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Career Breaks and Taking Your Job WIth You

So child can look great on your resume and so uh we're going to call some other people on to talk about how do you take your job with you and so we have two folks uh day uh from globetrotter girls high they high we were katie boko need uh from ko ni dot com a u n e um and so katie took a career break uh she was a lawyer and she quit her job and went traveled through eastern europe in the stands for a close to a year thirteen months and came back and got another job and danny was a headhunter um she having some lag here that's okay um uh uh well danny was headhunter who from germany took her job with her over season ended over skype so um so we're going to go for kate because technical difficulties alive so so can you tell us a little bit about um your experience you decided you wanted to travel right but you clearly going to come back into jobs so how did you really think like ok I want to travel but I don't want to kill my career at the same time you know how did you handle that that ...

thought process and how did you approach your boss about say hey I'm going to go lead to travel sure actually initially thought of leaving a year earlier than I did and then I was offered a promotion at work and thought it would be good to take that promotion and have an extra year of experience to kind of fall back on and help myself when I eventually come back um and a in terms of approaching my bosses, I knew that I didn't want to go back to the same job, so it was pretty easy I did what I could to update my resume before I left, you know, and cut my contacts throughout so that I'd be in a good position when I returned. So when you didn't return, you sure are looking for a new job, you said don this interview and they said, look, you've been you have the gap in the resume explained the gap I actually didn't leave it as a gap in my resume, I actually put it right on my resume included a section of other experience and labeled it is a I think I call it the worldwide education and learning experience and listed, you know, I traveled to these twenty countries, I volunteered, I taught english, I studied russian, I started a website s o I put it all out there, so it really didn't, you know, look like a gap, it was really an experience that I had, so should we sit down in these interviews and people are like, oh, you've been all this stuff where they like well that's really interesting tell me mohr or did how do you turn that young this into regular great asset about how you know you've done you've learned russian you you did all the stuff you learn out, you're going to travel russia and through the stands by yourself you know, sometimes it came up sometimes it didn't some people were more interested than others thie job that I'm in I work in alumni relations and development, which doesn't really have many international aspects although I did apply for some jobs that had international components where I really focused on that and it came you know, I really talked about you know, my ability tio like you were just talking about, you know, be independent and adapt to situations and communicate under culturally, you know, so when that was relevant it, you know, tried to bring it up, but sometimes it didn't even really come up, you know, people were more focused on my skills from a previous job and how I could apply those children job I was applying for, so you would definitely say child was not a liability and no, no, not at all, probably because the only time, you know, even maybe seemed like a couple of people you know asked me, you know, I haven't got it out of my system and we're going to stick around you know and I just really talked about you know, I'm so glad to be home and so looking forward to getting into a routine again which at the time was very true so well well, I mean, do you have it out of your system? You know, I still don't think I would d'oh that long of a trip again definitely once I've been back for a few months starting getting the urge to go somewhere again I went to nepal in october for a cup well, weeks using vacation time but I think I got the long term thing out of my system it's not necessarily for everyone and I think for me thirteen months is doing it once was enough yeah that's what I thought too and that was, uh I I'll do a year I'll go get a job yeah, here I am seven years later still nomadic. So next question to you, katie is what advice would you give people who are you know, looking to do this? You know, and don't you don't want to continue the career? I mean, you've you're a lawyer, you working alumni relations at your school he's sort of moved into a different path, but you know what? If you want to like, come back or take your job or you haven't, I know you worked with organization called career break that what me playing? Go talking about career break. So what advice would you give to others? You know, I would say for some people and I know a lot of people who enjoy the work that they do but just really loved to travel and want a break on. I would say, you know, initially looking see if a sabbatical is an issue, I have a friend last summer or two summers ago who took a three month sabbatical and was able to go volunteer in morocco and then study french in france for three months and was able to return to her job and, you know, just kind of pick up where she left off. S I think, you know, you don't necessarily have to quit your job to go travel long term if you work in a place where a sabbatical is an option, but otherwise, you know, if you do want to make a bigger change, you know, even just stay in the same field but find a different job when you come back, you know, leave your current job on good terms. Keep in touch with people. Update your resume while you're there. It's it's really easy to forget a lot of your accomplishment. So definitely, you know, update things while you're still working and then, you know, just keep in touch with people while you're on the road on dh try toe, you know, if there's opportunities to volunteer doing things that are relevant to the field that you work in, you know, I think that's a great way to get experience and to add to your resume for when you return, you know, use lengthen, you know, just keep in touch with people and