Just a few weeks ago, our round-the-world adventure came to an end. Today โ I hope โ marks the start of an even bigger, longer, and more exciting journey.
Thatโs because today I am announcing the launch of Career Gappers, a blog that will be a vehicle for helping other people to have the same sort of life-changing experience that we had.
We want to use our story to show that taking an extended break from work to travel not only enriches your life incredibly, but might also be the best thing youโll ever do for your career.
Goodbye to Story Every Day
Those of you who followed this blog before today will have known it previously as Story Every Day. Itโs an identity that I am very sad to leave behind, and has been a big part of my life over the last year.
In June 2017, I boarded a flight to Miami with Lisa, my life partner and travel companion. (Thatโs us in the picture above.) Over 11 months we visited 20 countries and had the time of our lives.
Story Every Day was about documenting our journey; telling stories about the places we visited, and anecdotes about the realities of our travel life. Itโs been so much fun capturing our adventures along the way, and doing so has given us an amazing bank of memories that weโll always be able to look back upon happily.
Iโm not going to stop writing about our own travel experiences, and I still have a huge backlog from our round-the-world trip to cover. The old stories are still here in the site archives. But the blog has now evolved to serve a different purpose, and thatโs why its face is changing.
Why Career Gappers?
A few months ago โ about halfway through our trip โ I wrote some observations about how the demographics of people travelling have changed in recent years. In particular, I noticed that more and more people in their 30s, 40s and older were taking time out to travel. It seemed to me that travel wasnโt just a young peopleโs game any more.
After arriving back into the UK, I decided to do some research into this. What I found has not only confirmed my suspicions, but also made me realise there is a whole new generation of potential career-break travellers out there who we could help.
The career ladders of old are being replaced by career waves. In the millennial generation โ people born between 1981 and 1996 โ as many as 84% now foresee taking extended breaks at some point.
Earlier this month I attended a talk by a leading millennial blogger, Tanya Korobka of luckyattitude.co.uk. She told an impressed audience that on average, millennials change jobs every two years, and will take a new career direction six to eight times during their lifetime.
At the same time, employers are recognising the value of allowing employees to take career breaks. The benefits of doing so are becoming clearer, and companies are taking notice.
In the UK, my home country, a growing number of companies are open to employee sabbaticals. For example, the BBC has a career break policy that โwill aim to support employees who wish to take a break from their current job […] to undertake an extended period of travelling”.
As someone who has greatly benefited from a travel career break myself, I think this is a wonderful thing. And I want to help.
How Career Gappers can help you
Having been-there-done-that, Lisa and I are all too aware of the barriers to taking a career break. Wonโt it be impossible to get a job when we get back? How will it affect our careers long-term? Where do we even start with saving and planning? How will we cope being away from friends and family for so long?
These are all questions we can now help to answer, and there are many more. Earlier this month I mapped out all of the possible considerations around taking a career break. I will dedicate the next few months to writing about them, and producing resources to help people like us overcome them.
At the same time, on the pages of Career Gappers I will continue to write about destinations: tips, itineraries, things to see and do, and more. I will also use our data on spending to publish insights into travel money and budgeting.
And as always, I am open to suggestions. If there is any aspect of taking a career break or planning a long-term travel youโd like help with, feel free to drop me an email.
Over time, I want to build Career Gappers into a community. A place where like-minded people embracing the career-break trend can come together to share and learn. Later in 2018 I will be launching a Facebook group to facilitate this.
You can join the tribe now by subscribing to the blog at the bottom of this page. Be a career gapper!
Exciting plans for the coming months
Itโs very early days in the life of Career Gappers. There is a lot to look forward to in the second half of 2018. I am planning to publish a book on how to take a career break; undertake a challenge roadtrip around Europe; and launch a podcast to showcase inspirational peopleโs stories.
As I write this, I am 24 hours away from a flight to the Czech Republic, where I will be spending nine days. On 26โ28 July I am attending the Travel Blogger Exchange conference in Ostrava. Iโll be documenting the trip via Instagram Stories. Give us a follow here to stay in touch.
You can follow Career Gappers on other social media too: Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. Iโd love you to be a part of this.
Feel like youโre missing some adventure in life? Is the job getting too monotonous? Canโt decide whether itโs the right move to buy a house? Planning on spending years of savings on a wedding?
Be a career gapper. Travel the world instead.
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Tou guys are doing a great job by giving an insight into the possibilities and life during a gap year. You would be an inspiration to many who would love to go for a gap year. I have just completed 1.5 year of my travel break and your blog inspires me to plan for another one soon ??
I love this idea! We took a year break in our 40s. Gave up our Aussie residency, Sold everything and backpacked for a year. Most people thought we were crazy but turned out to be the best move we ever made!
What a cool idea!! I’m really interested in reading your future posts on this because, as someone just about to enter the workforce, I’d like to think that at some point in the future I can take a huge chunk of time to travel without severely hurting my professional career.
Good luck with the change of direction guys! I’m sure that you will share a lot of useful tips and information here. For me, my whole life is a career gap ๐
Tony
Truly inspiring. Wish you good luck to achieve your goals for 2018. Publishing a book is a journey in itself and we have been through it recently with our travelogue Backpacking North East India: A Curious Journey. We are sure your book on how to take a career break will inspire many and give answers to many seekers! Happy Travels… Love.. Backpacking Series.
So exciting! Most people love travelling but a career gap sounds amazing. Not sure if I’d be brave enough but may well look into this one day.
Omg Alex we were at the same event the over day! I was the French one who asked about the score at the end of the talk! Let’s make sure we catch up next time! Love the blog, I am a career gapper myself at the moment!
Enjoyed this reading so much!
Everybody should find the time to have a gap career break, i will definitely suggest your site to all my friends who haven’t had the possibility to do it
Good luck!!
Wow that is amazing!! I would be scared about landing a fresh job too. But wanna travel the world too! ๐
Sounds super interesting canโt wait to see what you have coming!
I am looking forward to more insightful posts from you! I like the concept and wish you all the best!
Great idea! I look forward for more content. I would love to take a long career break for myself, to concentrate on blogging, photography and traveling full time. Let’s see how it turns out.
Amazing!!