Career break

[UCGal]

[quote=kev374]My situation, no debts, mortgages, loans or any other commitments, single, no kids.

Work in IT (Sr. Java) with a decade+ of experience. Got laid off 2 wks ago in a brand new job I started, was there just for a month and the company had financial troubles from decreasing revenues..hmm.

Thinking of taking a year off, 6 months traveling middle east/africa/s.e. asia and 6 months in spanish language school as i’ve always wanted to work on my spanish to gain fluency.

Do have savings to tide me over when I get back.[/quote]
I see no downside.

I have a friend who was burnt out at her job and had no mortgage, etc. She arranged to be part of the next layoff – and then spent a year travel/volunteering before picking up her new career. She started with an intensive spanish course in Madrid – then saw a bit more of Europe, then started the volunteering part of her year… South America. She arranged to volunteer for schools/food banks, etc in exchange for accomodations at host families. When she finished that portion she headed to Australia and New Zealand.

It worked for her to stretch her budget AND have more interaction with locals to do the volunteer/host family thing. Her typical volunteer commitments were pretty low hours – allowing her lots of time to explore the area in depth.

Here’s the blog from her travels…
http://staceybai.blogspot.com/

[UCGal]

[quote=sdrealtor]I just passed on a 2 week trip to Elba and Cinque Terra. Not that I couldnt take a career break but I cant take that long away from my children. If you can swing it, go for it![/quote]
Why not take them with you? We took the kids (then age 4 and 6) to Italy in 2007 and will be taking them again in 2011.

[UCGal]

[quote=sdrealtor]I just passed on a 2 week trip to Elba and Cinque Terra. Not that I couldnt take a career break but I cant take that long away from my children. If you can swing it, go for it![/quote]
Why not take them with you? We took the kids (then age 4 and 6) to Italy in 2007 and will be taking them again in 2011.

[UCGal]

[quote=sdrealtor]I just passed on a 2 week trip to Elba and Cinque Terra. Not that I couldnt take a career break but I cant take that long away from my children. If you can swing it, go for it![/quote]
Why not take them with you? We took the kids (then age 4 and 6) to Italy in 2007 and will be taking them again in 2011.

[UCGal]

[quote=sdrealtor]I just passed on a 2 week trip to Elba and Cinque Terra. Not that I couldnt take a career break but I cant take that long away from my children. If you can swing it, go for it![/quote]
Why not take them with you? We took the kids (then age 4 and 6) to Italy in 2007 and will be taking them again in 2011.

[UCGal]

[quote=sdrealtor]I just passed on a 2 week trip to Elba and Cinque Terra. Not that I couldnt take a career break but I cant take that long away from my children. If you can swing it, go for it![/quote]
Why not take them with you? We took the kids (then age 4 and 6) to Italy in 2007 and will be taking them again in 2011.

[Anonymous]

[quote=kcal09][quote=kev374]My situation, no debts, mortgages, loans or any other commitments, single, no kids.

Work in IT (Sr. Java) with a decade+ of experience. Got laid off 2 wks ago in a brand new job I started, was there just for a month and the company had financial troubles from decreasing revenues..hmm.

Thinking of taking a year off, 6 months traveling middle east/africa/s.e. asia and 6 months in spanish language school as i’ve always wanted to work on my spanish to gain fluency.

Do have savings to tide me over when I get back.[/quote]

Wow, nice! Go for it-it will be great experience.[/quote]

go for it! lots lots of good insight to many of the comments. as for worry about that employment gap…just tell people what you did and why. some will be interested in your story and that alone might aid you into a new job…before you leave make sure you get ‘linkedin’ so you have your contacts set and you dont forget who they might be by the time you get back. when you get back hit those contacts for new work.

i helped hire a guy w/ a gap. made enough money to take a few years off. i was jealous! that gap wasnt an issue. his skills completely overrode that gap.

good luck!

[Anonymous]

[quote=kcal09][quote=kev374]My situation, no debts, mortgages, loans or any other commitments, single, no kids.

Work in IT (Sr. Java) with a decade+ of experience. Got laid off 2 wks ago in a brand new job I started, was there just for a month and the company had financial troubles from decreasing revenues..hmm.

Thinking of taking a year off, 6 months traveling middle east/africa/s.e. asia and 6 months in spanish language school as i’ve always wanted to work on my spanish to gain fluency.

Do have savings to tide me over when I get back.[/quote]

Wow, nice! Go for it-it will be great experience.[/quote]

go for it! lots lots of good insight to many of the comments. as for worry about that employment gap…just tell people what you did and why. some will be interested in your story and that alone might aid you into a new job…before you leave make sure you get ‘linkedin’ so you have your contacts set and you dont forget who they might be by the time you get back. when you get back hit those contacts for new work.

i helped hire a guy w/ a gap. made enough money to take a few years off. i was jealous! that gap wasnt an issue. his skills completely overrode that gap.

good luck!

