Career break travel myths
Andy MurdockLonely Planet author
Here’s what you need to do: take a break from your career and travel the world for an extended period of time. How does that sound?
If your response is ‘Sounds fantastic, but there’s absolutely no way I can do that,’ you’re not alone. But people do take career breaks, and quite successfully – so what’s the secret?
To cut through the many myths and fears surrounding the concept of leaving your job to travel, I spoke with Sherry Ott, a self-described ‘corporate IT refugee’ who writes the popular travel blog Ottsworld: Travel and Life Experiences of a Corporate America Runaway. Sherry’s initial career break trip inspired even more traveling, which she has been doing nearly continuously for the last 4½ years. Eventually (and somewhat ironically) career break travel turned into a career itself when she co-founded Meet, Plan, Go!, which offers resources, workshops, and general inspiration for aspiring career break travelers.
Sherry Ott and her new friends in Sri Lanka
Sherry spoke to me from Beirut earlier this year about her experiences and what she’s learned from other career break travelers.
What were your major worries when first setting out?
It’s easier to answer what I wasn’t worried about …because I was worried about everything! However the main worries were:
I was worried that for the first time in my adult life, I would no longer have a paycheck coming into my account. There would only be money going out for the next year-plus. That was scary to me.
I was worried that I wouldn’t like being on the road, as I had never traveled for more than 2 weeks before and it was always a vacation.
I was really worried that I had to find a place to sleep every night for a year – 365 days of lodging. When I was in the planning stages, I was all of a sudden very aware of my own room and bed and that I took it for granted that I could just come sleep in my bed every night without thinking about it.
Not a one turned out to be a big issue at all. I loved being on the road, and at some point I was worried that I would never be able to be satisfied with standing still again (which is the case with my life now!). The money issue I had to adjust to, but pretty soon the idea of only watching money go out instead of in became normal. I had a certain threshold and I knew when my balance got down to a certain amount it meant I had to go home. As far as lodging, that turned out to be pretty simple too. I had no problem finding places to sleep nor did it bother me after I was on the road. It loved the benefit of meeting new people every night!
What are common leaving (and returning) worries you hear from others?
1. General fear of travel
I think there’s sometimes an element of fear of traveling in general – people don’t think it’s safe to do. If you read the US State Department warnings, you’d never go anywhere. I certainly wouldn’t be in Beirut now! They worry about everything that could go wrong and then they talk themselves out of it, which is sad as I feel very safe in most countries. Even more safe than I do in the US!
2. Family/friends won’t understand, will be judgmental
I find that people were quite accepting of my plans and the most common phrase I heard was ‘I wish I could do that.’ However I do believe that the people who may push back and be judgmental are people who are quite frankly jealous and really are upset you aren’t fitting the mold of what you are ‘supposed to do’. They are stuck doing what they are ‘supposed to do’ and most likely unhappy about it.
3. There’s never a good time to go
This sometimes feeds into people thinking their kids are too young or too old. Or maybe they are the age that they ‘should be’ getting married and be responsible. There’s all kinds of excuses we make for ourselves. What people forget is that your life goes on while you are on the road…you can still meet people, your kids can still learn, you may even fall in love and get married. For some reason we think that our possibilities end or our lives stop if we take off and do long-term traveling!
4. Stuff: what to do with all of it
I recommend to start this early – start downsizing a room at a time. I like the book The Joy of Less by Francine Jay. It helps you goes through your stuff and downsize each room. Also, start looking into options of where you can store things. Ask landlords if you can sublet.
5. Money: travel is really expensive
Tripping yourself up with the ‘travel is expensive’ myth is a sure-fire way to defeat the dream before you even give it a chance to breathe. Consider this: A vacation is different from traveling. On average, a vacation that includes a flight, hotel stays, and eating out for every meal can cost anywhere from US$1,000 to $2,000 per person per week. Plus when you go on vacation, all of your other monthly expenses don’t go away. You still have to pay for your mortgage or rent, car, electricity, water, magazine subscriptions – this all continues while you are on vacation.
However, when you travel, monthly expenses go away – no more electricity, water, heating, gas, car insurance, rent, cable, internet, gym memberships, etc. Plus you stretch your airfare dollar further when you fly and stay somewhere for a month as opposed to 5 days. The airfare is spread across 30 days instead of 5.
Before you know it, your monthly expenses disappear and the amount you will need to simply travel becomes ‘reasonable’. So don’t think about your budget in terms of a vacation budget; extended travel is much different!
