The elephant in the room: Career Break
Hi, I’m Sneha and I moved out of my last job in November 2019. Did I hoard a bunch of job offers before leaving the firm? No. I wanted to take some time off and to be honest, I didn’t have to pep-talk myself into it — It seemed like a no brainer.
When I shared this with friends/colleagues however, the most common themes that my conversations vectored into are
1. “ Oh you must have a lot of financial buffer to be able to do that ”
2. “ How LUCKY! ”
3. “ But you won’t have negotiation power for your next job ”
My response, in short, to each of these has been
1. It’s a good thing I started saving / investing early in my career
2. Luck has nothing to do with this and
3. Salary is not the only variable I’m optimizing or solving for.
Thankfully for me, I also have a bunch of friends who thought it was a fantastic idea right away and I could avoid the ten minute explainer chat that would ensue otherwise.
Here’s what’s important though: I recognize that leaving a job and continuing to live life in status-quo is a privilege. For me, this privilege birthed from my preference for viewing my life holistically and not looking at my work-life in silo, from placing importance on wanting to do work that I find motivating and meaningful, from starting my career in a place that exposed me to the concepts of financial planning, and also from a bit of confidence in appreciating that my ability to tangibly contribute to the growing world of consumer internet won’t be out-dated by 2020. As with all other forms of privilege though, this decision too came with responsibility and it only made sense that I used this time wisely while also giving myself some TLC. So how have I been keeping myself busy you ask?
TRAVEL
Of course! The quintessential career-break thing to do. In my case specifically (being the nature lover that I am), I did a whole bunch of treks during this period. I can now unflinchingly say that I’m going to continue making my way up the hills and mountains lifelong if I can. Why I feel so strongly about it deserves a write-up of its own but if you’ve been considering going for a trek but have been procrastinating / need some motivation — hit me up!
CATCHING UP WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY
I’ve been away from home for close to ten years now and like every other ambitious being, I’ve been moving where my work takes me. Now my friends know that I’m terrible at keeping in touch (No I don’t take pride in this at all) — and this is something I still need to structurally work upon. However, I’m glad I used this little break as an opportunity to reconnect with many friends (the fact that so many of them got married this wedding season helped!). I also spent a few weeks with my family in Calcutta and gorged on all the ghar-ka-khana I’d been missing. Free advice: try to be there as much as you can to watch your parents grow old.
LIFE (AND CAREER) PLANNING
I’ve never been able to look at professional-life and personal-life as two separate entities. What I’m doing at work has such a huge impact on what I do out-of-office (eg: books that I read, people that I meet, blogs and industry-leaders I follow, events that I attend, etc.) and what I do out-of-office — food, fitness, reading, personal relationships, activities, etc. has a profound effect on how I approach my work (eg: feeling energized at work after a good morning workout or a restful night of sleep, applying what I learn from books and other resources to shape up my work outcomes, etc.). This break gave me ample time to think deeply about the kind of work I want to do, the development areas I need to be working on, what I want my life to look like in the short and long term and the kind of people I want to be working with / surround myself with to achieve those.
TEACHING
For most of 2018 and early 2019, I used to be a virtual mentor for Varsha, a student in Jhansi, via e-shishya (a fantastic organisation that connects volunteer mentors to less privileged students for remote learning lessons). Now that I had much more time in hand, I got back in touch with the school (directly this time) and decided to teach all the 13 kids there! I’ve been able to design my own curriculum, develop a fantastic rapport with the children, and it’s been so rewarding to see these girls be so excited about learning. I’ve not been able to do complete justice to this however, because of the constant intermittent travel plans during this period (resulting in long gaps) — but I can confidently say that these students no longer believe that English is only for the city kids.
EVERYTHING ELSE (in no particular order)
1. Workouts
2. Reading books
3. Interviews and meetings
4. De-cluttering my home (mostly wardrobe)
5. Taking care of some health concerns
6. Playing the drums (a lot less than I wish I did)
7. Countless crossword puzzles
8. A meditation course
9. Finally reading things I’ve bookmarked on twitter and my browser over the last N years
10. On some days — doing nothing.
I’ve been the busiest yet the most unfettered in a long long time! I encourage my friends and peers to think deeply about what goals they’re working towards and how their current actions align with those goals (you don’t need to leave your job to do this). I’m taken aback by how many of my own friends and colleagues (i.e. people in similar jobs) say they can’t go a few months without their salary— if you’ve been working for N years and can’t afford at least N months off work without having to dramatically change your lifestyle — you may want to rethink how you’re designing your life.
The past few months have flown by rather quickly but I’m glad to be getting back to work life with the gusto of a middle-schooler entering high school after a summer break. If you’ve been contemplating taking some time off but haven’t been able to make up your mind — let me know if I can help. I don’t believe that career breaks are for everyone and I promise I’ll tell you if I think it’s not the right step for you!
