13 ways you’re allowed a career break

Have you ever had a break in your career?

Was it by choice, like travelling ???? or studying ???

Or was it something beyond your control, such as company restructuring ???? or relocation due to your partner’s job? ????

LinkedIn allows you to show a career break in your work experience without creating a fake company. In typical LinkedIn style, you must categorize your break from 13 US-centric options like gap year and caregiving. ????

Not the Time of My Life

I had a career gap when we moved to Switzerland from New Zealand. People in New Zealand thought I had the time of my life—living in the centre of Europe, travelling every weekend to exotic countries (anything sounds exotic when you're in New Zealand where the only way to visit another country is to fly ??), learning a language, skiing ??….

It was anything but that. It was a classic chicken-and-egg situation.

Chicken: Before we moved here (for my husband’s job), we were told that the employer would arrange a work permit if I found a job.

Egg: When I started applying for jobs, I was told I didn’t have a work permit so that they wouldn’t employ me. ????

I was pretty angry ?? about it—I’d given up a good job and promising opportunities in New Zealand, thinking I’d find a job in Zürich within a few months. After a couple of months, anger turned to depression ??, especially while learning German (which makes you feel like you’re foolish). There were days I wanted to pack up and leave ??.

Finally, I solved the root cause of the problem. First, I got a British passport. Then, as an EU citizen (pre-Brexit days), I automatically got a work permit ??. As you can imagine, this didn’t take five minutes to sort out with various authorities ????. After that, I landed a job within a month ??.

Valuing Career Breaks

I’ve proudly added a career break to my profile because I believe career breaks need to be recognized and valued ??. They bring new experiences that should be valued by recruiters and hiring managers as much as the experience we gain from working. Whether that is raising children ??, dealing with health issues ??, or just taking time out ???.

It’s nonsense to think that we will constantly work from the end of school or university until we retire ??????. Nobody’s life is that perfect or that boring, though we often write our CVs to tell that story ????.

Life Doesn’t Always Fit into 1 of 13 Categories

I needed clarification about which of the 13 types of career breaks I should choose. Was it:

• Relocation – we moved from one side of the world to another ????.
• Professional Development – I studied for my MBA and learned German ?????.
• Travel – we did a lot of travel on weekends ?????.

And I miss a category for dealing with bureaucrats to get my work permit ????. I chose professional development.

Which category will you choose for your career break?

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