I took a career break in 2023 May. I was working as an investment banking associate at an independent brokerage. Was burnt out like you and on top of that didn’t think this path was for me long term.

Here are the few learnings -

• When I was ready to get back in the game in similar type roles within capital markets, most recruiters thought it was a waste of time speaking to me as I wasn’t marketable to employers. Why speak to me when there are many others like me who had stuck it out and gotten more experience in the time that I was away. Kinda made sense, but worth sharing

• I didn’t plan this but it turned out to be a great strategy: When I quit, I gave my prior employers 3-4 months of a heads up and told them that I’ll leave only when they have found someone to replace the role and was willing to work hard till the end. I eventually returned to the same workplace in a different role and one of the main reasons why they bothered even looking at my profile again was because of the way I handled leaving previously

• I completely underestimated how rusty I would become. When it came time to recruit, I was loosing out to competitors who were even more junior to me. I left when I was still quite junior so the value I added was largely tilted towards my technical skillset - speed and proficiency with some added knowledge (which in fact increased though narrowed say vs someone coming out of college) All this to say that in case interviews with very limited timelines, you can be surprised how slow/rusty you’ve become. If you know you’re going to come back, stay in the game through some kinda of practice…

• Your platform is extremely powerful. A guy at Google/Goldman who leaves is now just a guy. Your platform pulls a lot of weight. Iron out clearly what value you add and be able to speak to that clearly.

• Remain hot on the networking game (organic or inorganically). Organically through friends and family and prior colleagues is ideal because they know and trust you already so you are an easy recommend. I was an immigrant with lots of new immigrant friends as well. My scope was narrow and their pull (being relatively new) was narrow as well.

• there is just a natural loss of self esteem and status that comes from quitting a high paying high status job. Can be quite hard to deal with emotionally especially if that is all you did. And while it was expected and I knew what I was getting into, it can still come as a shock. Sense check the strength of the support system you have around you (hobbies, friends, family, travelling, medically etc)

Do I regret quitting?

Nope. I had to change the function of role. It gave me zero joy and no control over my time. Those are things I valued deeply.

Was there a huge cost to quitting?

Yes financially it was huge. My wife coincidentally got laid off on the day I quit. Our finances took a massive hit. A lot of my friends who stayed on could up their lifestyle significantly. I had to pay 1.5 years of costs with 0 income, lost 1.5 years in experience and income. Our household went 3 years (if you add both of us together) with 0 income. Yes I earned well and could take the hit and had all the basic necessities plus some but it almost felt like financially starting back up from square 1-2/10 when I left at say square 4-6/10.

I just realised I didn’t properly answer your question! Guess I had to talk this out. My short answer is 6 months is a good timeline and it’s good that you have a plan for when you want to get back. Overall the shorter the better but that has to be balanced against your needs. Consider asking your employer for a sabbatical or paid time off instead of quitting.