[Anonymous]

[quote=kcal09][quote=kev374]My situation, no debts, mortgages, loans or any other commitments, single, no kids.

Work in IT (Sr. Java) with a decade+ of experience. Got laid off 2 wks ago in a brand new job I started, was there just for a month and the company had financial troubles from decreasing revenues..hmm.

Thinking of taking a year off, 6 months traveling middle east/africa/s.e. asia and 6 months in spanish language school as i’ve always wanted to work on my spanish to gain fluency.

Do have savings to tide me over when I get back.[/quote]

Wow, nice! Go for it-it will be great experience.[/quote]

go for it! lots lots of good insight to many of the comments. as for worry about that employment gap…just tell people what you did and why. some will be interested in your story and that alone might aid you into a new job…before you leave make sure you get ‘linkedin’ so you have your contacts set and you dont forget who they might be by the time you get back. when you get back hit those contacts for new work.

i helped hire a guy w/ a gap. made enough money to take a few years off. i was jealous! that gap wasnt an issue. his skills completely overrode that gap.

good luck!

[Anonymous]

[quote=kcal09][quote=kev374]My situation, no debts, mortgages, loans or any other commitments, single, no kids.

Work in IT (Sr. Java) with a decade+ of experience. Got laid off 2 wks ago in a brand new job I started, was there just for a month and the company had financial troubles from decreasing revenues..hmm.

Thinking of taking a year off, 6 months traveling middle east/africa/s.e. asia and 6 months in spanish language school as i’ve always wanted to work on my spanish to gain fluency.

Do have savings to tide me over when I get back.[/quote]

Wow, nice! Go for it-it will be great experience.[/quote]

go for it! lots lots of good insight to many of the comments. as for worry about that employment gap…just tell people what you did and why. some will be interested in your story and that alone might aid you into a new job…before you leave make sure you get ‘linkedin’ so you have your contacts set and you dont forget who they might be by the time you get back. when you get back hit those contacts for new work.

i helped hire a guy w/ a gap. made enough money to take a few years off. i was jealous! that gap wasnt an issue. his skills completely overrode that gap.

good luck!

[Anonymous]

[quote=kcal09][quote=kev374]My situation, no debts, mortgages, loans or any other commitments, single, no kids.

Work in IT (Sr. Java) with a decade+ of experience. Got laid off 2 wks ago in a brand new job I started, was there just for a month and the company had financial troubles from decreasing revenues..hmm.

Thinking of taking a year off, 6 months traveling middle east/africa/s.e. asia and 6 months in spanish language school as i’ve always wanted to work on my spanish to gain fluency.

Do have savings to tide me over when I get back.[/quote]

Wow, nice! Go for it-it will be great experience.[/quote]

go for it! lots lots of good insight to many of the comments. as for worry about that employment gap…just tell people what you did and why. some will be interested in your story and that alone might aid you into a new job…before you leave make sure you get ‘linkedin’ so you have your contacts set and you dont forget who they might be by the time you get back. when you get back hit those contacts for new work.

i helped hire a guy w/ a gap. made enough money to take a few years off. i was jealous! that gap wasnt an issue. his skills completely overrode that gap.

good luck!

[Anonymous]

[quote=UCGal]
grepper – I hope you find a good job quickly.[/quote]

thanks. it’s ugly out there right now. i dont expect it to get much better any time soon. i have a few possibilities but they are all sitting in hr (or vp approval, etc). these came thru friends. if these dont pan out, it will be quite a drawn out battle. i’m not sure if they are ‘good’ but it will certainly be work and it will be better than what i had!

[Anonymous]

[quote=UCGal]
grepper – I hope you find a good job quickly.[/quote]

thanks. it’s ugly out there right now. i dont expect it to get much better any time soon. i have a few possibilities but they are all sitting in hr (or vp approval, etc). these came thru friends. if these dont pan out, it will be quite a drawn out battle. i’m not sure if they are ‘good’ but it will certainly be work and it will be better than what i had!

[Anonymous]

[quote=UCGal]
grepper – I hope you find a good job quickly.[/quote]

thanks. it’s ugly out there right now. i dont expect it to get much better any time soon. i have a few possibilities but they are all sitting in hr (or vp approval, etc). these came thru friends. if these dont pan out, it will be quite a drawn out battle. i’m not sure if they are ‘good’ but it will certainly be work and it will be better than what i had!

[Anonymous]

[quote=UCGal]
grepper – I hope you find a good job quickly.[/quote]

thanks. it’s ugly out there right now. i dont expect it to get much better any time soon. i have a few possibilities but they are all sitting in hr (or vp approval, etc). these came thru friends. if these dont pan out, it will be quite a drawn out battle. i’m not sure if they are ‘good’ but it will certainly be work and it will be better than what i had!

[Author]

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