All right. So we, we, I have just had time and, and let's get started. Um Great. So I wanna talk about uh my instruction a little bit. First, I am currently the product owner for pays new product for Children, uh which is pay and Junior.Uh I joined them pretty recently about two months ago, last year, this time I was actually based out of Bangalore. Um And I moved to Amsterdam in October 2020 to be with my husband, got married earlier last year and, and my husband was based out of Amsterdam. And so I decided to move there with him for international experience. Um And at the time I was working as a product manager at uh Gojek. And um um so around December, I decided to basically quit my job. And that's when my threemonth career break started. And those three months were really, really hard. Right? And I, and I, there was no way of me knowing that it was going to be that long or it was going to be that hard. Um But I had a really supportive team of a great husband, amazing friends and, and really supportive family um, to really make the most of the time that I had and today I'm going to be talking about the lessons that I learned the hard way so that if any of you are, uh, thinking about taking a career break, you don't have to go through what, what I did.

Right. Um, now, ok, so there are many reasons we take career breaks and broadly, um, they can be put into two buckets. The first is where you have the security of the job. Um This is essentially where you can take the, take the time you need and get back when you're ready and your job is still there for you. You're probably even taking a salary in this bucket. Um Some examples here are your maternity or paternity breaks, company sponsored sabbaticals and time off between two jobs. The second is where you don't have that security and this is where uh you take a break without a job to get back to some examples here are, let's say relocation for family reasons being laid off, maybe you want to work on a side project, maybe you want to travel or maybe there's just something else in your life that is of higher priority for you.

Today, we are going to be talking about the second bucket, which is when you take a career break without that job security. Great. So are career breaks really a bad thing? Um Absolutely not. And I want to get this right off the bat. Career breaks are not a bad thing at all. And in fact, they're the best thing that can happen to you. On the contrary. Do they feel like a bad thing? It, I hate to say it, but it does. Um, the way things are and the way we feel about them don't always go inside and there are many obvious reasons why we don't, uh, look at a career break as a good thing. Uh But we will not go there today. We're going to focus on changing this negative perspective. Um And the best way for us to basically get out of this is to nourish our minds. It is all about our mind. Um Our minds can be our worst enemy or our biggest cheerleader depending on how we nourish it. Let's see how we can train it to be our um ally in this situation. Um In my experience, I found four key ways to manage my mental that supported my growth in the best way possible. Um The four main ways in which I um um try to do this during my career break was one, I gave myself a very reasonable timeline.

Two, I put myself into the work mindset and I simulated a work environment. Three, I made sure I got my workouts and four, I made sure that I was upscaling. We're going to get into each of them in detail um further, right. So the first one, we do this all the time at work, right? We want to set expectations with the people that we work with as engineers, which are product managers. When we can expect development to be completed as product managers, we set expectations with our stakeholders and so on. And for some reason, we don't think that this is uh we don't do this in our personal lives. Setting expectation allows us to manage our energy uh And knowing what to expect makes us feel more comfortable, right? Um Second. So how do you set expectations with yourself? You need to be able to tell yourself that I'm going to get a job by X where X is a date, a few weeks or a few months later, for example, um I'm gonna get a job uh by December this year in my case, uh my husband did this for me and this is all honestly his idea. And he said, um when we started in, in December, he was like, you are going to get a job before March ends. Um And, and this, this gave me a lot of comfort because it told me that there's I I have certain amount of time.

I don't um feel that anxiety every day of having tried something and failed. And it really helped set uh my mind in the right place. Third. Uh So when you're setting your expectation in terms of the deadline you're giving yourself, um you want to be as realistic as possible. It's very important to consider the financial side of it. How long are you good to go without a salary. Um, while this might be the most obvious thing to consider it, it certainly isn't the only thing, uh, you also want to grant in reality, which means you should also consider the current job market situation. And the typical number of weeks it takes for an process for a role that you are looking to um uh apply to. And um this is, is really um um specific to your, what you're looking for. So you are in the best position to um see what your deadline should really be. I would suggest giving yourself at least two months. Um In my personal opinion, anything less than that would just put, put, put us under extreme pressure and we don't want that. Um There's definitely no upper limit on the time that you want to take. Uh like I said, you know, best about the role that you so give yourself sufficient time and you'd rather under promise and over deliver than over promise and under deliver, right?

So it's important to note that deadlines must not be set in stone, right? Um Set up checkpoints between the time you decide to start searching and your deadline. Um If any of the assumptions you made were proven wrong, it's important to course correct. Right. So, uh moving on to the next one, get into the work mindset. This is where we really trick our minds and uh there's some important elements. The first thing that you need is a workstation. The second thing you need to use that workstation every single day. And this part is extremely crucial because you need to uh uh I mean, otherwise it's, it's not really going to help us if we are, you know, netflixing all day or, or sitting on the couch um while that's, that's OK to do for a few days. I would highly suggest that, you know, um into this, this work and our work environment is really helpful, right? So um sitting on your workstation every day, puts you in the mindset of working and, and honestly, you are working uh just that your job at this point is to find a job. So you have your uh um lines planned out, you know, what websites you need to check into, you know, that you have to write cover letters. Uh You would have to probably curate your resume for uh the role that you're applying to.

