Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - Ep179: Should you take a career break? 3 questions to ask yourself.

Episode Date: August 14, 2023

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Welcome to the Corporate Survivor Podcast, where we talk about how to grow your career confidence, build your skills and value, increase your salary, and the many lessons we learn in the corporate world. For more career support, click on over to www.mayping.com. This is Mayping, your corporate leader turned career coach. I hope you enjoy, like and subscribe. Should I take a career break? Is it okay to take a career break? And will I regret taking a career break?

If you have any of these questions on your mind, then today's episode is for you because I want to share my own journey and my own experiences taking career breaks. And in fact, I am in my fourth year of my second career break that started in June 2019. And in this episode, I'm going to talk all about that. If you're new to me, you know, hi, my name is Mei Ping. I was a former corporate leader working with multinational companies. And nowadays, I spend my time as a career coach. Now, one of the most common questions I get asked is that, hey, Mei Ping, how did you end up being a career coach? And long story short, you know, I took a career break once in 2016 and the second one in 2019 to basically care for my mom.

I'm sure she was terminally ill and unfortunately she passed on. Now, the next question then I get asked is, okay, you know, Mei Ping, how did you come to a decision that you're going to take the break, right? Because if you have taken two career breaks so far and it doesn't seem like it has, you know, impacted your career negatively in any way, you were still able to climb the ladder, you're still able to kind of get into jobs that you really did well. So what are some of the things that, you know, you think that you have done right and whether the career break is really the answer to like reset and really able to help your career grow as well.

Now, I think these are really, really good questions and let me share with you some of the things that I have thought about and maybe you want to think through as well on Now, I think these are really, really good questions. And let me share with you some of the things that I have thought about. And maybe you want to think through as well on helping you to decide whether taking a career break is the right decision for you right now or not. The first question that you really want to ask yourself is, why are you thinking of taking a career break? So there can be multiple reasons as to why a career break might make sense. So for example, maybe you want to take care of your family, maybe you want a mental break, maybe you want, you know, more time to focus on other elements of your life, or maybe you want to take it slow, maybe you want to reset. All of this can be valid. But the most important

thing is, do you know what's your why? Because I've been getting a lot of DMs from many professionals, you know, in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s. And the thing is that when they tell me that, hey, Mei Ping, you know, just tell me, you know, should I take a career break or not? Now, that's not a question that anybody can answer for you, but it's a question that you really need to think through and really ask yourself why. Do you have a real valid reason as to

what exactly are you going to do during this career break? And that could be the next question as well. But the main point I'm trying to get here is why? Why, why, why, why? Now, based on the observations I've had, there are usually two key categories of people who are taking a career break. The first one is really time with family.

So it could be personal reasons, family got ill, being a caregiver, similar to my personal situation, or just wanting to spend time with maybe young kids, I would consider that like family reasons. The other category are people who I consider, maybe we'll just call them people who are fed up with their job and are burned out already. So people in the second category are unhappy at their jobs. They don't feel that they're performing well.

Maybe they're not doing well at work. They're not getting along with people. Maybe you didn't get a promotion or you didn't get a salary increment or a bonus that you really wanted. So that may have pushed you to think about a career break and just say, hey, you know what?

I'm like done with this nonsense, right? I'm not happy in this job, this company, and this whole corporate world. I'm like, I'm done already. So I want to take a career break. Now, it's okay. Whether you're in category one, category two, or you're in a completely different category and a completely different reason that I have not talked about. But the main point is that why? So as I said, for me, it was very clear to me that, you know, at that time, my mom was terminally ill. So she got like re-diagnosed with cancer.

So I thought to myself, well, I think the time is really important that I take this career break and I be a caregiver and I spend time with my family. So the reason is very clear. So no matter what your reason is, make sure it's very clear. It's not like a wishy-washy, well, maybe this, maybe that, and stuff like that. So first thing, make sure it's really, really clear. Now, the next thing to think about, the question number two is,

what are you going to do during your career break? Now, it sounds like a simple question that we don't think about a lot, but it's actually a really, really important question. So if you're someone who's asking yourself

whether you need to take a, you want to take a career break or not, I want you to really pause right now and really answer this question. What are you going to do during your career break? Now, again, let's get back to the two categories that I talked about. Now, if you're truly in the first category of family and

stuff like that, then really want to make sure that you are maximizing the time with your family. I think that's like nothing much that I can add on because, you know, personal relationships are so important because at the end of the day, like your job is just a job, right? We work hard to give a good life to our family. So that's done. Now let's talk about the second category, right? Category number two of people who are burnout at work and they really hate what they're doing right now and they feel like there is no way to make the situation better.

