The Benefits of Taking Career Breaks - by Ray Liu

In my post-grad life, I have spent various periods of time intentionally taking time away from career work. This has included taking a gap semester after I graduated college and taking a couple of months off after leaving a full-time job in 2022. While these periods had their challenges around more uncertainty and difficult emotions like shame and guilt for not feeling as worthy for not working, they were also periods of possibility, tremendous personal growth, and invaluable experiences. Gap Semester I took a gap semester after graduating college a year early to focus on growth areas that felt important to me. During that time, I had more space to learn how to live as an adult, explored the Durham community and volunteered, went on a 10-day meditation retreat, went to Iowa to canvas for Andrew Yang, and took trips to San Francisco that were foundational to my decision behind eventually moving and set up a life here. I wrote in more detail about the myriad areas I was able to grow in h

In my post-grad life, I have spent various periods of time intentionally taking time away from career work. This has included taking a gap semester after I graduated college and taking a couple of months off after leaving a full-time job in 2022. While these periods had their challenges around more uncertainty and difficult emotions like shame and guilt for not feeling as worthy for not working, they were also periods of possibility, tremendous personal growth, and invaluable experiences. Gap Semester I took a gap semester after graduating college a year early to focus on growth areas that fel