#1 More Aligned Professional Development

A career break allows you to be more valuable to your next employer. You can deepen your skills or professional development because a career break offers spaciousness that can be used to learn new skills, or further your education. 

You can pick up new skills by engaging in courses, workshops, or volunteer work that are aligned with your passions and strengths. That's a win-win for both you and your next employer. 

My  first two career breaks were crucial in my career redirection from a teacher teaching an academic subject into a lecturer facilitating learning related to practical life skills.  

I did volunteer work such as nature guiding and became involved in diversity dialogues. Those activities allowed me to become comfortable engaging with people from all walks of life and to draw out conversations and perspectives. That was a new skill set I had to learn, because I had been previously trained to guide students to give me a “right answer”.

I was also doing many workshops; from drawing, oil painting, improvisational theater, storytelling and many others. These allowed me to develop new modalities and experiential lessons to engage a greater range of students in my lessons. 

#2 Increased Employee Motivation

Another reason why a career break benefits employers is that upon return to the workforce, a potential employee is more enthusiastic  and motivated in his or her career. 

The potential employee is bound to develop greater self awareness following a career break. He or she is likely to be in a better headspace to find greater alignment between the organization’s, and his or her personal goals.

During my second career break, I stumbled upon the Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) movement. I realized that the same math and strategies can be used to plan for a perpetual career break, where investments can support one’s lifestyle, without income from a job. That way, I don't have to worry about money running out and getting desperate to go back to work.

I have been labeled a workaholic many times, so don’t get me wrong, I am not anti-work by any means. However, I do want to plan for flexibility about when and how much I work sometime in the future. 

Once I figured out how much more I need to accumulate in my nest egg to fund a long-term career break, I was off to the races. I re-entered the working world, for a third time, with renewed energy and motivation. 

During the school vacations, I wasn't taking holidays. I did projects such as bringing students overseas and conducted workshops for other teachers. I took on night classes on top of my regular teaching hours and responsibilities.  I was extremely motivated to do well in my job and was elated to get higher bonuses. Whatever opportunity that I was given to do extra and progress in my role, I took it. 

It sounds exhausting, but you know what? I had SO MUCH fun!  I was energized to work, especially since my former bosses and colleagues are such an awesome bunch to work with. I had the pleasure of working alongside brilliant co-workers I respect, and learnt so much from my students. It was really satisfying for me to devote and go all-in into my work.

#3 Improved Financial Planning 

We may think that a career break will take a toll on our finances because we are no longer getting a regular income from work. But if we look at it from a long-term perspective, a break can provide the time and mental space needed to evaluate and improve our financial situation, in areas such as how to track our spending, save, and invest. 

This was not taught in schools, so for many of us, we have to devote some time during our lives to pick up these personal finance skills. And a career break is prime time to do that.

During my second career break, I got crystal clear about what I wanted from a future career break and how much it was going to cost. I don't think I would have the bandwidth or headspace to dive deep into my own numbers if not for a career break. 

Looking at my personal finances and habits dug up a lot of emotions - the fun trio of guilt, shame, self blame. I wouldn't have been able to handle all of it if I didn't have the spaciousness in my life to go through the roller coaster of how the process makes me feel.

I left my job near the height of the post-pandemic stock market euphoria. I wasn’t expecting that mere months after leaving my job, Mr Market would get into a really foul mood. I ran smack into the Financial Armageddon of 2022 where both the value of my equities and bonds fell by SGD$70,000. Good times!

Thankfully, I knew just enough not to sell off anything in a panic. As of today, Mr Market is in a fantastic mood so, overall, my portfolio has recovered. More unbelievably, it has even risen in value. 

It’s one thing to experience a market downturn when you are still earning income from your job, but it is quite another to experience it when you no longer have active income from a job. Having my financial plans take a sound beating and then recovering, thoroughly stress-tested over one market cycle, I think I have more robust experiences and tips to share with you, so I hope you’ll stick around to read my stories and lessons.

#4 Lifestyle Upgrade

A career break offers you a chance to dedicate time to improving your lifestyle. For me, it was my physical health. 

When I was working, emotional eating forms a big part of how food lands into my mouth. When I am stressed, I eat. When I have some transition time between meetings or lessons, I snacked.

During this career break, I spent time learning about nutrition and how to cook. I'm also more  aware of triggers that lead to emotional eating. 

In the past when I was working on something, I always postponed exercising. Today, movement is incorporated in my days. I have a long way to go, but I'm trying to take better care of myself and be more intentional about my lifestyle.

#5 Increased Well-Being

A career break provides the opportunity to rest, recuperate and recharge. It's hard to attend to all dimensions of our well-being, especially when we have demanding jobs. A career break is a fantastic pause that allows us the opportunity to address a domain of well-being that we have neglected.

If you want to take a quick snapshot of how well you are doing, I invite you to look at the SPECIAL well-being web which I designed.