Tips for Successfully Returning from a Career Break
In the UK, around 90,000 people take a career break every year. A career break is typically a period of time greater than two months when you aren’t being paid by an employer. There are many reasons to take a career break and they generally last around six months in total.
Reasons for Career Breaks
Many people have complex and varied reasons for taking career breaks and they may be one of the below or a combination of them, depending upon their own circumstances.
Refocus and Evaluate Life
Career breaks are often used when some significant life events have taken place such as the end of a long-term relationship or the death of a parent. It tends to be something that people do when they need to refocus and refresh their perception of life in some way. Many people travel during this time, going to far-flung places to look for a change of awareness and perspective.
Focus on Training and Skills
They can also be used to take some time out from their normal daily grind to focus on an aspect of training or self-improvement that they have wanted to do for a long time. A career break can be a way to create the space to complete the training, which may be for a new career or to help to upskill and improve to continue and advance in their existing one.
Some people find that being able to focus on training for six months or more can advance their career more than they would have in several years of normal work. If they are able to spend that time in tightly focused training and expanding upon their existing skills and knowledge, it can be a game changer at work.
It can feel like a gamble at the time to forsake six months of income but if they are able to survive on savings for that length of time and the end benefit is likely to be significant, it makes a lot of sense to do.
Spending Time with the Family
When people are in busy jobs, they don’t always get to spend as much time with their families as they would like. As their children grow and as they go through changes in their lives where they need more support, it can be useful to be able to take time away from work to be there for them. This is also true of having older family members who may need more family care and support for a period of time.
Taking Time Out from a Toxic Work Environment
When the working environment isn’t ideal and the office is a toxic mixture of cronyism, gossip and discrimination, sometimes the best thing that can be done is to step away from it entirely for a while. Being kind to yourself means avoiding the burnout that is almost certainly on the way if things continue as they are.
Returning from a Career Break
Returning after a career break can be challenging on a personal level, as returning to a regular day job and the schedule that goes with it can be quite different from the life lived during the break. Colleagues and employers can also sometimes be quite negative about career breaks but we have some tips below for how best to ease the transition.
Regularise your Sleep Schedule
Before slotting back into the regular nine to five job, it is important to ensure that your sleep schedule is back on track, so you won't be feeling tired all the time. This means that in the weeks before starting a job, it is important to maintain a consistent bed-time and to ensure that enough sleep is consistently achieved. Human beings usually work best when consistent patterns and habits are established and this is the best way to ensure a successful reintegration at work.
Think about How to Explain Your Career Break
As career breaks are relatively uncommon, it is necessary to think about how best to explain them to bosses and colleagues in ways that work to your benefit. Taking time out to learn new skills relating to your job is always a positive story to be able to tell. Likewise, doing some travelling and ticking some items off your bucket list gives you kudos for being someone who is a go-getter and who isn’t afraid to go after their dreams.
You may feel like you lay on a beach in Thailand for two months and did the occasional bit of sightseeing but you would describe it in terms of the cultural exchange you played a part in, the life experience that you gained, the incredible temples you visited and the inner peace you derived from meditation.
Mention the Skills You Improved
When you think back on your career break, remember to note the skills that you spent time working on. These can be transferable skills, such as interpersonal skills or better remote working capability. You may have taken on some freelance work while you were on your career break and if so, you can explain the benefits that this brought you in terms of your understanding of industry trends and how you see the future working out.
Be Confident About Your Career Break
Often those who are least confident about a career break are those who went on them. Embrace the career break and all that it means for your skills and your career and nobody can use it as a negative against you.
If you appear confident and explain the break in positive terms, helping them to understand how it has helped you to hone your skills, there is nothing really negative that can be said. Anything that is slightly negative can just be brushed aside as jealousy on the part of the other person that this wasn’t something that they had the gumption and self-assurance to be able to do. It comes across as petty and needless and you won't be the person who looks bad for it.
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