keep up with things rachel, his here in our studio, actually, because eventually said, you really want to take your job, your job is really portable. You went to amsterdam, but did you consider maybe quitting, maybe doing something else or do you really just, you know, looking to stay really were doing what you're doing because he loved it? Well, actually, what I did is I transitioned to a more flexible job about a month before I left, so I was a full time in house marketer with one company and then had opened the conversation we some connections and said, hey, I'm you know, I'm looking for something that I can take with me and that and, you know, facilitated in the direction to someone who was open to you employing me while I was overseas so I you know, I really I wanted to stay on the same career path I wanted to continue to develop those skills and to use the skills that I already been building I didn't want to look like that but I did want to go ahead and um and go with someone who would be willing tio you know, have off our phone calls and collaborate you know via email more than in real time and that worked out for me that's what I did fantastic thank you for sharing on occasion I think some people are from the they have that fear is now that they know they do want to maintain what they're doing but if they leave and they leave the workforce when they do come back it's going to be really problematic for them to get back into the workforce so your tips here really useful for the audience? Thank you. And how how would you what advice would you give for people to represent that travel on the rest of my you know, how did you you put it as sort of another section like I went travelling I called it worldwide education when device could you have sort of felt like, you know, I was partying around the world and it was awesome? Well, if all you do is party around the world it's kind of hard to spin that I developed people skills right yeah you know, I think I think it's important to own it and especially in you know, this kind of economy in the u s where people do sort of look at you know gaps and the resume is is red flag sometimes I think it's important to address it on your resume on really own it s o there's not that question of you know what were they doing for the last two years you know, you weren't just unemployed hanging around at home watching tv you know, you were out doing something and developing skills and you know really even if you were partying around the world you're still gaining a very valuable experience would you have any advice for people who want to take the job with them we were gonna have ah just just got but um danny but now you're saying jessica who is it just go uh yeah, you always say that if you want when you approach your boss you know it's important to talk about, you know, one maybe start on and I don't know how you pressured by, you know, let's start from home all right? Let me work from home for a couple of days a week to show that I'm still going to be a productive employee I'm not just going to, you know, sit around and watch netflix all day I'm show that you know, this is a workable situation and talk about the benefits of them then just say, hey, you know I wanted to amsterdam for three months and so can I go so I'm doesn't have any questions for katie yes, I am kind of unrelated I'm so interested to hear where she went in eastern europe and also how she picked that as her destination and what she did while she was there travel so I majored in russian in east european studies and I was in college, so that really sparked an interest initially in russia but then a lot of the former soviet countries so I actually did visited all fifteen former soviet republics so everywhere from russia, the baltics, valerie's, ukraine, moldova arm the caucuses and then finished up in the stands and they did a mix of traveling and volunteering. I taught english and russia and tajikistan and then I did a volunteer stint of armenia and then I also took russian language in russia and ukraine. Great, great. Um you do the trans siberian too, right? Yeah, I spent a month doing the trans siberian a flew from moscow to vladivostok and then spend a month taking the trans siberian back tomorrow so many of the eastern language that when they are they're famous famously impenetrable I mean a very hard language is tio learn did you have any challenges? They're communicating you know, I studied russian and I my russian got better as I went along on dh pretty much all of the former soviet countries he's russian either is a primary or secondary language, so I was able to get around pretty well with my russian, but I'm not fluent by any means but good enough story is my russia great. So thanks for being on your parting words or advice you like to give everybody on, you know, utilizing travel as a career booster and not killer, you know, I would just say go for it, but, you know, for me, I'm somebody who thinks things through a lot and, you know, I would advise people, you know, just think it through and plan for it. And like I was saying before, you know, plan your resume before you go keep those contacts up, you know, look for opportunities while you travel to supplement your resume on don't worry about it. I came back and I had five job offers, so you definitely it doesn't hurt your it doesn't kill your career. Great, great. Well, let's, get you encounter any siberian tigers? No, none outside of zoos, I saw a couple in zoos, um, would you recommend the trans siberian to everybody, definitely, I think it's it's such a different experience from what you get in moscow and st petersburg you just see a different side of russia and the people are a lot friendlier outside of the bigger cities it's just such a diverse country but you don't really realize that if you stay in moscow and st petersburg so yeah definitely recommend the trans siberian great great and so once again you confined katie at can you need a con you any that's where she has tons of great information about this and I'm traveling the stands and through the old farmer's over union and of course the trans siberian and how do you see tigers? Thank you. Good. Thank you. Enjoy your afternoon. Thank thank you to all of our hangout guess from the last couple of days and thanks big thank you to bend his working backstage