Coming Home?

[sneuman]

I'm interested in how early to mid-career folks managed to re-enter (or not re-enter) their professions once the long cruise or circumnavigation was finished.

[Hannah on 'Rita T']

I imagine we are typical, both self-employed. Took off for a year when our daughter was 12 in the days before email was dominant. Took a while to build our practices back up (and to pay off the credit cards) but it was well worth it. We are expecting that with global email, an iPad and wifi we will fin d it easier this time.

[Sabbatical II]

I can't comment at returning after cruising so I didn't vote. However by 38 I'd become an experienced and competent small business manager in a specialist field. By 40 it was very hard to compete for the good positions against a 25 year old who was prepared to sell their soul to the company, so I had to set up my own business. Now at 53 I think I'd have plenty to offer a small business in my field but I suspect most small businesses would assume that by now I'd rather be doing something else, like crusiing.....and they'd be right! We've just hired the 25 year old manager whose got a couple of years experience out of university and he's got 200% more drive than me. So even I wouldn't employ me now. I'm not going back, I need to go cruising.

Greg

[GordMay]

I undertook a ten year hiatus from my “career” when I was 42; which I was unable to re-enter in 2001. I had been a master electrician, estimator designer, and wholesale sales manager in the electrical construction industry. I had very few formal academic credentials.

Fortunately, a friend had confidence in my general competence, and gave me the opportunity to undertake and train in a new (but allied) career in the mechanical (Plumbing & HVAC) engineering industry (construction project coordinator), from which I’ve just retired (disabled).

I think it would be much easier to return to a career, for which one is formally “credentialed”. The success of any such return will also depend upon how long one remained out of the stream.

[boomvangdc]

How "long" of a cruise do you mean? My husband and I (both mid-30s) took off 6 months in '09. Having been at his job for 3+ years, he was able to get a leave of absence and returned to the same job after our trip. I asked for a LOA at my company and was laughed at. However, when we returned I didn't have any problems finding a new job in the same field with the same pay as before. In part we lucked out by relocating to one of the few areas of the country where the economy was still doing well and my skills were very much in demand. No one in any of my interviews was overly concerned about the time gap, but I can't say if that would have been the case if we had been gone for a year or more.

That being said, I ended up leaving my gig to start an online sailing magazine. I have friends who also returned from long cruises to start totally new careers as well. If we loved our jobs so much, why would we leave them to go cruising in the first place? :-)

[sneuman]

Unfortunately, I'm just at that age where I'm too old to chalk up extended cruising to a youthful dalliance and too young to retire.

[Glenn C]

Actually similar job, but more pay as I returned to a remote mine site in Papua New Guinea that I had visited whilst cruising....best job, cruising location i ever had!!

[Glenn C]

ps had been out of the work force 34 months.

[Mambo]

Great question. I think a lot depends on your profession and your stature within the profession. I am looking at many of the same issues you are. I am a 43 y/o attorney with some stellar credentials and some fairly mundane ones as well. I know that even today, if I were to look for work outside of the legal profession, it would be difficult. Recently, one small businessman told me that he would be leary of hiring "someone like me" simply because of the risk to his insurance pool (my age . . . first time I heard that one!). Consequently, I risk the prospect of leaving and returning 3-5 years from now and being "twice damned" -- unable to return to my prior profession but overqualified for and shunned by others. It would be great to have the cred to come back as a professor or some such (legal or otherwise), but that is highly unlikely. At the end of the day, this is one of those issues I go back and forth about based on mood more than anything else; having the courage to set out on an adventure and take what comes is likely to pay great dividends in an economy where action based on fear is the more common dynamic. OTOH, if you have limited capital, like me, cash in hand when you return will go a long way toward going forth liek the "returning adventurer" you wish to be. It ain't easy. Best,

[zeehag]

i took time off nursing to do something other than cruise for 4 years-- i returned thru a registry doing temp critical care duties and loved it-- had done registry/agency work in various specialty areas, worked specialties for 30+ yrs--commanded premium pay upon first day back in saddle. awesome-- now disabled-- could use some of that pay about now, but...going SAILING, mon


btw--if a nursee plans well, she or he is able to work in other countries--nursees are welcome world wide.. is awesome. even with disabled bod and active license, there is work. usa hogs all the rns--is time usa rns started going elsewhere for a bit here and a bit there....

[Cyndimarcus]

Just returned from 5 months cruising in Mexico and looking to refill the cruising kitty. Wondered what to say to prospective employers regarding 6 months of "unemployment".
Recovering real estate agent, and trying to decide what I want to do next.
Ideas? Experiences?

[VirtualVagabond]

Originally Posted by boomvangdc

How "long" of a cruise do you mean? My husband and I (both mid-30s) took off 6 months in '09. Having been at his job for 3+ years, he was able to get a leave of absence and returned to the same job after our trip. I asked for a LOA at my company and was laughed at. However, when we returned I didn't have any problems finding a new job in the same field with the same pay as before. In part we lucked out by relocating to one of the few areas of the country where the economy was still doing well and my skills were very much in demand. No one in any of my interviews was overly concerned about the time gap, but I can't say if that would have been the case if we had been gone for a year or more.

That being said, I ended up leaving my gig to start an online sailing magazine. I have friends who also returned from long cruises to start totally new careers as well. If we loved our jobs so much, why would we leave them to go cruising in the first place? :-)

Is it to a point where you have a website or stuff for us to read/subscribe to maybe?