HACKER Q&A
📣 sabaticaltaway

Are career breaks detrimental when applying to a new job?


I'm in my low thirties and have been working in tech for little over a decade now, five years at my current company. I am also completely over my current job, in fact, even thinking about it makes me anxious to the point of having the eventual panic attack (You can guess how productive I have been in the recent past).

I would like to quit my position, take some time to sort a few things in my life (probably less than six months) and eventually get back to working in the industry. I am, however, afraid that this empty space on my curriculum would be very badly perceived by future employers.

To the people who have taken a career break, have you had issues when applying to a new position after your break was over? And to the recruiters out there, do you view these breaks in a bad light?

  👤 Juliate Accepted Answer ✓
It depends how you frame it.

A gap is empty. But it's not because you take a whole year (or even more) off of work that you do nothing.

Project yourself: will you have grown in some way, learned anything new (about yourself, or about anything else) that gives you an advantage/maturity/oversight compared to other candidates to the same positions?

Edit: as for tech, things move fast, but not _so_ fast either. Unless you're looking for positions where you are expected to be top-productive on the spot in the latest technologies updates, you ARE definitely relevant with the same technical bagage in 2/3 years time. Places that advertise the contrary smell problematic anyway: what matters is knowing how to do the right thing first. Then doing it.

👤 DamonHD
Umm, if your break is less than a year then keep job etc dates on your CV in whole years and it will take some detailed enquiry to notice your gap, and at that point you can explain that that you needed a break and some study time etc. It worked for me and a friend in a previous recession. Indeed, we talked our way into a better job than we applied for (as a team)... B^>
👤 hunglee2
6 months is ok. I would say even 12 months is fine, especially during the pandemic era when a lot of us have extra to deal with it. However, if you do want to re-enter tech, a sector which moves so fast, I would not leave it any longer than 12 months, unless you are also doing something in that time to keep your skills fresh.

Could be that you're done with it though - if that is the case, then finding a career pivot in the next 12 months would be the move.

Good luck!