in english was our technical guru about there he's been working very hard to get everybody and we couldn't quite get danny thank you down try. We really appreciate you trying to join us but you know whether the things that day was going to talk about and I will dresses when you do when you want to take your job with you and I think that's a question that comes up a lot and you know, one thing I would really tell tell you is, you know, when you approach your boss about it, don't approach it as you know, I really just want to go it's going to be in thailand, but I really like my job so I can do both talk about how it's going to be beneficial to the company and how you know you're still going to be a serious employees start off small maybe, you know, you work remotely from home for a couple of days before moving to the big ask like, can I take this job fully with may? Because a lot of employers might not be comfortable with that and even those pretty much so a lot of people jobs convene dina, you know, online, um, they're so people so like being near their co workers and you know, boss is like being there, their employees, so again, you know what you're saying is just go for it don't don't don't worry so much is not a career killer, you know, I think that is emblematic of everything every one of our guests have talked about is just it's not as trouble some it's it's, not his nerve wracking ahs you think it is the fear is all in your head um, just take the leap and, you know, even with your job, she came back here five my job opportunities I have many other friends who travels and taking career breaks and have come back to their jobs and I think you know that that's important is that nowadays we live in such a integrated world having experience being overseas can actually give you an edge over over other people you know, because you're going to be interacting with a lot more people from a lot more cultures and that's really an asset and plus you know, it looks good on resumes and I have had many people come up to me that you know they sat down in their job interview and then ended up just talking about their trip you know, because a lot of people want to do this and they're like oh you did this tell me and they are totally sidetracked and then maybe they got the jobs um so travel can looker and your resume a case as she phrased it as a way to talk about the skills she built while on the road so don't feel that gap in your resume view it as you know, an opportunity to develop other scales I can be useful in the in your career or in your job uh so remember you work overseas work to fund your travels or take a career way working and traveling go hand in hand we've talked a lot about money we've talked a lot of affording you trip and but you know if you are short of cash work turner found jobs chain has found opportunities rob front opportunities I have find opportunities millions early travelers every day are going to countries and finding job opportunities be open be flexible use your skill set yeah time it don't end up you know going to fruit picking season three months before waiting waiting for people go when you're needed asked around and network you know so many trials I know have just picked up ball break you know very quickly how long does it take you to find find for you get a job like that so easy because everyone's looking to you a white person on the street they recognize that you're speaking english and they go ok what club should I go to and then you just kind of a fire you think hard so easygoing that so I did that first and then three months I had the tour guide job too okay very specifically krista how did you get that job is this talk about how did you find it? Oh um asking around through through the hostiles teo I mean the hospitals sometimes work with companies that do like the guided tours the free guided tours and so you just you know, hand kind interest in this is gonna be here awhile like he needs more help this is me and my personality I like antoni gaudi so it's easy you are asking around and using the house is a great resource especially you asking your friends I found my king you have in taiwan through a friend of a friend you know um and so definitely asking you know hitting the pavement asking remember it's a job not a career you could take your career with you can take a break there's definitely that but if you're just like you know I need some more money into your travel with finally find a job it's easy is open do you have any questions or comments from section so I think you know as well as we've got some time here well let's see what we can get because we've all lost questions about the education requirements that seems to be the thing that's really interesting a lot of abel so kate wrong is saying come out address some of the blacklisted english programs english first indonesia for example is terrible reviews why and are they still safe to work for other programs that you really should avoid so there's a part of what drove me to write my book I'm teaching english was when people find out I did they want so how'd you get this get avoid the scams because I remember when I started searching for my job I type in like teaching in thailand and all these web sites would come up and we just be tons of the ads they want me to pay money to for me creating or like the links went toe other ad companies and third parties should definitely be wary of companies who you don't seem right. How about the ads or, like are charging you huge placement fees because the feet the placement stuff should be paid for by the school? I have a friend who runs a teaching placement service called reached to teach it's free for the teachers because the schools pay the fees, so every time you're asked to pay the fee two for a job, he definitely area that davy sl cafe dot com has a wonderful forum on dh, you know, breaks it down by country and people in that country william companies to avoid cos, you know, avoid this company, you know, avoid that company and so it's really important too. Look, do your research, do your research. You know, if you're looking for a job in taiwan or south korea, indonesia look online and see what the reviews of these companies are. You can pretty much type in any school name plus review. They will bring up search after search it of english