FuzzyPanda

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

My current job is consuming me completely. I don't get to upskill myself. Therefore, I am stuck in this vicious cycle where I want to leave my organization to work in a better environment along with skilled colleagues. However, to do this, I will have to upskill myself.

Would love to hear your experience if you have been in a similar situation. How did things turn out for you eventually?

21mo ago

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SqueakyBoba

Dunzo21mo

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.

SqueakyBoba

Dunzo21mo

landed up with a decent offer, nothing fancy and i’m doing good now :P

JazzyDonut

Stealth21mo

When was this? I am planning to quit now.

QuirkyPotato

Stealth21mo

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.

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.
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.
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.
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.

SillyJellybean

Stealth21mo

Thanks for sharing. Insightful!

One question I have is, do you have to explain your breaks to your recruiters? In the sense that, stating : "I took a break for mental health" or " I wanted to upskill and did not get time for this while working" be taken negatively by the recruiters?

There are understanding recruiters, but what's the perception of career breaks on average?

QuirkyPotato

Stealth21mo

I have been fortunate regarding this, as I have never been asked to justify my breaks. I can completely see how this might not be the case for everyone. But imo :

It depends on your current profile and your competency/skill sets. If you have expertise in a niche or an SME, then this question is mostly over looked.
If it's an inbound offer, then these questions are mostly overlooked.
If you manage to upskill smartly, do some projects, build something value add while looking for your next role, you can and should spin this break into a story that is interesting for the recruiters. Like for a PM role, if you managed to do build some side project, that's such a value add in your interviews.

GoofyDonut

Stealth21mo

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.

JumpyPretzel

Stealth21mo

Ahh, 2021 was the year when jobs apparently rained….

GoofyDonut

Stealth21mo

Yep with triple digit percentage raises apparently

SillyBiscuit

Stealth21mo

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.

BubblyBoba

Stealth21mo

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!

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