Ask HN: Those who have taken extended time off, any advice? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Those who have taken extended time off, any advice?

#61

Post by splonk » Fri, May 21, 2021, 9:32 PM UTC

gary_bernhardt wrote: post #37

amacneil wrote: post #24

- "Try to take 3 months off maximum" - "structure your time off" - "Have goals and schedules" - "Arrange ahead of time for a role to return to" You are getting a very American perspective in this thread so far (possibly due to the time of day). I will counterbalance it. Advice: You're overthinking it already. If you feel like a long break in between roles, take one. Book a one way ticket to a place you've always want…

I second this advice, having done it. I flew one-way from Seattle to Dublin in 2010 with no plan beyond the first week. 25ish cities and 4.5 months later, I flew back. You'll figure it out as you go. But, a warning from experience: when you fly one-way to another country where you'll go through immigration, always pre-book travel OUT of that country as well, and have printed (on paper!) proof to show border control.…

I don't recommend that people do this without a high risk tolerance, but I've talked to dozens of immigration officers without proof of onward travel (I managed to fill all the regular stamp pages on my last passport). Probably half of them didn't even ask, and most of the rest of them immediately accepted that I was going to buy some ticket out in a week or two. Maybe I got lucky, but I think "American software developer" just doesn't look like a real high risk to them, and I probably don't present myself as a backpacker who might run out of money while I'm there. I have brought printouts of savings and retirement account balances and such, but I've never had to show them. I would have been willing to buy a ticket out on the spot if necessary as well.

Weirdly, it's the land crossing to Canada that has always been most difficult for me. Once, after getting pulled aside to chat with an officer for 15 minutes or so, he eventually said, "so what you're telling me is that you're rich enough that you're not coming here to work in the oil field?" "Yes, exactly."

Re: Ask HN: Those who have taken extended time off, any advice?

#62

Post by systemsdude » Fri, May 21, 2021, 10:24 PM UTC

I took 8-9 months off a few years ago. I absolutely recommend it, especially if you feel like you need it. I didn't travel much, other than to see friends elsewhere in the U.S., but I didn't get bored. The highlights were training for and running a half marathon, improving my cooking, developing habits for keeping my apartment clean, reading lots of books that had been sitting around, and random fun coding things like Project Euler. Not having to keep to a set schedule was liberating and wonderful.

It wasn't more expensive. I was paying for a COBRA health plan but I was eating out a lot less, and it mostly balanced out. Apart from securing health care, there wasn't anything I would have found useful to plan ahead of time. I do wish I had traveled to Europe or Asia, but that's my only regret. It's all "you time" and you can just trust yourself to know what you want to do once you go through the initial recovery from the stress of working. For me, after about seven months I realized I was ready to go back to work, and I was lucky enough to find a job that I've been at since then. I will likely take another extended break, but maybe just 4-5 months, and I will be sure to travel then.

Re: Ask HN: Those who have taken extended time off, any advice?

#63

Post by formerchamp » Fri, May 21, 2021, 10:24 PM UTC

I quit my 6 figure Devops job in 2013 (was still called web ops at the time) and have been fine. Invested in some as-is cash only real estate in the hood (2 months on the MLS, not even wholesalers would touch it), learned how to roof, plumb, wire, manage section 8 tenants, seller finance, etc. Became Republican (Dodd-Frank screws over under the table immigrants who can't get FHA loans). Just keep learning. About to start a used car dealership. Tremendous margins and all you need is Chilton, Haynes, and youtube.

Re: Ask HN: Those who have taken extended time off, any advice?

#64

Post by anm89 » Fri, May 21, 2021, 10:35 PM UTC

underyx wrote: post #58

curiousgal wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand he can actually take off and go wherever he wants thanks to his American passport.

Ah yes, the world's 45th most powerful passport. [0]: https://www.passportindex.org/byRank.php

This is a pretty dishonest way to present this IMO.

I've been traveling for the last 10 years and my American Passport never got in my way, and in exceptionally few cases would anything have been any easier with the passport from the #1 country on the list. Yes a few times I had to fill out some extra paperwork.

America has a VERY STRONG passport. This is a bimodal distribution where most of the passports in each of the groups are equivalent to each other and the US is in group A.

Re: Ask HN: Those who have taken extended time off, any advice?

#65

Post by epc » Fri, May 21, 2021, 10:51 PM UTC

groaner wrote: post #20

epc wrote: post #17

I took a three month leave of absence at the end of a six year run of 7x24 days in the dot com era, totally burned out. I extended it another three months as I entered the initial last month as I didn't feel "ready" to return. I think the experience completely broke my willingness to return to a "normal" tech role again and I've bounced between short bursts of employment and long bursts of not working or semi–employm…

> What I did do: learned basic Mandarin, established a relationship that has lasted 20+ years, read many non CS / non-technical books, focused on getting healthier and fitter. Would imposing a structure and setting goals for your time off have helped or interfered with these (admittedly admirable) results?

