
Ask HN: What are your thoughts on taking a career sabbatical? - caser
Those of us in tech are quite privileged, in that it&#x27;s pretty likely that even if we take 3, 6, 12 months off from work, we can find a job relatively easily when we come back.<p>Still, I see a lot of people jumping from job to job without really taking time off to do the things they might not be able to do while working (travel, hack out a side project, etc.).<p>What do you think about taking a sabbatical? What holds you back from taking one if you haven&#x27;t &#x2F; won&#x27;t?
======
eb0la
Having a mid-career "stop/pause/sabbatical" is a really good idea if you can
afford it.

You don't realize how much of your daily life is done in autopilot until you
stop and have time to think about your priorities, specially your career
priorities.

In my case it helped me to focus on what I wanted to do the next 10 years
(DATA), and get more confidence on what can I do as a developer (15+ years
without serious coding).

Just one suggestion: during that time play every contess/prize you find about
your career. This forces you to work on deadlines and speeds-up a lot how you
learn.

------
ramtatatam
I would love to do this if only I had enough money to support myself for a
year :-) Though not that easy when you have family to care of..

------
seige
I am thinking of taking one too. Not too sure on what to do with the time
though.

I wanna do something focused for that time than a bunch of random small
things.

Do you have any recommendations? A nice 4month program would be super nice.

------
samfisher83
I work at a big company. Long break on your CV is a red flag for HR and Hiring
Managers. It might be a different at smaller companies.

~~~
vinylkey
What's the reasoning behind this? If someone wants to take 6 months off
between jobs to travel/spend time with family/whatever, why is this seen as a
negative?

~~~
PerfectElement
Maybe because you are not being a good cog in the machine. Do anything unusual
and you may be seen as a risky hire.

Of course, it depends on the company, but this is what I recall from my
corporate years.