And therefore, taking a career break is kind of like a bit of an escapism mode. So when I mean escapism mode, meaning like, okay, you know what, I'm done with this nonsense. I just need a break from all of this thing, right? So if you're at category number two, I really want you to ask yourself whether, like, what are you going to do during this career break period? Because what I have observed is there are two categories of people. There's the first category of people who are unhappy with their work and they say, okay, you know what? I don't want to be in this company anymore. And because I'm not sure what I want to do,

then I'm going to take a three to six months break. I'm okay not having a job, but during these three to six months, I want to reflect on my career interests. I want to develop my skills, right? Maybe going through a certification, maybe going through an online course, personal development program, like you actually have a plan, right? And for people in this group, these are people who have joined my career program as

well. So I do have a career course and with mentoring support called the Corporate Survivor. I also have several students who join during their career break and they tell me that maybe you know I want to develop my skills you know my career journey has been so so so far it's not it's not great but I feel like it's not getting better so I want to develop myself I'm on a career break I'm focused on self-development and I think that's great but the key difference here is that there is a timeline if you say three to six months then you know if you're actively working on upskilling yourself, whether it's technical skills, score skills, or even personal development,

then you are actually doing something, right? Now, the part I really want to talk about is the other people who are in the escapism mode, but don't actually have a plan. Now, let me give you some examples here. So, let's say you're super tired, sick and tired of your job already. And you're like, you know, I don't want to be here any longer. And I feel like I need time for myself. Now, time for myself to feel better is a very vague concept, right? Because it's how much time and like how much better do you want to feel? And like, can we, can we like, I don't want to say

quantify that, but it's kind of like, at what point do you feel better? And what are you going to do to make yourself feel better? Now, let me share a story with you. A few months ago, I had a student who joined my program. So she's a young professional. She's been working for about two and a half years in the past two jobs. So in the past two jobs, she found it very difficult to transition from a university student to a full-time working adult, right? So she's in the mid-20s and her first two jobs, according to her, didn't go well because she didn't know how to behave. She worked hard but she felt that, you know, she was not doing anything right and she had a lot of anxiety, she didn't know what to do. So after two jobs, two and a half years, she decided to take a career

break. Now, when she first approached me and when she first joined my career program, The Corporate Survivor, what she told me was that, hey, Mei Ping, actually, I've already been on a career break for one and a half years. But I still feel lost. I still feel like I don't know what I want and I still don't know what I'm doing. So my question to her is that, OK, so but what have you been doing in the past one and a half years? And she said, well, nothing. And I feel really stressed out because my parents are pressuring me to get another job, but I don't want to get back in that bad situation that I've been. So we talked a little bit more about that. And I realized that, okay, now this is the typical example of what I told you of like, you know, wanting to escape, feeling lost, feeling confused, but not actually having

a plan or rather having an idea of like how to improve. If you're in this category, I really want you to think about as to if you're going to take this career break or maybe if you're listening to this podcast right now, you have been on a career break for some time. I want to ask you, ask yourself like what have you been doing to move yourself forward during this break? Because moving yourself forward, as I said, right, can be multiple areas. You can choose to work on some skills, you can choose to rethink your career options, you can, you know, plan to network, you could build a LinkedIn profile, and all these things are things that I teach. And that's how I made sure that when I have been on

my career break, it has always been okay. I was always able to get headhunted, and the door is always open for me, should I want to get back to the corporate world. Right? So the question for you is, okay, what are you going to do? Now, just a quick update on the student I told you.

So after she joined the Corporate Survivor Program and after going through the lessons, particularly the three-step framework where I teach you how to understand the corporate world

to get clear and get visible, she came back to me and she told me that like, oh, Mei Ping, apparently, I didn't know that there are steps that I can take to better understand how to do a good job and how to adapt to any company or any role. So after going through those, she realized that, oh, okay, so the problem is, you know, I could have gained this knowledge during the career break to give myself that confidence so that I can

succeed in my next role. And within 30 days of joining the program, she actually got a new role that she's very happy about. And now she's feeling a lot more confident. And her career break ended. That's because she finally took some action to move forward. And versus, you know, the past one and a half years in which she hasn't done anything because she doesn't know what to do. So I just want to show you an example of like comparing and contrasting the difference between

doing something about it and not doing something about it. Because, you know, everybody can take a career break. But what you do truly, truly, truly matters, right? The third thing to think about, and I think this is something

a little bit more practical as well, is do you have the financial power to take a career break? Now, a lot of times I notice when people talk about a career break, emotionally, most people are not in the right place. So what I mean is

there are probably a lot of negative emotions. There are probably some trigger points that triggered you to want to take a career break. So for example, maybe you don't feel that you are getting recognized at work. Maybe you've been getting some negative feedback from your stakeholders or from your boss. Or maybe you feel like you didn't get the promotion that you wanted. So whatever it is, most of the time, negative emotions, right? Negative emotions, then negative trigger points.

