What you sign up for when you resign
August 7th, 2008Endless lectures! I mentioned before that I had talked to several long-term travelers to learn what their trips cost, what they learned while traveling, what advice they had to offer, etc. In addition to those mentioned earlier, I got histories from the following people:
- Someone who left the company with a big enough package not to have to work again.
- Someone who took four months off while transitioning from his job in Japan to a new company in the US.
- An IT contractor in the UK who regularly takes a month or more off between assignments.
As with anything else, people have all sorts of opinions on how to spend your time when you’re not working. But whatever else people said, pretty much everyone said some version of the following:
- Make a plan — it’s very easy to let the time drift by and find your break is over before you know it.
- Budget about four months to recover/decompress/get back to your old self/repair your spirit (none of these phrases is my own…) after you quit working.
- Don’t buy a round-the-world ticket — you’ll almost certainly find a reason to stay in one place longer than your plan (see 1) called for.
I have a plan (of sorts), but I did buy a round-the-world ticket in spite of the advice. I will be sure to record my verdict on such tickets when (if) I make it to my destination.