Contemplating a career break but others around you think you are crazy? Listen to this advice from Ryan and Jen Fuller, management consultants who up and took a six month career break in Argentina and Chile. Prior to hearing the term ‘career break’ they just called what they were doing ‘rehab.’
“I thought you were crazy when you said you were going on this trip; now [6 months later], I think you’re crazy for coming back”
– A friend talking about our career break
Because the concept of a career break is still quite novel (at least in the US), most of us don’t have very many people in our social groups who have ever taken one. Unfortunately, this often means that all of your excitement over the idea of leaving your job in favor of long-term travel may not engender the kind of enthusiasm you are hoping for amongst your friends/co-workers/family. Even if you are just looking for support rather than advice, you should expect to be assaulted with many, many reasons why it is a bad idea and you are crazy for even contemplating it.
Here are some of our favorites:
- You’re crazy
- Are you kidding, leave your job in this economy?
- You’ll never be able to explain this on your resume or in future job interviews – your career will be ruined forever
- It’s too expensive
- You’re crazy
- I once knew someone that went on a trip like this… they died
- What if you get kidnapped by drug runners?
- I always wished I could do something like that, but then I realized how irresponsible it would be to throw away everything I’d been working toward for so long
- You should wait until you get that next promotion; then you’ll have a much better safety net
- You’re crazy
So what do you do if you aren’t getting the kind of support that you’d like to actually take the leap?
Option 1) Go fast
Do what we did… make the decision to leave and then go before anyone really has the chance to convince you it’s a bad idea. We were in Argentina 3 weeks after we made the decision to go. Clearly this won’t work for everyone. Option 2 is probably a better route…