Career breaks

Down-sizing and career breaks have become increasingly more common in the 30's and upwards age groups in recent years. I have spent much of the last thirteen years working in the financial markets in London and in the last five years have seen two colleagues permanently leave very senior positions, one to set up as a photographer and the other moved to Cornwall to work on boats. Quite a change from their city jobs but both felt it was the right thing ...
...do something less permanent, a career break could be an option. I did this in 2004 and my review is based on my own experience.

==Objectives==

It is not wise to rush into a decision to take a career break, not least because of the temporary drying up of regular funds that you will need to ensure you are financially prepared for. So before you do anything else make sure you have the finances sorted, a clear reason for ... more

Down-sizing and career breaks have become increasingly more common in the 30's and upwards age groups in recent years. I have spent much of the last thirteen years working in the financial markets in London and in the last five years have seen two colleagues permanently leave very senior positions, one to set up as a photographer and the other moved to Cornwall to work on boats. Quite a change from their city jobs but both felt it was the right thing to do for themselves and their families. For those who would like or need to do something less permanent, a career break could be an option. I did this in 2004 and my review is based on my own experience.

Objectives

It is not wise to rush into a decision to take a career break, not least because of the temporary drying up of regular funds that you will need to ensure you are financially prepared for. So before you do anything else make sure you have the finances sorted, a clear reason for taking a break and a plan as to what you will do with the time out. One of the obvious first questions if you are not happy at work is can you fix your dissatisfaction more easily by finding a new job or company. If the answer is definitely no and you still want to take a longer break, then you now need to decide what will you do with this time. This could include: travel, study, re-training, time with family, voluntary work or a major project around the house. When you are trying to get back onto the career ladder later, it will be far easier if you can demonstrate that you have used this time constructively. I decided to use my time out to go travelling, but more of that later.

Sabbatical or Resignation

If you work for a larger company then it is possible they will have a sabbatical scheme, whereby employees who have been with the company a certain length of time can apply for unpaid extended leave. My own company had such a scheme, open to employees with over five years service and granting up to 6 months leave if you and your manager can demonstrate how your work will be covered. The advantages to this are fairly obvious, you know where you will stand when you get home and have less financial worries. Six months after I took my career break, a friend working elsewhere decided to take the plunge and she did this as a sabbatical, which worked for her and her company.

I did not attempt to take advantage of the sabbatical scheme my own company had. I had been an employee for seven years and the first five were fantastic, but corporate re-structuring came along, people I liked left and although I stayed another two years out of loyalty I finally realised that I would never be as happy there as I once had been. It was the end of the road. As the last two years had been quite draining, I simply did not feel able to step right back onto the career ladder, I wanted to recharge my batteries and realised that this would be the best opportunity for a long time to indulge my passion for travelling, for more than two weeks at a time.

Before taking the plunge and resigning however, I sought out advice from a number of people including colleagues, family, friends and recruitment consultants. In the case of the latter, I was particularly interested to obtain a number of opinions on how a break might be perceived on my CV, what the job market was like at that time and how they anticipated it to be on my scheduled return six months later. The answer was typically that a career break would neither damage nor enhance my CV, but that I was in the good position of being well established in my field and was not starting out. I also had it confirmed that the job market for accountants was better than it had been the few years previously and that my planned return at the beginning of the year could not be better. Obviously, were I to ask the same question in these credit cunching times, the answer could be very different.

Not being independently wealthy and being career conscious, if the answer had been something different for me it might have made me feel more cautious. One individual I met travelling (now my husband) experienced great difficulty in getting back into his field, software development, when he returned. In the end he had to change career, but this proved to be to his advantage as he loves his new career as a Catastrophe Analyst, utilises his old skills extensively and less than a year into his new career he was delighted to be offered a job in Bermuda (which he accepted).

Practical planning

A good and obvious starting point is the budget. I did not intend to work as I travelled so for me this boiled down to how much spare money do I have and how long can I make it last. A gap year student perhaps only needs to think about expenses during the trip, but it was not so straightforward for me as a homeowner and not living or wishing to live with parents at any point.

I won't go through my budget planning process in detail, suffice to say that it included consideration of the following: continuing mortgage payments and household bills, living expenses in UK between finishing work and leaving the country, international flights, an approximate number of regional flights, X nights accommodation overseas, living expenses overseas and living expenses in the UK upon my return for an unknown period of time, I estimated a few months to get back into work. I did research to come up with reasonable estimates for regional flight prices and average living costs in the countries I planned to visit.

Based on the finances, my research and also my own preference, I decided to take at least six months off work and spend four of these travelling. With hindsight, I could have travelled a bit longer as I found a new job very quickly, but I did not know this would be the case and was anxious not to use up my entire savings in the process.

After my last day at work I allowed myself six weeks for planning the trip and also for sorting out my affairs at home. My priority was to ensure that my property would be looked after, as I was only going to be away for four months it did not make sense to rent it out as I would have the hassle of putting my own belongings into storage and there was no guarantee of finding a short term tenant anyway. Also it was my home and I just did not want anybody else in it.