6. Going back to work: the résumé/CV gap
You don’t have to hide your career break, you should address it. Include a short section about your career break and if you did any work related activities during that time (volunteering, teaching ESL, freelancing, ran a blog). Include an area/continent that you focused on especially if it has ties to your work in some way. Soft skills: most every career breaker will return with better soft skills acquired from their time on the road. Key areas involve risk assessment, negotiation skills, flexibility, patience, adapting quickly to changing environments, and enhanced decision making. List your travel website if you feel it’s professional enough to mention. Look over it with a critical business eye before touting it on your résumé.
However, be careful not to let your sabbatical sound like an extended holiday. Tell your potential employers that you wanted to improve your skills, take your volunteering/teaching English/diving/skiing/whatever ability to a new level to challenge yourself. If you describe your time in a focused manner it will help highlight your ability to push yourself.
Keep in mind some companies may think that taking a career break is irresponsible and means you could leave them at a moment’s notice too; therefore, be prepared to explain how loyal and committed you are. And consider if you really want to work for a company that can’t understand or appreciate the values of world travel.
Any unexpected benefits of taking a career break?
For me personally there have been a ton of unexpected benefits: an increased patience level and confidence that my future is on solid ground. I never felt confident about my skills before and my ability to simply survive…but now I’m super confident in those areas. I have picked up an immense amount of technical skills thanks to blogging. I have awakened my creative side in photography and writing. I have completely built new skillsets, while I was doing something I loved.
But I think the biggest benefit is that you learn not to sweat the small stuff. No issue seems as big as before you left.
Do you still have worries about what happens next?
I might be a special case. For me – no – I don’t worry about what happens next. I can’t even begin to predict the possibilities that will come my way from day to day. I’m so used to uncertainty that I’m now afraid of things that are concrete. However, I feel like after 4 ½ years of travel I have developed this attitude.
When I first came back from my career break of 1 ½ years, I was worried about what my next steps would be. I didn’t feel like I could fit back into the corporate world and it took a while to simply fit back into the US.
At this point, my life has completely changed. I sit here writing this from a family’s apartment in Beirut Lebanon. I have a place to sleep tonight, I have adventure waiting tomorrow – that’s all I need.
For more inspiration on taking a career break, check out the many helpful resources provided by Sherry and her colleagues at Meet, Plan, Go!.
Do you want your next trip to be a TRIP? Where do you start? Lonely Planet’s The Big Trip is the essential resource for gap year, round-the-world and all long-term travel planning.
travel is really expensive and family, friends quite accepting plans.
Amazing interview! The way in which common factors, which hinder career breaks, are mentioned is phenomenal. Thanks a lot Andy for this interview.
fantastic stuff!! you are surely inspiring many a souls around! wishes!
great insightful article with lots of useful tips. thanks!
great article, thanks
Very inspiring. Is there a way you can earn little amounts while traveling at-least to cover the travel expenses?!
I did this in 2008 – took a career break and travelled around the world (some of it!). Best thing I ever did, but now I want to go again … not so easy in a recession.
a great article please tell me any good website other than LP who help me if i want to any country. i mean knows everything from cheap to mid range hotel or hostel and places of interest.
a great article please tell me any good website other than LP who help me if i want to go to any country. i mean knows everything from cheap to mid range hotel or hostel and places of interest.
Great article! I am going on a one year maternity leave and decided to spend that time traveling with my newborn. I was a little concerned that I may change my mind so I decided to be a tourist in my own backyard of Yukon, Alaska, and Northern, BC. That way I can head home if I get homesick and see a places that people pay thousands of dollars to explore.
#5 is unrealistic. Yeah, and take along a money tree while traveling too!
Unless you work online, there will be no money coming in to replenish what’s being used. Temporary, odd jobs along the way will make you only pocket money. Unless you’re financially set for life, you have to work a steady job.
This is a very inspiring post! yes- I am one of those many people who has been thinking about this for a long time. This is a very nice article
Wow…isnt it amazing that sometimes when you go seeking for something it just lands in your lap. This article just came to me right when I needed it.
THANKS SOOO MUCH
Wonderful post! Feels like giving it a try…
Great story, wish I tried this when I was younger and single. Still, it is obvious that she had a decent nest egg to fall back on when she started, it would be interesting to know just exactly what her monthly expenses are on the road.
we did this, and we loved it, and we surprisingly quickly found jobs when we returned after a year. now, near pension age, we can’t do it again without risking losing what we can’t afford to lose – so we wait, impatiently, for the next phase!!
by the way, a year in china cost us the same as about 2 months at home…
Great story! This time last year i was sitting at my computer in my office in Australia dreaming of a life full of challenge and adventure. Today i’m sitting at my laptop in Sao Paulo, Brazil… teaching English for a living. It’s possible!
