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Take off as much time as you want and call it a sabbatical and include it on your CV.
Rising Star
Then your biggest concern is how long your visa allows you to stay unemployed. Most have a 60 day period
I just took four months and it has completely reset me - I will be doing this every three or so years from now on. I really can’t see it being an issue for future career prospects - wellness is a much bigger issue
Who cares if someone asks? Just give them an answer. You spent time with family, traveled, pursued a passion, whatever
Post-covid, a lot of my friends and peers are planning to take full on sabbaticals to refresh themselves because of how awful things have been. I think as long as you have a story to tell, you should be able to take off as much time as you need.
Personally, I plan to do mine in early 2022, and will fill in my time by getting certifications, writing a book, traveling, and doing some freelance content and website creation. I’m sure if I ever go back to a traditional job, the learning experiences from these activities will be more an enough justification to show the employer that I’ve been growing and learning during my time off, and not just wasting away for months on a beach.
Thank you!!
I just took 4 months off and also debated with myself what a "reasonable" amount of time was, ie one that wouldnt raise any eyebrows.
But then I thought, out of a 40ish year career, what's 3 months, 6 months, or even a yr off? The benefits to your mental health far outweigh any potential "eyebrows raised".
Hahaa so true. I love it
I don’t think anyone will really question any time up to three months and if they do it is super easy to explain: reset between jobs / extended break / spend time with family in Nova Scotia / whatever vaguely sensible thing you want to say.
I guess it may factor if it’s combined with other red flags e.g. moving jobs every 18 months and taking six months off in between or something.
Don’t overthink it if it’s important to you. Mental health and hitting the ground running at the new job are both important, if a bit of a break helps that then it was worth it.
Thank you. Amazing.
On average, I've had about a month gap between jobs over my ~20 year career so far, ranging from a week to a 4 month break after a completely unexpected layoff.
I don't list the months on my resume, just the years, and I can't recall any of the breaks coming up in any interview.
That said, I've interviewed probably hundreds of people at this point and I never ask timing questions about an interviewee's resume unless there's some double dipping going on. Plenty of folks have volunteered that they took time off for XYZ, but I've never asked about it.
Pro
I’d really like to do this too. I feel like some time to work on personal interests and for a reset would be great. But I’m also cautious about how it would look to others
I can tell you that anything less than 6 months wouldn’t bother me at all. In fact I would ask you how it was, what benefits it will have as you come back to work, etc.
Take the time off you want/need. But if you want to conceal it, structure your end and start dates. You can mske your last workday march 5, first workday at next job april 26, for example. Looks like zero gap on the resume/LinkedIn if you display months, but is a nice 7 week gap. If your visa has a 60 day job change window, this fits that window too.
Sundays
OP In one of the sub threads, you mentioned an important point that nearly everyone of us missed.
We thought you were concerned about how this would look on your resume as a gap, but it appears you're actually asking an immigration question: How long can you take a break in between jobs if you're in a country on a work visa.
So for that I'd suggest you check the terms of the visa for whatever country you're working in.