I think it would have helped with re–entering a normal work environment, I don't think it would have interfered with the results.

Honestly (and this is ~20+ years in the past now) getting some sort of therapy after spending five years in the dot com craziness would helped as well. Sometimes it's difficult to realize you’re in a toxic environment until you’re well removed from that environment.

Re: Ask HN: Those who have taken extended time off, any advice?

#66

Post by adsteel_ » Fri, May 21, 2021, 10:56 PM UTC

__jf__ wrote: post #7

The most surprising thing I discovered was that it took me 3 months to lose a jittery “I.SHOULD.DO.SOMETHING.NOW” feeling. Only after 3 months did I feel truly relaxed to pursue whatever interest-driven nerding project and at the same time letting go of a sense of achievement or progress. 2021 was supposed to be a “me” year until an interesting project came along. I said yes. Taking time off is hard.

Taking time off is a skill! I think the 3mo threshold is common. It takes a long time to start to "let go" as you say. Pre-tech career I worked seasonally and for years had 4-5 months off a year. It let me build up a different, more positive understanding of myself, decoupled from the anxieties and pressures of work.

Re: Ask HN: Those who have taken extended time off, any advice?

#67

Post by throwaway2a02 » Fri, May 21, 2021, 11:08 PM UTC

Advice? Try to find the reason behind this feeling, this "exhaustion", or why working is "consuming" you, because this doesn't lead to a sustainable way of living. Chances are when you get back (if you don't happen to fall into a downward spiral. It's easy to fall into one if you cut your social contact, your income, safety net etc. All these could make getting back into the workfield quite hard), things won't be massively better, unless you address the root cause.

Re: Ask HN: Those who have taken extended time off, any advice?

#68

Post by tudelo » Fri, May 21, 2021, 11:25 PM UTC

tppiotrowski wrote: post #3

Try to take 3 months off maximum. With my paid job I sometimes got overwhelmed and sometimes felt a lack of purpose. At those times I found solace in side projects and would even try to sneak in working on them at my paid job. A few of those projects were successful enough to quit my paid job for a few years. Since then I've turned to quitting my job first and then trying to start a side project. It's not the same an…

I hope your sister is never my manager

Re: Ask HN: Those who have taken extended time off, any advice?

#69

Post by qqqwerty » Fri, May 21, 2021, 11:28 PM UTC

qqqwerty wrote: post #56

A lot of advice depends on what you want to do and where you are at in life. If you have meager savings, then taking a year off might be a bad idea, but taking a few months might be do-able. If your 401k and bank accounts are flush then you have a lot more wiggle room. Some additional thoughts: - It goes by fast. If you have a long list of things you want to do during that time, I would make sure to prioritize. If yo…

And as a quick follow up to my last point. It might make sense to think about how taxes can work in your favor. If you take a year off, and you split the year across two calendar years (i.e. June 2021 to June 2022), you will get a nice refund from the IRS come tax day both years. Whereas you would get no refund if you do Jan 2022-Dec2022.

Alternatively, if you have a bunch of capital gains in stocks you could cash some of that out tax free if you have no income for the year (i.e. the Jan 2022-Dec2022 scenario).

Some other considerations in terms of timing are bonuses and PTO payouts. For example, I had a ton of PTO saved up (this was before everyone was doing unlimited PTO, which makes this issue irrelevant). My last day was in late December and they gave me a check for all of the unused PTO. Had I waited until January, that money would have been mostly tax free.

Probably not something you want to stress too much about. But if it works out you can put an extra $5-10k in your pocket which will take some of the sting off of losing the paycheck.

Re: Ask HN: Those who have taken extended time off, any advice?

#70

Post by gary_bernhardt » Fri, May 21, 2021, 11:39 PM UTC

splonk wrote: post #61

gary_bernhardt wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second this advice, having done it. I flew one-way from Seattle to Dublin in 2010 with no plan beyond the first week. 25ish cities and 4.5 months later, I flew back. You'll figure it out as you go. But, a warning from experience: when you fly one-way to another country where you'll go through immigration, always pre-book travel OUT of that country as well, and have printed (on paper!) proof to show border control.…

I don't recommend that people do this without a high risk tolerance, but I've talked to dozens of immigration officers without proof of onward travel (I managed to fill all the regular stamp pages on my last passport). Probably half of them didn't even ask, and most of the rest of them immediately accepted that I was going to buy some ticket out in a week or two. Maybe I got lucky, but I think "American software deve…

Yeah, you can get lucky. But if you actually get denied entry and put on the next flight back, you'll wish you'd printed that flight receipt. All it takes is one officer having a bad day. (Or one who doesn't like [insert part of your identity here].)