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If you can afford it, and have gone over your finances to account for up to a year or more of possible time taking to find a new job in this market, then go for it.
Life is short. No one will remember what companies you worked for or how much money you made when you die. I was actually just at a funeral for a family member, and not one person mentioned where he worked or what his title was.
Just finished a 6mo sabbatical! Honestly was the most refreshing thing I've done in my career.
Took the time to travel to a few cities, visit friends and spend time with family. After having worried about client deadlines and managing teams for a few years, not having to worry about any of that really helped put things in perspective.
The AI agent "jack" is essentially a job board trawler. So it really surfaced anything across job boards. After I gave it a bit of guidance it only gave me opportunities that I was interested in...that being said I got overwhelmed pretty quickly as it was giving me 10-15+ postings to review per day
Jesus provides true rest even in the middle of a burn. I hope you can sincerely pray to him, and he will give your life abundantly.
I would love to! I hope you enjoy!
I had the opportunity to take a partially paid sabbatical for 3 months. It was 100% worth it.
I spent the first 4 weeks resetting and decompressing from all of the built up work stress that had accumulated. I also Marie Kondo-ed my house during that time. Then I traveled abroad for 6 weeks. For the final 2 weeks of my sabbatical, I took it easy and prepped for my return to work.
Something that helped me gain clarity on my next work chapter was reflecting on my career. I spent time journaling about what I loved about my past roles and current role, what I hated, what type of work I thought I might enjoy, what I was good at, what I valued most at work (salary, flexibility, WLB, etc). I used all of that information to research roles, industries, and companies that aligned with my ideal job. Then I identified what skills/experience I was missing for those roles and put together a plan to fill the gaps.
I wasn’t looking forward to returning from sabbatical but I was happy that I returned to work with a clear plan of what I needed to do to move my career in the direction I wanted to go.
Thank you for sharing - I love this!! 💙
Not midlife but at 30, I did 8 months of global travel after an expat assignment with my then-fiance and now wife. I had something lined up afterwards (bschool) so it took the pressure off needing to find something and could truly enjoy the sabbatical. In terms of your q’s:
1. Having complete control over your schedule is liberating
2. Reflecting on why I wanted to leave my prior job. Thought about where I wanted to be long-term, the gaps I had in my skills, and how I can address those gaps
3. Have over a year of savings just for the sabbatical itself and a 2-3 months buffer. I’ve heard from a F500 CEO that a sabbatical should ideally be a year. It takes 6 months to recharge and 6 months to find the right next role (assuming you don’t have something already lined up)
4. If you’re into the outdoors/camping/hiking highly recommend doing at least a month in a camper van in at Aus or NZ or both. Lived in Aus for my expat assignment and doing Aus in a camper was a perfect capstone to our time there. Wish list for a midlife sabbatical: Start a side gig, some multi day hikes (Everest BaseCamp, El Camino, Routeburn), see Antarctica , dive (Raja Ampat, Palau), US National Park road trip in a camper
Do a language immersion somewhere.
Surprises: 8 months goes by fast. Try to get a full year. Have some structure to your days, easily let some days go to waste because filled the time being lazy and scrolling. Certainly not bad all the time but could’ve “done more”
I plan on doing something like this for a year at some point. I’m glad you had
the guts to ask this question and hope you’re seriously considering it.
Keep us posted on your decision and if yes, how it went for you.
I am considering this (40 yo, 2 kids, married joint income) and quitting my job to take a 6 months - 1 year off work due to burnout. Half the time I’m scared the other half I’m hopeful and have been so torn so really eager to hear everyone’s perspective. Of note, I feel financially secure taking this risk based on my networks and years of experience, the fact that my husband will still be employed, and that I have the savings/ investments to continue to contribute to the household and cover my own expenses. Also I want to explore whether to exit corporate completely at this point
4. I recommend going for activities that are far away or take significant time to get to/complete. I am planning a 6mo sabbatical next year with my wife and we want to do:
Machu pichu, hike Patagonia, liveabord 7-10 days, safari, horseback riding through Mongolia, etc.
I took a two month sabbatical at age 40, in the middle of a very intense expat assignment, growing a internal start-up overseas from first sale to $60m in two years. Now, at 70 years old, we still talk about it frequently. It was one of the great experiences of my life. We took a small ship relocation cruise from Singapore to Egypt, stopping in Malaysia, Thailand, India, Yemen, Oman and Jordan and then spent a week in Egypt on the back end. Absolutely fantastic and not one ounce of regret. I came back to work refreshed, energized and incredibly motivated after being on the edge of burnout after spending months of 12 hour plus days. To quote the Nike advertisement: Just Do It!
Yes, interestingly more and more of my acquaintances are doing this and they come to me for insights, because it's pretty scary and unusual (still) to do in our industry. I fully encourage this and can share my experience and thoughts if you'd like a virtual coffee chat linkedin.com/in/elenadk
btw some other comments say it's not worth due to lost income - well, if you've been investing in the stock market, i can say my capital growth has been more than enough than the potential lost income. not to mention getting ideas on business opportunities which also brought more joy and income