13th December 2016
Have you ever considered taking a step back from your job and pursuing something *else*.....what ever that may be?
The benefits of taking some time out on a regular basis are indisputable. But many people don’t take time to unwind regularly or effectively enough. Recently the BBC wrote about the advantages of additional time away from your daily grind and as it turns out, for those who do opt for gap years, careers breaks or take time to volunteer and travel abroad, many find themselves in entirely new careers on the other side of their adventures. According to the BBC, in a survey of 500 people, not one person regretted their decision to step back from their jobs and seek a temporary alternative way of life.
Have you ever wondered if it might be time for you to take a step back, and maybe, even in another direction entirely?
Who takes career breaks?
It’s not entirely true that career breaks are for people who have “careers”. I suggest that the idea of taking a career break applied to simply opting to do something different from your regular routine for a short or pre-determined period of time. And this applies to stay at home mums as much as it applies to finance executives.
Speaking from our own experience in Hong Kong, we typically see career breakers that fall into one of several categories. First, we speak to a lot of mums who have been stay at home mums for the last 10 or 15 years and who are considered reentering the workforce. Many of these career breakers are particularly anxious about facing the academic rigours of regular employment, but would like access to flexible options to allow them to continue supporting their family in a somewhat reduced way as their kids grow up and are working their way through secondary school.
Those who have been tied to their desks for the last 8, 10, 12….20 years are another common career breaker we come across regularly.
I just got sick of all the late nights and tight deadlines – some weeks there seemed to be no break at all!
I always thought I’d try something else eventually, but that was 10 years ago and I guess I never felt the time was right.
When I was at university I thought about changing courses to become a teacher, but I was persuaded not to.
Another common profile of those looking to take a break are recent graduates. Perhaps not all that surprisingly, life isn’t all that rosy when you’re fresh out of university. Another reason we deal with so many recent graduates is that people often make mistakes (surprise surprise!) and 3 years into a career they thought they would love, many people come to the realization that, actually, they got it a little bit wrong.
Why try something new and take a career break?
Some might say the career break is a stereotyped institution that starts claiming victims before they even get to university. Others disagree, claiming that it’s a unique way to differentiate yourself from a super competitive job market.
So what are some of the reasons people choose to take a break?
To take a risk
The idea of risk taking and its connection to providing stimulation in the midst of a long standing monotonous routine is well documented. From bucket lists to charity fund raisers – there is a lot of appeal to challenging yourself to do something outside your comfort zone. Once you have set your sights on something that might unsettle you a little you may find your focus improves as a result of having clear goals to work towards, the excitement of novelty and nervousness of the unfamiliar. Many people comment that risk taking provides a new perspective on day to day life by providing a stimulating comparison to your baseline stress or boredom levels.
To find a new job
One of the many unexpected effects of not going to work is that you might end up going to work a lot more. I have to say that this might easily be an indirect reason people choose to take a break from their jobs, but many of the people we work with comment that there is no comparison to their old job and the ones we prepare them for.
Unexpected benefits
Many of the those surveyed by the BBC were surprised to reflect on what they actually took from their time away from their 9-5 desk jobs. New life priorities, readjusted working schedules, new hobbies and interests. Even a new job entirely. In much the same way, young students are encouraged to take time off before entering university because many of the jobs they will end up doing are entirely unrelated to what they plan to study, and in many cases don’t exist. The only answer to finding these answers is to buy yourself some time.
More and more people are doing it – more than 4 million Britons
Feel like you might be the odd one out by taking some time off? Think again. You don’t have to have made a fortune on the stock exchange to be able to afford, or be entitled to taking a career break. The number of people in the UK taking time off work to travel, study or volunteer has increased to more than 4 million per year.
Rekindle your passion
In a very honest TED talk, Nigel Marsh makes a very poignant comment about work life balance: when it comes to the question of balancing life at work, I realized by taking time away from my job, that I was very good at balancing my life when I didn’t have any work to do. One of the best ways to realign your life priorities is to stop doing the things that eat into your time, energy and passion: so what options do you have for finding a way to make this happen in your life?
What options are there for taking a career break?
Do something unusual
For many people, taking a career break is about making a statement. Whether you want to add a notch to your belt of life experiences, achieve something beyond your wildest imagination – taking time off work in order to work on something else can provide people with an element of structure, a sense of focus and a clear goal to work towards.
Many people feel intimidated by the thought of how they might spend all the free time they’d end up with on a career break, and so choosing how you’d prefer to be spending your time now (rather than slaving away at your desk) is an important question to answer before committing to any future plans.
Build your CV
For others, taking time off can be a clever way to rejoin the workforce at a later date, only as a bigger, better, new and improve version of yourself. This might involve taking some short courses, qualifications or branching out into new fields to diversify the skillset you already offer your workplace. Often the best way to explore these options is to talk to people at work about what they’d look for in potential employees, or to spend some time thinking about where you’d like to be in terms of your position at work in 5 or 10 years from now – and then ask yourself how can I get the skills and experience I need to make that happen.
Try something you’ve always wanted to do
Of course, one of the most common comments I hear from the teachers I work with is well, you know I always wanted to try teaching, but I never had the opportunity. For people like this it seems like teaching was always something in the background, but never seriously entertained, or even in some cases, actively discouraged by those close to them.
For these people, a wide range of coincidences have aligned: redundancies, life realisations, starting a family, moving country – whatever if may be – but finally there is an opening to try something that has been on the backburner for so long.
One of the advantages for this type of person is that they often realise hey, if it doesn’t work out I can always go back to accounting/nursing/cleaning/marketing. And in reality, that’s a very reassuring position to be in. However, for those who have finally gotten around to making a decision to try teaching out because they realise their job isn’t really making them happy, or because they simply need a break and figure they can make a decision about the rest of their life at a later date – I suspect that these people vary rarely look back with regret about having tried something new.