So most of the time, when people think about, you know, taking a career break and really wanting to throw their resignation letter, they are kind of in an emotional hate space. Now, the question then is, are you in the right state of mind to make a decision that potentially can impact your financials as well, right? Your financials equals your lifestyle, maybe for you and for your family. So the third point we want to talk about is,

do you have the financial capacity to actually make your career break a reality? Because then it will tie back into the first two questions of whether actually how long is the break going to be and what will you be doing? Because you can take a career break as long as you want if you have the financial power to do so but many people that I talk to they are hopeful that they will find some answers during their break and as the break progresses and sometimes they don't find

the answers because they haven't done anything to get the answers right so as the break progresses then that's where another big headache comes in and the headache is how am i going to afford my lifestyle and i cannot live like this and therefore the the pressure now comes in so now it's not just the pressure of like a really bad job that caused you to quit and the you know the mental health that you're trying to recover but it now adds a layer of like how am i going to pay my bills now all this again right as you see here it's like more emotional triggers, which are not good, right? So, as I said, you know,

it's more of a practical question, but I do think that if you really want to take the break, you can, but set your timelines. However, I do think that another suggestion that might be a bit better is you can always refocus

out of your whatever situation that you're in to focus on the next thing. Now, personally for me, right, I have also been in jobs where at certain point I was not happy with my boss or I wasn't happy with the way that I felt that my efforts were not recognized and so forth. But none of those actually triggered me to immediately take a career break and forget everything else and just take the break and just throw the resignation letter and hope that everything is going to work out.

Most of the time, right, I would pause and really ask myself, okay, if I don't take this break, then what can I do now? Like, do I really need this break? It's the first time, which I told you, the first question is like, why are you taking this break, then what can I do now? Like, do I really need this break? Which I told you the first question is, like, why are you taking this break, right? So, if you are in a process of, like, wanting to just find a new opportunity, right? You feel that this is not the environment for you, this is not the culture for you, I mean, that's fine. But plan your exit, plan your exit,

plan your exit, because you don't need to quit right now. But you can set up a three-month plan or, you know, one, two, three-month plan, like 30-day plan, three-month plan to actually move to the next thing. And this is something that I personally use as well. I mean, there were jobs that I was not happy with or I felt that I couldn't grow anymore,

I couldn't learn anymore or I felt that I was not truly recognized for the effort that I put in. But I don't go around and like, you know, curse at my boss tomorrow and like throw the resignation letter in everyone's faces because I know it's unproductive, right? But what I've done is that is like really think about,

hey, what action can I take right now and to plan towards that new opportunity. And I was able to get the new opportunity. I was able to get the new job without taking a career break because it wasn't that I really needed that break at that time. It was just more like I felt that I needed some space and you can find that mental space on weekends, right? Like for some of my clients in the corporate environment, they tell me that,

you know, Sunday mornings are my learning days or sometimes they tell me that Saturday nights are my learning days and those are the days that I take the time and write down, you know, what I've learned. Sometimes they go through the course, they go through the program, they go through the mentoring calls and they work on themselves. They focus on themselves. So whenever you think that, hey, you know, I definitely need like a 24-7 career break, just think about maybe there are some other options that you can explore as well. I think what we all need at that time is just like mental space and clarity because

sometimes when you are so busy day to day and you're triggered at work, that's when you're not really like calming down and thinking objectively as to what would be helpful or not. And therefore, we just automatically default to wanting to take the break. Now, the last part I want to share with you is, okay, you know, if you have decided to take a break, then what happens now?

Now, let me tell you my story. Now, I've taken two career breaks so far. So, the first one was in 2016 and the second one was in June 2019. In fact, I'm still in my career break four years since June 2019 because I quit my job to take care of my mom. I've been a caregiver for her and unfortunately, she passed away in 2020. So, since then, I have not kind of like gotten back into the corporate world career, but I'm doing career coaching right now. So, you know, walking through kind of like my own career story. So I've also gone through the three questions as well. So the first one is why? Obviously, I wanted to be a caregiver and it was something that I felt was really important to me

and my family. So my why was really, really clear. Then the second one is like, okay, what am I going to do? Now, what am I going to do? Obviously, you know, being the caregiver number one, but the other thing that you really want to remember is also like how to make sure that you're setting yourself up for success in case you want to get back to the corporate world,

in case you want to get back to a job. And personally for me, I have found that continuously developing my skills as well as developing my LinkedIn profile has helped me a lot. So first thing is really not forgetting that,

hey, all this corporate world knowledge and career knowledge or industry knowledge that I've learned, these don't just go missing just because maybe it's on the career break. It doesn't happen like that, right?

