
Ask HN: Career advice – (long) LOA after taking a new SWE position - throwaway-loa
I&#x27;m currently studying for tech interviews after leaving previous company (after 6 years) for hiking few thousand miles (Pacific Crest Trail + more).
I have the privilege to be able to dedicate a lot of time for studying at the moment, which might help increasing my chances of passing interviews at Google&#x2F;Amazon&#x2F;FB.
However, it&#x27;s likely that I&#x27;ll want to go on another 4-6 months hike (CDT) in a year from now.
It&#x27;d make no sense for me to invest so much of my time to try and get an offer from one of these companies just to quit a year later (or even perhaps even two), which leaves me with other options whose feasibility is a big unknown for me:<p>1. Get an unpaid leave of absence - that would be ideal, though I have no idea how long after one starts working in any of these companies, it&#x27;s possible to get 5 months off.<p>2. Delayed contract - use this one year to work for another company while preparing for job interviews at Google&#x2F;Amazon&#x2F;Facebook.
Attempt to interview 2-3 months before quitting for hiking and if I get offers, I&#x27;ll try to sign a contract that starts shortly after my hike should end. I&#x27;ve heard (I think it was on SE daily) Google offering contracts for up to a year forward but I&#x27;m not sure if it&#x27;s a standard thing and how it&#x27;d work on the other two.<p>3. Combine these strategies - try to sign a contract with one of the big four that&#x27;s not on the top of your list, interview for the others before going for a hike and attempt to leverage the current position in order to get better offer on a delayed contract. This is obviously is the least likely option with a lot of unknowns to it.<p>So, my questions are:
What do you know of Unpaid LOA in these companies? Same for delayed contracts and finally - are these options I described here even make sense?
What other options would you come up with if you had some time to spend on studying now but you wanted time of in about a year from now?<p>Thanks.
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vkaku
Go on your trip and come back, study and do something with your life.

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throwaway-loa
I will, in a year and a bit, but my questions remain.

