Whatever be the reason, the breaks are here to stay and one needs to make full use of them and if leveraged right can be used as a booster to ones career as well. Here are a few suggestions based on my personal experience and anecdotal references from other folks

1. Leave the baggage behind: You will be surprised how much baggage each of us are unknowingly carrying in terms of perceptions, anger, illusions of our own capability (or the lack of it), feelings of right and wrong based on varying value systems that we have been exposed to as part of our work life and more as you try to get deeper into the garage of your mind and start cleaning up.

2. Take a look at yourself in the mirror: find out who you truly are, what are your true strengths/weaknesses, what your true passion is, what you really like/hate doing. As you getting to do this remember you doing this for yourself and not for your annual appraisal or an interview discussion.

3. Focus on ‘family’: this could be a break in your professional career but there is a more important part of your life that had taken a backseat so far, please bring it right back where it belongs – in the passenger seat besides you. Go visit your parents, grandparents, take the kids out alone without the support of your spouse. Learn to take responsibility for their physical well-being, try cooking for them, how about some homework together?

4. Pick up that old forgotten hobby: dust that guitar, buy the new digital SLR that you have been meaning to lay your hands on, pick up on that marathon spirit, how about a round of tennis!

5. Give back to the world: sure you gave up a days’ salary when your employer appealed to help support the latest flood/earthquake efforts. When did you really ‘do something’ for someone else. It could be very simple like teaching someone to read, help your grocery store understand how ‘cash flow’ works, do a website for a non-profit, help out with local self help bodies clean up the street or clean up the nearest lake, helping someone who is illiterate write a letter (Yes! These people and the India Post system still exist – I will encourage a trip to a post office)

6. Get ready to get back in action: Of course, you need to get back to action sometime, why not come back with a new perspective and may be a completely new industry/new role. This will need not only a good discovery of who you are and what you like doing but also the relevant skills needed for doing that role well. While you were out may be a few industries have cropped up that are the ‘sunrise’ for the future. Get ready to jump in by picking up those managerial skills that you found hard to pick up while in technology roles. Learn a thing or two about business functions like sales, marketing, finance etc. sharpen your soft skills like negotiation, learning to tell a story, build contacts through networking etc.

While a break in the ‘rat race’ may sound catastrophic for a while, if used right could make you the ‘cat’ amongst the rats when you do get back in the race

How best to use a ‘break’ in your career?

Career breaks are more common than you would think. The world is increasingly noticing professionals in the middle of their career are sometimes actively and sometimes unintentionally end up with a break in their careers. This is probably more common in women professionals than men but the overall numbers are definitely on the rise. While personal reasons like a wedding, a new member in the family, relocations of one partner, health complications etc. are easier to visualize there are several professional reasons why these could happen as well:

• Restructuring in organizations is more common now with economic uncertainties in a global workforce environment.

• Monotony in a role or a specific industry prompting a break to ‘think things over’ are quite common post the 30s

• Failed start-ups forcing folks to take a break before they can dread to get into the corporate walls again!