can set an away message. You should also do this with any work or business related emails and voicemails if you plan on completely signing off from professional communication during your break. I did occasionally sign onto LI during my break to accept connection requests.

Realizations and Lessons Learned

Disconnecting from my old life. I disconnected from my job quickly. I thought I would check-in with co-workers and login to LinkedIn to see what’s going on, but nope, I slammed my foot on the metaphorical gas and never looked back. Occasionally old colleagues reached out to say hello and I happily responded, but we didn’t do deep dives or have lengthy gossip sessions. I did, however, on some boring days log onto LinkedIn and accept connection requests and like the occasional post, but I never spent more than 10 minutes on the site. Don’t feel obligated to stay in contact with work colleagues if a complete break from work is what you seek.

The anti-optimization lifestyle.  The U.S. work culture is one of optimization which in the past decade has bled into our personal lives. The Andrew Huberman’s, Steven Bartlett’s, and David Goggin’s of the world are excellent mentors when you are in a phase of self-improvement, but optimization and productivity can be in direct conflict with exploration, risk, and creativity. At first I wanted to pack my days with long outdoor adventure activities, but I didn’t want to burn out from my career break, so I always left a few days in between more physically intense adventures. Many of the career break resources I consumed talk about having a goal for your break or sabbatical, which is essential, but if you’re taking a personal break due to burnout, I encourage people not to plan too much. Leave room for last minute inspiration, invitations, side quests, and pure laziness. That’s where the real magic happens.

Career clarity. Not everyone will gain career clarity from their break, but I certainly did. After 15+ years of working for companies, I want to strike out on my own and do career coaching full-time.  After listening to a podcast from NYU Professor, Scott Galloway, about going all in on your side hustle, I realized I want to help job seekers navigate hiring environments that have become convoluted, arduous, and time consuming. I always wondered where all my corporate experience would lead me and I didn’t think becoming my own boss would part of my career journey, but I feel good about this direction. I’ll also get to set my schedule – workout at 10 am, sign off at 4:00 pm or meet clients for a coaching session on a hike - and set my own performance goals - on my own time. With the increasing amount of layoffs, I also want to have control over my own job security.

Creative pursuits. My creative pursuits were put on the back burner during my “boreout” when I should’ve done the opposite and increased the amount of time doing things not tied to my livelihood. Writing, outdoor adventure, and photography are things I love to do and during my sabbatical I was able to do more of these things which felt like I got a part of my soul and identity back. It’s important to have interests outside of work not tied to a monetary outcome, and I had lost sight of that. Having real time off allowed me to prioritize things again.

Reintegration resistance. Don’t be surprised if you’re resistant to think about your career or engage in professional discussions when you get back. It’s why I recommend building in some transition time into your plan, so you can ease your way into your job search. This is especially true if you were traveling abroad and could use some time to reintegrate back into your home country’s culture, catch up with family and friends, and schedule doctor’s appointments. I had overspent in some areas of my budget which forced me to cut my break short by two weeks. It did allow me a bit more time transitioning back to work, which I hadn’t thought about during my initial planning.

How to talk about your break in an interview

Depending on the purpose for your time off you may or may not want to talk about it in an interview or mention the reason on your resume.

If the break was for a reason you feel could lead to bias in the candidate selection process, like medical treatment that is ongoing, then I recommend not mentioning specifics. Keep it short and to the point. Say it with confidence and don’t feel the need to elaborate.

“I really enjoyed my job but had some personal matters [or family priorities] that required more of my attention, so I needed to take extended time off, but everything is good now and I’m excited to get back to work.”

If you feel comfortable sharing your reason and feel you got something from the hiatus that sheds light on who you are as a person or professional then I recommend sharing what you gained from the break. You can also keep this brief without feeling the need to over explain yourself especially if the break is one year or less:

 “I was working 60+ hours for the past several years and there wasn’t room for growth so I decided it was a good time for a break so I could reset and think about my next career move.  I traveled to several countries on my bucket list: I took a sommelier class in France and learned I have no future in mechanics after my motorcycle broke down driving the Ho Chi Minh Highway in Vietnam. It was epic, and just what I needed. I also had the time to have several conversations with senior Directors and realized I wanted to focus more on corporate operations rather than just HR which led me to your company and this position.”

 If your break was personal and due to burnout, I do feel additional explanation is helpful to assure the interview panel that your break gave you the clarity and the rest you needed to enter a new job refreshed and motivated.

If your break was two or more years, I feel it’s essential to explain how you kept up with your network and industry over that time. Did you take any classes, attend conferences or workshops, and/or keep in contact with your network? The hiring panel may not be as comfortable hiring someone they have to do additional training with when they could hire someone with the most relevant and up-to-date skills. In a talent saturated market, you’ll be competing with folks that have more recent experience so a longer gap could hamper or delay your job search.

Just Do It!

No matter your reason for a break, I want to assure job seekers they are completely normal and hiring teams are used to seeing them on resumes and hearing about them in interviews. Good employers have a great appreciation for how dynamic the human experience is, and your career won’t always be the #1 priority in your life. Not one person I spoke with who took a career break regretted their time away from work and that’s a success rate you can’t argue with.

More Resources on Career Breaks and Sabbaticals

Stephanie Mansueto https://www.smcareercoach.com
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Lessons Learned From My Second Career Change