Back To Work After A Travel Sabbatical — Job Search After Extended Time Away

My friend who took almost six months off for a travel sabbatical recently landed a job. He got this offer after two to three months of job searching, and it is at a comparable level to where he left off.

Clearly his time away didn’t detract from his career.

That said, there is no guarantee that if you take extended time away from your career you can pick up right where you left off. My friend worked hard on his search, frequently scheduling six to seven meetings in a day. He also built a solid network throughout his career, so he had a foundation to support him when his travel sabbatical was over.

It’s always good to have the option to easily slot back into a job if you want to take a travel sabbatical, or if you try out the digital nomad life and find you don’t like it as much as you expected.

Here are five ways to keep the career doors open to you.

Stay in touch

In general, employers are suspicious of time gaps on a resume.  Even though you can point out multiple reasons why time away is good for professional and personal development, your resume has a red flag when there is a gap.

Therefore, the best way to return to work isn’t to blindly apply to jobs, but to tap your network of former colleagues, even classmates, for referrals and leads. Your contacts already know you, like you and trust you, so they won’t view the gap as a disadvantage. They will be happy you took time off and excited to help you return.

Ideally, you have been nurturing your network throughout your career and not just reaching out to people when you’re back and now need something.

My friend was really good at this — always returning calls and emails when he was gainfully employed and in a position to help. When it was his turn to need help, people gladly reciprocated.

If you haven’t stayed in touch, invest some time at the beginning of your search to reconnect with people. We all know people who only reach out when they need something – you don’t want to be that person.

Stay updated during your travel sabbatical

One reason that employment gaps are viewed with suspicion is that the employer is concerned your skills have atrophied and your expertise is now outdated from your time away. It’s up to you to stay updated and prove you can do the job.

I once coached a former sales executive who had taken many years off (for family, not travel). She was able to restart her career in large part because she had done some fundraising and partnership building during her time off, and this showed her still flexing those sales skills, albeit in a different context.

If you didn’t do anything work-related during your time off, start a project alongside your job search so you have something current to talk about.

Be prepared to work hard at coming back from a travel sabbatical

Reconnecting with your network and updating your skills require time and effort. You can’t expect people to line up to hire you when you announce that you’re back. This can be hard to accept, especially if you feel like you haven’t been away that long.

I once coached a media executive who spent a year traveling and expected to take on projects and consulting once he returned, but not to return to a traditional job. Once he was back, however, he missed the office environment and wanted back in. He was surprised that he had to hustle to uncover leads and land meetings.

At first, he resisted doing the hard work of reaching out and reconnecting and of researching how the landscape had changed. However, once he accepted that this was what he needed to do to be competitive in the job market, despite all the experience he already had, he jumped back in and was able to move his search forward.

Expand your options

Another strategy that helped my media client finally land was expanding his options well beyond what he had done before. Market conditions change, companies change, and roles change. Once he expanded his search to different types of media companies and different roles, he was able to generate more interest.

If you’re only looking at companies and roles similar to what you did before, you may be defining your search too narrowly. Consider start-ups if you came from a big company (or vice versa). Consider other industries – my media client also looked at politics, where he had a side interest.

Tell a compelling story

You definitely want to sell the benefits of your time away. On the other hand, you don’t want to make your interviewer feel bad that they didn’t get the same trip of a lifetime. You also don’t want to make your interviewer wonder why you would ever come back. So it’s a balancing act between showing genuine excitement for your choice to leave and genuine interest in coming back.

You need research to know enough to create a story that resonates with the companies you want to hire you. My friend who recently landed after six months off did exhaustive research before each of his meetings so that he could show exactly how he could contribute and so the companies he met with could see how interested he was in their business. My sales and media clients also did their homework on the people and companies they encountered during their search.

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It’s definitely doable to come back after extended travel sabbatical, as these three examples show. Even if you don’t think you’ll want to come back (my media client certainly didn’t), it’s nice to have that option!

If you are looking for more inspiration, Glass Door wrote about travel sabbatical and highlights other people who have done it.

I also recently wrote on my business website about how to explain a gap on your LinkedIn profile.