“What if we took a break from work to travel the world with our kids?”

The idea

This is an idea that started to float in our heads a couple of years ago. It got seeded back in 2015 when one of my wife’s friends from work took 6 months off to travel with his family. At that time it seemed like something other people did, certainly not us. We could think of many reasons why this had worked for them, but why we couldn’t do it. 

In retrospect, the real reason was that this felt like a big departure from our “normal”. Both my wife and I had been on the academic and professional achievement path for as long as we could remember. A steady progression of good grades, good schools, good jobs, and professional advancement. Work was a core value in both of our families growing up, so the paths we had chosen had been constantly reinforced with praise and encouragement. 

Nevertheless, the idea stayed in the back of our minds, and in 2017 we started to really consider it. There was a lot of uncertainty around this, so it was a bit scary. However, we quickly realized that not doing it would mean always wondering if we could have done it. And deferring it didn’t seem like a good option either. There will always be an important work project going on, or a career opportunity on the horizon. However, our kids will only be this age once (10 and 13), which we thought was the right time for something like this.

It also helped to put things in perspective. A typical career is about 40 years long, so I’m about halfway there (over 20 years in this industry). Taking 3 months off amounts to just 0.6% of this time. And in the end, it comes down to values and priorities. My career is very important to me, and a big part of my identity and personal fulfillment. But the opportunity to share experiences with my kids at this particular age will never come back.

With this in mind, it was time to dive into the specifics. 

The plan

We started the planning process about a year in advance. In addition to the trip itself, we had to think about the schools, our jobs, and the house. The goal became to travel around the world during the entire 3-month summer break in order to minimize the impact on school.

Putting together the trip became our weekend job. Researching locations and deciding where to go (lots of YouTube!), booking several dozen accommodations and activities takes a huge amount of time. We also planned our finances and started looking into ways of leveraging miles and credit card points as much as possible. 

What about work?

The idea was to use our vacation time and then request unpaid leaves of absences from our jobs for the remainder. A few months before the trip we started the conversation with our respective managers. We were glad to find out people at work were supportive of our idea, even if a bit surprised. However, as discussions progressed we ended up with different outcomes.

My wife was able to reach an agreement where she would take the leave and work remotely for a number of hours throughout the summer to give continuity to some projects. This worked out great as she was able to do a lot of the work during the longer plane rides. It also meant we would have health insurance through her employer.

Unfortunately for me, Facebook didn’t approve my leave. Even though I had support from my management, the leave policy at Facebook is strictly reserved for medical and family hardships, so my request was declined by HR. This meant I would have to quit and definitely made the decision harder. I would be eligible to be re-hired upon my return, but of course with no guarantees.

Since we were committed to the trip I took this as an opportunity to re-assess what I wanted to do next career-wise. I started working with a career coach, who helped me gain clarity about not only my skills but also about the type of work and environment that suits me the best. This was a great experience where I gained a lot of insight about myself and what drives me.

As part of this process, I had to request feedback from both former and current co-workers. This made me reconnect with my previous team at Microsoft, which led to a conversation about a new potential role (more on that later). 

The trip

The day finally came. On June 13th I resigned and handed in my badge at Facebook. This was a bittersweet moment as I really enjoyed my time there and met a lot of great people. At the same time, it was really exciting to begin our trip two days later on June 15.

Detailing the trip is beyond the scope of this post, but if you are curious we put together a blog for it here: https://mochilazofamiliar.com/. Its main purpose was to share our journey with friends and family so it’s in Spanish. But there are lots of pictures and I’ve heard the browser’s auto-translate feature does a pretty good job :).

The return

We thoroughly enjoyed the trip. We were also tired towards the end (especially the kids!), so we were all very happy to be back home.

These last few months were also a great opportunity to think and reflect on my next career steps. In the end, I decided to take a new position with Microsoft as an Applied Scientist on the Machine Teaching team. For the first time in my career, I won’t be a software engineer! Of course, I’ll still be writing code but with a different focus. Needless to say, I’m very excited about this new stage.

The trip was definitely worth it and we feel very fortunate to have had this opportunity. Taking a career pause like this involves risks, trade-offs, and lots of planning. It can also be incredibly rewarding if such a goal aligns with your values.

Just like we were inspired a few years ago by some friends, I hope this article inspires some of you to hit the pause button.