teaching boards and people reviewing that company. You have chosen to take your work while you travel, so lucas wants to know, how would you handle your meeting if you have a situation where you have to have lots of co worker meetings how do you how do you work that out especially if the people meeting are in different time zones different countries um luckily personally for may it's only me and a part time help assistant so we sort of worked our co schedule she travels but what were you doing all this skype is your friend I everything went through skype or google hangout is another thing uh would you have to be really flexible if you have people on lots of time zones one thing I remember working doing corporate hospital doctors were always traveling we have this sort of scheduled time zones you have to be flexible with late night early early morning meetings you know especially if you decide to take your job with you and your um in another time zone your boss is working on his time zone and he's not going to like well you know it's okay that this time is you know you're beat time no this is your meeting time so you got to really be flexible with that and I think that's really important other people are asking just about that you mentioned in case degrees two people relieve advanced degrees with a bachelor's be enough for them to teacher do they have to have a master's or even an mba on other people just saying general about can you teach a tall without a careful or without a degree can you just go and say hey you are you can have a bachelor's is fine you can teach me that it's helpful you can teach without either sojourn generally if you want a pretty well paying job that's above board and that's going to offer a lot of these person bonuses they're gonna want youto have at least a bachelor's degree you'll have it back I agree they're going to want you to take maybe a longer you know like the one hundred twenty hours helpful if you have nothing you're pretty much in there get a lower paying job and it's probably going to be under the table something because when you have those degrees that allows you for the work he's up whereas if you don't have anything they can't get you the work visa so you're going to be under the table you know it varies from company to company and country to country some country are a lot stricter about it south korea, japan countries in the middle east, hong kong, taiwan very strict about making sure you have a proper visa to get the visa you'll need a bachelor's two great other countries around the world something's asia, china you know a temple can be fine if you want to hire and job you want to teach at an international school you're going to need to be a licensed teacher and those those schools are legitimate riel schools you need to be a licensed teacher and have a bachelor's degree short term just like a month or so do you really need to make a long commitment to the school? So the reason the companies have the completion bonuses is often because they're hiring a transient workforce and so is their way to say like give them an incentive to stay you work for twelve months and you get the bonus aa lot of people I know signing that contract and like, sorry uh I got to go down after a couple of months um school's really kind of want you to stay longer term most of this, like really short term like, you know, maybe a couple of weeks to a month opportunities come through like the summer camps because there are only a couple of months or teaching during the breaks where they sort of need extra staff because the kids are out of school your winter holidays and in such or their volunteer are opportunities if you're not to be able to walk into a language school and say, hey, I want to be here for like, three weeks how can I help you? Like you can get out of the way so we can hire some longer term? We actually have one more from piyush, india who wants to know how you handle the challenges of working while you're on the road? You talked earlier about optimizing the way you stay in apartment more so than couch surfing these days because you need to get things done. Can you share some other challenges that you have had and how you solve that? How I were specifically for doing all of this, I take these off so I will travel for a couple of days and I'll you take a day to just sit around and I'll just work, uh, and I'll go travel don't take a day and I'll just sit and work. Um, I also break out my day in the morning where I'm usually the most productive is, well, I'll do my writing, and then I'll go out during the day, maybe I won't come back till you know the early evening before there, and I'll do my emails because I'm usually not in the mood to, like, do the heavy, heavy lifting, and they'll go out and repeat, so I sort of know, like my work habits, I had a random insight, teo, the previous question, which was, can you do it for, like, a month? And this is just something I found out living in spain. There are a couple of web sites there, and I assume they be elsewhere, but like it's kind of like gum tree, um or time like the craigslist of europe but there's a couple of them like I think one of them called two classes particular wrist or something where you can post like him in english speaker and if you are a spanish speaker and wanna trade lessons like they will pay you for that sometimes so you could do that for a month and it's totally under the table and just one on one so that's kind of easy and nice so it's another way to sort of do it short term is to do like the private tutoring or finding you know training lessons are going on craigslist to me like hey who's here you're gonna have to do it with just english you could do that with anything you know a great website is great app I guess too it's called task rabbit I mentioned it yesterday you know they're kind of u s can expanding globally you know if you're in place and you get some time when it makes money right just help with the site and you have somebody needs something moved do it you know if someone needs some english lessons craigslist gum tree which is more u k australia, new zealand their version of that go on offer your services where they're speaking english bartending uh helping people move whatever it is you know odd jobs you know pay you know enough for a day's wage and your days expenses