Career breaks will sometimes be inevitable when you have to take time away from work to take care of a loved one or to raise your children. Sometimes you might be considering a career break to take a year as a sabbatical. Be what it may, the decision to take a career break will be a taxing experience.

You will have many questions like whether you will be financially stable through the entirety of your career break or whether your job will still be there when you go back after a year’s absence.

The key to a successful career break is to invest as much time as you can to plan for it. You need to sort out your finances, plan your career path, and discuss your job stability with the management before you take a career break.

Do these things before you take a career break

Save up some money

You will need to start saving up at least a year ahead of your career break so that you can have a comfortable sum in your savings account to fall back on. Understand that the career break will add a strain to your finances and make plans for it accordingly. First of all, prepare yourself with an accurate budget. Evaluate your daily, monthly, and weekly expenses. It will be highly unlikely that you’ll be able to save up for a one-year-long career break within a year. Therefore, identify the sum that you can save realistically and make a plan for the rest, you might have to consider a part-time position to pay the bills.

Reconnect with your network

Don’t just drop off the radar in one short beep. You might have gotten out of touch with your network if you have been working at the same company for quite a while. Before you go on your career break, invest some time to connect with your old contacts. These people will help you find your footing back when you enter the field after the career break. Make some plans to stay in touch with your network through your career break by arranging a monthly coffee date or a movie night with your friends.

Plan out how you are going to re-enter the field

Your career break will not be a forever thing. You should plan when you are going to end your break before you even take your career break. Brush up your resume and keep your LinkedIn updated. If you are a freelancer, arrange to do some contract work for your employer after your career break to keep things going for you financially.

Do these things when your career break has come to an end

Re-evaluate your professional situation

Maybe your career break was longer than you planned it to be. You might even have established a small freelancing gig going for you during the career break. Or you have plans to abandon your old field and enter a new one that you are passionate about. Whatever the case, evaluate your career needs before you make decisions.

Find out how you can deal with resume career gaps

You can change the format of your resume or focus on emphasizing your skills over work experience to draw the recruiter’s attention away from the career gap on your resume. The current norm is to list out your career gap upfront and mention the new skills/credentials you gained during it to increase your chances. If you feel like you want your resume professionally written to address the career gap issues, you can simply hire the resume writing services at Resume Mansion.

Focus on the skills you gained during your career break

You will most likely start an online certification course or do some volunteer work while on your career break. Use the transferrable skills you gain from those to boost your career in your resume. Even freelancing experience goes a long way if you have been away from work for more than a year.

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