People who have left a job without another lined up, how have things worked out for you?

Took a career break for about 5 mos, had a really bad burnout.

You don’t have position of strength in any of the negotiations you’re going to have next. Having said that, if you can crack multiple offers then you can negotiate better.

Next: Family saw me desperate sometimes. When the inflow stops you’ve to cutdown on expenditure. Like buying a ps5, or going out for fancy dinners. To cut down on expenses I moved in with my parents, that really helped. But the worst part was when relatives came, they’ll judge the f out of you.

Lastly, no one will be able to connect with what you’re going through (your friends won’t have time for you because they’re still doing their jobs, your family will ask you updates on what next everyday). You get such opportunities rarely in your career, looking back I should’ve spent more and travelled more, instead I geared into survival mode.

Having taken 3 such career breaks in my 10 years of work experience, with the most recent one being 6 months back, I feel it has worked out for me every time. Each break was for a different reason, but i ended up relaxing, unwinding, upskilling and making better jumps in career. I don't regret any of the breaks I took.

But as advised by others, keep a few things in mind.

1. Have a good runway ( 1 year min) so that you don't get pressured into taking the next available offer. Have the leverage to walk away from an offer if it doesn't match your expectations.
2. There is an oversupply in the market currently so you might not get lot of good inbound offers in the near future. But referrals are still decent. So having a good network will make it easier.
3. Don't tie your self worth to your occupation. You should be okay to not have any income, and comments from family/friends/mohalla uncles and aunty's shouldn't bother you or make you feel worthless. Have absolute clarity on why you are taking a break.
4. Make sure you have a plan for the break. You don't need to plan out every single day, but broadly you need to have clarity on how long will you take time to unwind, travel, chill out? By when approx you will start any upskilling program? What kind of upskilling you would want to do? If you don't do this, there is a high chance that you will end up not utilising your break properly, which will bother you towards the end of your break ( was guilty of this in my first break of 9 months)

Modern day jobs are mentally exhausting. We deserve to take breaks to recharge ourselves. Career is a marathon not a sprint.

Had a 4 month career break, recovered physically and mentally for the first three months, gave interviews afterwards. Worked out better than expected eventually, but this was 2021, and I did have runway to last around an year.

However it’s going to bad now a days, companies are hiring less, take the risk only if you’ve sufficient funds and will be able to upskill in the break.

I did it on the top of hype cycle Aug 2021 and it worked out well, my reason was three month notice period was too much for any potential employers.

Two main problems you face are :

i) the nearer you get to end of your notice period you will start panicking and start settling for anything.

ii) If the recruiter realises that you don't have another offer on hand you lose bargaining power on salary.

It’s bad out there however to get a new one, I had to constantly grind for 25 days to get few offers. Hard to get a good job through these portals. Only your network helps!

I took a break last year of 3 months. I had a 3 months notice period as well. During my notice period, I started interviewing, but couldn't crack them. Then I read Steve Job's biography and he had taken a break, etc. I felt motivated to take a break too. My initial plan was of 6 months. But I felt much better in 3 months itself. So I started looking and was fortunate enough to get a job in 2 weeks with a pretty good hike, at a company with a great culture. Never worked in a company so employee friendly in 7 YOE. So it all worked out.

In those 3 months of break, at one time, I was wondering if anyone would hire me again. But then I opened my documents, Excel sheets, etc. I realised I did do some good work in the past and have acquired some valuable skills. I think it is important to remember that, whenever someone takes a break.

Another thing is, getting a job, is very much like making a new best friend. On the day before the day you meet them, you'd have never guess who you're gonna meet the next day. Getting that recruiter call is also somewhat like that. It will happen when it will happen. Important to be patient.

Society has conditioned to think that we must get salary each month, or we're doing something wrong. It feels very, very wrong. But on close scrutiny, this feeling can go away. There's no need to get salary each month, if your bank balance + financial investments + assets like vehicles, etc can cover you for a year of expenses.

It was bad 3 month of no earning. That was some desperate times

Hi, yes. Did this recently. Took 3 month break before applying again. Didn't face any major issues. Applications got rejected by multiple top companies but still managed to interview for a few and land a job. It all works out at the end. Don't worry. As long as you have enough money to survive, u can do it

Got laid off in Dec, got 2 months of severance pay and was in their payroll till Feb.

I had extreme anxiety as I just moved to Bangalore rented out a place of my own as I had friends here and wanted to go to the office.

The anxiety was due to me doubting whether I could get into a better place, will I run out of funds etc.

It was too much stress at that time as I had put in a lot of effort as I was new to that role and I didn’t see it coming, more over it was a shock to a few of my teammates too.

But turned out for the better as I had a couple of offers and joined a very early stage startup.

Started a new role on Mar 1st.

I just went through this phase recently, 3 months without any work, at times you will be stressed without any salary and the competition, especially in this current situation around layoffs. But having faith and belief, keep on applying, learning and improving your skills. Honestly, in hindsight if you ask me today, it was a bad decision to leave my previous job without any offer in hand. Hence, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. You should always have at least one job offer in hand before you put in your resignation.

Best of luck to you 👍🏼