I found the following steps to be adequate in taking care of my property related issues. I made sure that I had a standing order set up to keep power connected but I terminated my phone line after checking that I could keep the same number when I wanted to get reconnected. I was already paying council tax and my maintenance charge (leasehold flat) by direct debit / standing order. I decided not to set the heating to come on at all whilst I was away as the flat has adjacent flats on all sides and never gets very cold so no risk of pipes freezing, I was also travelling September to December so not the coldest part of the year anyway.

In case of emergencies and also for the occasional check, I left spare keys with my sister and also with a neighbour, what with the flat being in London and my sister living in Scotland. I knew that my sister would be staying in the flat one weekend whilst I was away so would be able to check it over then too. I arranged to have my mail redirected to my sister whilst I was away, this is easy to set up with some proof or identification and address and it worked to a point although as she might testify, it proved difficult to get the redirection ended once I was back! I had neighbours keep an eye on my mailbox for anything that slipped through the net and also to remove flyers to avoid the mailbox spilling over.

Other direct debits set up for whilst I was travelling were with my credit card companies, to take full payment each month automatically as I planned to use my credit cards for much of the trip.

My travelling

As this isn't a travel review I won't describe any of the places I visited but rather my planning, thinking and experiences as a single female traveller. The first decision I was faced with was where to go, there are several countries I wanted to see in Asia and several more in South America and at first I considered going to both continents. I soon realised that within the timeframe of the overall trip I would be moving every few days to get through all the places I wanted to see. I didn't want to be doing this for four months, I wanted to ensure that I had time to settle into certain places along the way, unpack completely and live the place a little. My decision to focus upon Asia was brought about because there were perhaps slightly more countries in Asia that I wanted to see and also because as this was my first big trip by myself, I felt that Asia was a safer continent for a lone female traveller.

Many people that decide to do a trip like this do little planning in advance beyond having a vague idea of what countries they wish to visit. This is not a bad approach, however I love planning trips and as I had six weeks in which to do it, I planned out my route quite carefully in advance and I had good ideas about what dates I would move on from country to country. I decided to start in Beijing, criss cross my way southwards through China, down to Hong Kong and then follow a circuit round South East Asia before my final stop in Thailand.

I think my route made good sense, it enabled me to minimise the travel time between countries and as I don't like long haul economy flights, I was able to book a relatively cheap open jaw business class ticket from the UK to Beijing but back from Bangkok. My treat to myself. If I were doing the trip again, I would probably not plan quite so much in advance. I did change my plans a couple of times, I grew exhausted by China and decided to go to Hong Kong a few days early and I also took a detour to Bali to meet up with an old school-friend. I found it very easy to book everything in Asia, there seems to be much more availability everywhere and fares are generally more flexible, hence no need for the over-planning.

Many of my fellow travellers would not book any accommodation and instead look for it when they arrive. I had booked some accommodation before I left the UK, in particular my accommodation in China for when I first arrived. Generally though I would book accommodation via the internet a few days before I was due to arrive somewhere. My personal choice is to have a destination in mind when I arrive in a new location.

Coming home

I had read that coming home can be a little depressing after all the excitement of the travelling. To combat this I decided to return home a few days before Christmas and it was an excellent decision as I was excited to be home and enjoyed catching up with people in the midst of the festivities. It also meant I could consciously decide not to concern myself with looking for a new job for a couple of weeks and I made this my New Year task.

In the first week of January, I started to call the recruitment agencies. I set up four meetings that week, dusted down the suit and eased myself back into the routine of heading into the city with the other suits. I was not flooded with potential suitable jobs, however I was told of two or three and in fact the one that I was told about during my very first recruitment agency meeting was the one I got, accepted and was at a higher level and salary than the job I had left. With the security of having this in the bag, I asked for a few weeks more off before starting and rejoined the workforce mid-February.

In most other respects, I picked up where I left off.

My thoughts

I did not take a gap year either between A levels and university or between university and work and so am probably biased towards the advantages of travelling later on. Nevertheless my personal view is that 18 is very young to be setting off on such an adventure and perhaps a few more years of life experience, in particular living away from parents might be a good idea first.

Travelling in early 20's seems a better option and I think it is the ideal age to meet lots of other like-minded people and have a memorable and rewarding life experience. But if you are interested in career (and I am not saying everybody should be) then I don't agree with the particular and common view (amongst students) that travel will enhance the CV. Speaking as a professional with considerable involvement in recruitment over the years, I would say the opposite. I would be quite wary of somebody just back from travelling with no career track record, as I would question their dedication and wonder if they are just saving up for the next trip, a lot of employers will think this way.

In some respects I think travelling as a 30-something was harder as it is less common and so not as easy to find like-minded companions. As I didn't want to stay in back-packer places I did not fall in, hang out and end up travelling around with a huge crowd of people, although if I had wanted to, the easy thing to do would have been to downgrade my accommodation a little! Instead my trip was about culture, history, local people and seeing places that I wanted to see. But I met various travellers along the way (including my now husband who I met at a bus stop in a village in Cambodia) and never felt lonely even when alone. I personally find I am more resourceful, confident and happier in my own company than I was in my 20's and this was a vital factor in my trip's success.

I will always remember my career break, I feel like I earned it after 12 years and no matter what I go on to achieve in my career, I don't think I will ever be as proud as I am for having my little four month adventure by myself in Asia.

First published on dooyoo as Cat19 

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