So that's something that I still read up, just follow some news and stuff like that. Just make sure that you don't lose it or any career programs that you have signed up, you can go through the lessons and just kind of remind yourself of like, okay, you know, even though I'm not

like in a full-time job right now, I'm in a career break, it doesn't mean that you need to let go of any skills that you have learned or you don't have to maintain any of that. Now, the next part then is the LinkedIn part. So LinkedIn has really helped me a lot during my career breaks in the 2016 one

as well as in the 2019 one. In fact, you might be surprised, but even up to today, I'm still getting inquiries and headhunters reaching out to me, HR reaching out to me, asking me if I'm interested in any new roles. Now, how is this happening?

How I see it is more like, you know, I set up my LinkedIn profile to attract new opportunities. And that's something I teach in my career course, the Corporate Survivor, step-by-step on how to do that. Now, how I see it is, it's not that I want to look for a job right now.

Or it doesn't mean that immediately during your career break, right, you need to get a job immediately. You might not want that, that's fine. But my point is that, wouldn't it be nice to know that you are still valued to know that your background skills and experiences is worth something during your career break I think that's a very validating

experience that's a very confidence building experience as well so the ability to attract even though you're not actively in the job I think that's something that's really powerful and that also helped remind me that I have skills to offer. And the time that I was ready to get back to a corporate job, I easily was able to do that. That's because my LinkedIn has always been active. My profile is very in demand. And I made sure that I don't forget that at some point after this career break, I'm actually going to still continue on my career journey. So that's just like the mindset of like making sure that you know that your career is a journey. Doesn't mean that, hey, you know, I take a career break right now and I'm just not going to

think about what's going to happen in the next 10, 20 or 30 years along your career journey and you're just going to think about what's going to happen tomorrow. Because if you have that kind of mindset, then it's really dangerous, dangerous right and if you layer it the third question I talked about which is the the financial power then then is it something that you can sustain or will it actually create more pressure for you so that's something that you know I have personally found really helpful in my own career and that has also allowed me to do what I'm doing right now which is really running my career courses you know mentoring calls and so forth so again right it's a question that you really want to be honest with yourself and make the decision for yourself now one final

tip I'll share with you you know as we end this career break episode is to make sure that you are thinking about your career situation or rather evaluating or reflecting on your career situation during your career break at least every six months. Because, you know, when you're not working in a full-time job, you're just exploring your hobbies and doing something, it's very easy to get distracted day by day. You know, every day just feels like it just passes on day by day. And sometimes we lose focus and we lose track of what's going on. So if you must, and this is something I found really helpful as well,

is to have a six-month sort of like personal review time to really ask myself again the three questions that I shared with you. Why am I still on this career break? What am I going to be doing if I continue this career break for the next six months?

And the third one is that, do I have the financial power to continue on for the next six months? So having these questions asked at important, important junctures, minimum six months, will help you refocus on whether is this still the right decision?

Now, it could be the right decision at the point that you want to take the break. It could have been the best decision that you make for yourself. Great. But six months later, is this still the best decision for right now

and for your future? You might want to think about that because based on what I've seen, the people who are on career breaks, it's like, the longer you are on a career break

and for many people, it could be more than a year or two years or even three years, I feel like the people I've seen, their confidence just becomes lower and lower and lower because they are so detached from a corporate career, they will feel like they haven't been in the working world for some time, and now they feel afraid to get back in, right? And I don't

want you to feel that because it's not helpful. And eventually you're starting at a much lower point than where you could have been. Like it's like all the career confidence and all the work competence that you have gained so far, it's kind of like just poof magic up in the air because you are not kind of like keeping the momentum up. So it's just something to think about. Now, probably in the next episode,

I'll share with you more about what have I been doing during my career breaks and some of the job opportunities that I was able to get during the career break as well, notably Google, PayPal, as well as the central bank also. So I've gotten multiple interesting interviews with companies that I really, really sought after and that was really through the magic of leveraging my LinkedIn profile. So if there's something that you are interested in hearing, you know, drop a comment if you're watching on YouTube and let me know. And also let me know, you know, have you taken a career break and how did it end up? How did you feel? Or if you are someone who's

contemplating on taking a career break right now, drop it in the comments. Let me know also your experiences and kind of like what you're thinking through. And if you want to learn how to still grow your career even though you're on a career break make sure that you download my free guide which is the five-day career growth guide that will walk you through step by step on how you can really set up and position yourself for success so you can download it at www.mayping.com so with that i'll see you in the next episode