#5 is spot on. Yes, travel can be expensive but make the most of last minute deals, or be super organised and book well in advance. In our early 50′s my wife and I resigned and took to the skies after several years of saving (and making sure the mortgage was paid off). That was six months ago. We use sites like helpx to reduce costs (work a few hours a day in return for full board). We some wonderful people, live like a local, and see so much more than a tourist. Couchsurfing also has many advantages. Hostel living is not particularly cheap in places, but cheaper than the alternatives, so lower your expectations (standards??) and get amongst it.
Yes, we still have to work from time to time – part time and temporary work is essential.
Take good advice from people on the forum, most valuable, do your homework, and don’t spend ALL your money, always have something to fall back on to not only get you home, but also allow survival when you get there.
This is totally do-able, and this article has only reinforced that we made the right decision to go. Do not wait for the “right time”, there will always be very good reason not to do it, and if think the right time will be along soon, then you need to think again.
Get out there, and make your friends jealous :-)
making money while travelling is possible. work holiday visas are easy ways to work in countries like Australia, New Zealand, Canada and even Denmark. Or you can aupair for a summer. The key is to save up a bit before you go. Skip going to the movies once a week and look for plane tickets on sale and you’re off in time.
Some of the benefits I found of taking a career break were the fact that I was active every day rather than stuck behind a computer at my desk job; which lead to building up my fitness to my best ever and getting my body more in tune with its optimum weight (I’m an Aussie size 16, not a size 8); increased self-awareness, self-reliance and self-confidence; decreased stress because I was no longer part of the ‘rat race’ (although travel is no holiday and I was always tuned in to my surroundings and safety, which is a different type of stress); and then there’s literally the world of opportunities that were at my feet to meet amazing people, experience and immerse myself in new cultures, and see some of the most spectacular natural beauty. My career break helped fill my spiritual soul in a non-religious way and made me a more complete person. I approach things differently now – as Sherry says, you don’t sweat the little things. Even a broken leg in Nepal was manageable and not the end of my travels. When I say I celebrated my 30th birthday in Rio, there are always envious looks! Go for it. Who said you should work 9-5 for 40 or so years!?!?!
Quit in ’89 and traveled for 19 months. Magic! Got to pull that off again as it looks like I will have to work for a while.
I quit a secure job to live in Italy for a year. We traveled to 50 cities in 8 countries. Coming back in the middle of the recession, I feared I’d never work again. But I was competing for jobs with people who’d worked themselves to exhaustion, and were fired anyway. I will always be glad I took that year, took that chance. And have a year of funny travel stories to show for it – at 4initalia on wordpress.
FYI – if you are out of the US for more than 330 consecutive days, you can exclude up to $91K in income from Federal income tax. My husband was on sabbatical for a year while we lived in Italy, but we got about $20k back as a tax refund when we returned. That helped cushion the financial blow. Check with an accountant – but find ways to make this happen for you.
thanks a bunch! i love the positive attitude towards travelling.
I did a similar thing: took off work for 2 years of traveling. Your friends and family will think you’re crazy (“lost wages!!!”) but what you will experience can’t be measured in $$$$; it will truly be a life-altering event. (Interestingly, most of the killjoys I met were other travelers who couldn’t seem to resist telling me I would never last more than 6 months … fortunately, I didn’t suffer from their problems!) A friendly warning, though: the biggest culture shock will be the return home!
As an American, I did this for 3 years and it really backfired. The experience was great, but when I returned, I found that most HR people do not like employment gaps, so I was not considered for jobs that I was overqualified for. The recruiters I spoke to said that “you have the right education, the right job experience, but I don’t think that the hiring managers will consider you.” They didn’t. Sabbaticals are unusual in the US, unlike other countries like Australia or the UK.
Has anyone done this with children? Don’t know if this is just a pipe dream. I took a sabbatical back in 1998, but I was on my own then…no children and no mortgage, I’d love them to see that things are achievable if you try hard enough though!
Leih –
Yes, I did this with 2 children. They went to an international school in Italy – and were the only Americans. My kids made friends from all over the world – and have a comfort with travel, and being out of their element, that most adults will never achieve. Email me at agelfuso@rocketmail.com if you want more info. Or read the funny stories about the kids’ school at my blog, at 4initalia. It was an expensive year, but it was worth every dime.
I met a family in East Africa who were doing the trans-Africa landrover thing; they had two girls around 8 and 10 and had “homeschooled” them along the way for the year they took off. They had been traveling for about 8-9 months when I met them, and though they said they had some ups and downs, the kids still were keen and having fun. The kids had some great stories!
This is a wish I have been nurturing for quite some months now. I wonder if I’ll ever be able to make it happen. Thanks for an inspiring article.