I took a break after getting laid off from YCR (2017) and joining Google (2020). My wife just had our baby and she was a bit stir crazy, so I thought it better to focus on getting her a job first (so I would take care of the kid instead). We have a bit of redundancy now, which is useful at least (we are ok if either us loses their job, but we would definitely try to both stay working).

What they don't tell you is that employers are suspicious if you are out of the job market for more than a year. And anyways, no, it doesn't make sense to stay at home and raise your kid, just pay for the childcare and get back to work as soon as possible. And they wonder why birthrate is tanking...

> What they don't tell you is that employers are suspicious if you are out of the job market for more than a year

literally one of the first things "they tell you" (it's common knowledge).

I wasn’t told, or maybe didn’t take it seriously enough.

They may be suspicious as in they ask, but as soon as you say it was to raise a child it will be fully answered without issue

can’t believe the number of comments talking like this… the only way I would work for an employer like this is if my kid and wife were hungry and I had no other choice. without my family I wod rather be homeless than work for an employer like this (and yes, they are in a majority).

My companies (YCR and then Google) have been nothing but supportive of my family. But yes, I maybe dodged many bullets in my job search.

> They're usually leaving a $400k+ per year job and there'll be another similar job waiting for them when they're ready to jump back

Will there be though? I honestly don't know. I'm closer to that boat, I get (good) job offers every 3-6 months, but nonetheless, if I was laid off... I think that'll leave a pretty nasty mark on my resume, no matter the reason. I don't think I'd wait a year to start looking for jobs again. A big gap won't help either.

* Recruitment emails from top competitors I should say.

I have two, one year long+ gaps on my resume at almost 40. Only a single employer has even asked about it. Though my situation is perhaps a bit different I suppose in that when I was was asked, I had about as "good" of a reason as you can possibly have, and they proceeded to make an offer.

All in all though, it's not impacted my ability to re-enter the job market, though I must admit I did assume prior that it would.

This will obviously vary by job market, country and your own capability to sell yourself I imagine.

It will not leave a nasty mark on your resume. That's your anxiety telling you that. Nobody cares unless there are other red flags to pair with it (e.g. lots of short tenure jobs, etc).

I took 6 months off last time I did a job switch. I had 10+ offers from top companies and not a single one of them asked me about the break or cared.

Exactly this. And a potential employer has an issue with the "gap" in the resume - RUN FOR THE HILLS (or if you need job immediately take it and continue interviewing and leave as soon as another opportunity present itself).

About a year ago we had an open position and hired SPECIFICALLY a person who took some time off after COVID. She was like "it was insanely stressful time and I need some time to regroup" and everyone who interviewed her was like "perfect, just perfect"!

I can vouch for this advice. I had an encounter with a bad employer and a 6 month period without a job. I ended up taking a position somewhere that treated me like a freak for it and tried to use it to weaken negotiation. Additionally, they took issue to me not having many multi-year roles. Normally, I'd not tolerate that, but sometimes you just need health insurance (thanks, USA).

That place ended up being a terrible place to work for a number of reasons. I eventually found a much better team who didn't question any of that. It was an entirely freeing experience. It truthfully would have been a liability to stay there any longer as the leadership and technical skills were not there. I left alongside many other people and haven't looked back.

Gaps should not be an issue. But it’s still good to have a ready talking point around a gap if asked about it in an interview. If you are perceived as being evasive about an employment gap, it’s not unreasonable for an interviewer to draw a negative inference about that. At that point it’s not your potential employer with the problem regarding the gap…it’s you.

Just about anything can be spun to a positive or at least neutral light.

You know that you don't have to show employment dates on your resume, right? If you feel like it, you can just show the number of months/years you worked at each position. No one is really going to bother to add them all up to see if they match the calendar years.

We're usually too focused on finding the few people that meet our requirements and don't have the time to waste looking for red flags.

> Nobody I know is leaving a $70k a year job to take a sabbatical.

I took my first sabbatical at 25, with only a few years in the industry, making a lot less and I think $35k in the bank. Everyone told me I was crazy putting a gap in my CV, spending savings, etc. but I did anyway.

It was easily the best two years of my life, I travelled South America and Asia without a care in the world until the money was gone. Then I went back to work without an issue and have continued taking long periods off throughout my career. These days I'm a remote contractor, and even though I can and do work from anywhere I regularly still take months off at a time. I have a lot of savings too and a fully paid house in a country I love.

My point is that we create the anxiety for ourselves. A different lifestyle is possible if you make certain choices.

You hit a big nail square on the head.

Kids + spouse changes everything.

My condolences to the writer because it sounds like he had a divorce, which changed one part of that equation.

> Kids are another huge factor that changes this.

Yep, I have have quit a perfectly good job to bum around Southeast Asia. Now that kids are in the picture being unemployed would be very stressful.

3 months now might be more valuable than 3 months when you’re old.

> Nobody I know is leaving a $70k a year job to take a sabbatical

I did. Best decision of my career.