WORK WITH ANIMALS ON YOUR CAREER BREAK
"I got to see the real Bolivia, and it felt good to give something back, not just pass through the country in ignorance"
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TRAIN AS A
YACHTMASTER
Sail all over Europe while gaining the skills and qualifications to skipper a yacht anywhere in the World
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Gap Years for Grown Ups
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Your thoughts and feedback would be great - newsite@gapyear.com
Your thoughts and feedback would be great - newsite@gapyear.com
 Name: Laetitia Clapton Age: 28 Occupation: Editor of The Career Break Book, Lonely Planet. Hi Laetitia, so tell us a bit about The Career Break Book. What sort of things does it cover? It covers all aspects of a career break from why to do one and how to go about organising it to what you can do and how it feels when you come home. There’s essential advice on what to do with your mortgage, job, children, pets, etc if you choose to take a break. And if you’re not sure what to do with your time off, the book contains lots of exciting suggestions along with advice on how to realise them. We’ve also interviewed hundreds of career-breakers who tell of their experiences in the book and hundreds of relevant organisations whose details appear in the book. What do you think of the careergap phenomenon? Is it true that more ‘older people’ are taking gap years than ever before, and why do you think this is? It is definitely true that more ‘older people’ are taking breaks from their working life. The reasons people do it vary. Some people have seen their children do gap years and would like to have a similar experience. Some people took gap years themselves and are lured again by the open road. For some, the break may be prompted by a change in circumstances, e.g. a relationship break-up, a bereavement, redundancy. After many years of working it is not surprising that people need a break. Fortunately employers are now more amenable to this. What can be the benefits of taking a careergap? There are many potential benefits to taking a career break. It’s a time for you to sit back and take stock of your life so far. You can learn a new skill like a foreign language or alternative therapies. You can ‘give something back’ on a volunteering or conservation project. Travelling through unknown lands is also a rich reward. You must have talked to a lot of grown-up gappers when you were researching the book - any particularly inspiring ones? A school teacher who we talked to took three months off to row the Atlantic solo. The challenge is incredibly tough. You can be in a powerful often threatening sea alone in a small boat for two months and every time you sleep you risk drifting off course. You have to raise a lot of cash for the race (up to £30,000) so this teacher sorted out lots of sponsorship. His school let him go - they encourage their pupils to be adventurous and resourceful so they felt he was setting a great example. What was the most unusual careergap that you heard about in the course of your research? This is a hard question as career-breakers do such exciting and amazing things (people really make the most of their time off). One lady threw caution to the winds to follow her lover to a remote island in the Torres Strait, between Papua New Guinea and Australia. A German civil engineer we interviewed went to Brisbane Forest Park in Australia to manage waste water from remote camping grounds in the bush. During her time there she also fed native animals, went on bush walks and appeared in a TV documentary about turtles. Lots of people are put off from taking a careergap because the prospect is just too daunting (will I be able to get back into work when I return home? What will I do about my home? Etc). Do you have any advice to help people deal with these practical issues? All of the apparent obstacles to taking a career break have a solution and in fact many are actually an asset. If you’re a home-owner you can freeze your mortgage, let your house (and get income while you’re away) or do a house-swap if you want to stay in one place for a while. Your job may seem like an obstacle, and you may think your company won’t let you go. But they’ve already invested time and money in you so you’re valuable to them. Put together a good business case for your break, focusing on skills and experience you’ll gain while away, pick a sensible time to approach your boss, and pitch the idea to him as if it were a commercial proposition. You may be surprised by the response. The Career Break Book has lots more helpful information about ‘tying up loose ends’ at home. Increasing numbers of people are taking their young kids away on their gap years. Any top tips for making this run smoothly? If you have children you may think it’s hard to take them away, but although it’s slightly more complicated it’s perfectly possible. Think about where you want to travel and how suitable the area is for young ones - for example, avoid malarial areas. If they’re school age, ask their head teacher’s permission to take them out of school (or you risk a fine). Then you can home-school them on the road, and enrol them in a local school (for total immersion) or consider an international school. Travelling itself is a fantastic education. And if they’re babies, travel is cheap. If you’re travelling the world, there are some benefits to being under 25 (cheap youth fares, the chance to meet lots of other travellers of your own age...). Are there any benefits to being over 25?! If you’re interested in development work, then professional skills and experience will open up more opportunities for you than are available to under-25s. You will probably have more disposable income than an under-25-year-old too so you’ll be able to sample more expensive hotels, restaurants and experiences when you want to. Having worked hard for years this break is a real present to yourself - you’ve earned it. With this in mind you’re also more likely to really make the most of it. In your book you advise people about getting ‘off the teenage track’ in different countries - is this something that concerns a lot of careergappers? What’s your number one tip for avoiding or dealing with hoards of pre-uni gappers?! If you do the classic travel routes it’s possible that a lot of the other travellers will be younger than you - some people mind about this, and others don’t. This does not mean that you can’t visit popular sights (they’re usually fascinating, hence their popularity). Instead it means thinking about how you travel there and where you stay. In our ‘off the teenage track’ sections we suggest places that are not as popular with young travellers - they might be difficult to get to or travel in, more expensive or just off the beaten track. These should inspire experienced travellers who already have many stamps in their passports! Finally, your book details lots of things people can do on their careergaps, from working abroad to taking part in intrepid expeditions. Of all the things you write about, which would you most like to do yourself? Since snorkelling with turtles in Barbados a few years ago, I have had a real soft spot for these beautiful creatures. It’s possible to monitor turtle populations in Costa Rica, a country known for its fabulous wildlife. That’s something I’d really like to do some day.  Click here >> to see or buy a copy of The Career Break Book Click here >> for volunteering opportunities |
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