So it is a real job and putting yourself in that environment simulating that work environment makes this a lot easier for you to do. Now, processes are important in greasing this time as well. Set up a schedule for yourself, uh keep blocks for chores and meals um um in the rest of your time, set up chunks of work that you want to get done set goals for yourself and make a clear plan for each of your, uh, uh, weeks or days. Once you have a plan, using some tools would make it easier to follow through. I found notion during my, um, I was using it for recipes for job applications, um, for my reading list to do list and almost everything. Right. Um, I would recommend you try motion if you haven't already. But, um, otherwise any tools that will, will basically help you get into this mindset and, and, and get on your job really seriously, um are are really helpful, right? I cannot recommend working out enough. Um Initially, I had the hardest time getting out of bed and uh there was because there was no work, there was no meeting to get to. So what was, what was the point of getting out of bed? Um But that was extremely unhealthy. It, it created a cloud of a cloud of gloom over me and it, it only made the situation worse. Um And once I started working out, I at least had a purpose for getting out of bed. And the best part was that working out released, the happy hormones.

It made me want to get to my workstation and make something of my day. Um Working out is easily the biggest and most underrated hack of uplifting your mood. Now, there are a lot of mixed emotions around working out. Some people hate it because of bad experiences they've had before. Uh, but it's important to know, to know that not all workouts work for everyone and you need to choose something that you love doing and not hate. Um, so don't stress about your workout, there are a lot of different options. Choose something that you might like. The intensity of your workout does not matter. The only thing that really matters is that you're doing it right. Um, there are so many options for you to uh to, to do, choose something that you think that you will enjoy doing every morning. It could be a simple walk, it could be a run, it could be yoga anything, right? Um As long as you're able to be regular because discipline is important. Uh This cannot be like our new Year resolutions. Of course, you should take breaks. Um uh move things around when you have to uh if you have other events happening, but on average, it's really important to make this a routine. Now, a lot of times, um um people have different times that they, that they prefer to work out.

I found that working out in the morning was the best for me because it sets the tone for the rest of the day. Um So if, if morning is something that works for you, I would highly recommend uh working out in the morning meditation. Uh If you don't do it already, I highly recommend that you do it. Uh it can be as short as five minutes, but you'll find that it gives you so much mental clarity before you start your day. And all you need to do is close your eyes, sit in a comfortable position and just focus on your breath and nothing else. It might help to also have calming own chance to listen to or, um, or, you know, and, and na nature sounds or things that basically calm. Uh, but even without that, just earphones and just focus on your breathing for 5 to 10 minutes. Ok. Uh So we're on to the last one killing. Well, uh, did you really make the most of your career break if you didn't love, love in some way? Uh One of the things that my ex teammates said to me when, uh I told them that I was going to take a career break was that I was so lucky and this made me realize that, hey, this is actually something to be happy about and look forward to and I have a few months to really up up my game without any distraction because otherwise I was trying to, uh, read a bunch of articles every morning and then get to work and, and I, I didn't really see, um, exactly how I could implement all of that.

I didn't have the time to notes and stuff like that, but now I don't have any of those distractions, right. Um Almost everyone that I knew, um, who had taken a career break said that it was the best decision they took for their career. So it was, um, it's, it's, it's almost like the most unpopular but biggest growth hack for your careers. Right. So, when you're thinking of upskilling, it's easy to first think of going back to school, maybe doing a master's or, or doing an MB A or, uh, enrolling in, in, in any kind of a course. These are great, I guess, but they may not always be the best fit. Um And one gets caught in, in the research behind these courses more than the course itself. So to start out small uh but start soon, think of what you can do right now to start learning. So some ex excellent uh sources of knowledge that that I went through almost every day were some word Twitter. Um Of course, you need to be able to curate the kind of content that you want to see on Twi on Twitter blogs uh medium had, has a free subscription. There are a bunch of other newsletters, really great people who have established themselves in, in, in the field.

Um There are events, there were free events and there were workshops. So these are really ways in which we can start learning just right now. And you don't really have to pay a hefty amount and take time off to take months away and go to B school or, or a university to do your masters, think small and, and get started right away. Now, it's important to be mindful of the reason we're reading, right? Uh Never lose focus of the fact that you're doing this to learn. So once you've read something, think about how that fits into your role, how, how would you use that framework? How could you benefit from what you just read? Are there any changes you might want to make th think about all of this after you, you consume some sort of content? Right? So once you, once I discovered notion, I realized that I just want to put everything there, right? And one of the things, there was a list of articles that I was reading and podcasts that I was listening to and, and, and honestly, um that's my favorite part of what I took away from um from my career break.

So I don't summaries of articles and the podcasts that I listen to and my key takeaways from them. And I find that repository even uh I, I continue to use that even now and I find that so useful. So I, I would highly recommend that when, when you're reading, also try to make notes for yourself and keep a repository for yourself. Lastly, don't be selfish with your learnings, share them uh either on Twitter or linkedin or just in conversation with friends. Uh This helps you get a different perspective on it and develop your thoughts on the matter because there are a lot of different people who come with different um um uh perspectives on the same topic and that's it. Uh That's the secret sauce. So let's recap. Uh You wanna give yourself, you want to simulate a work environment and mindset uh And you want to make working out a routine and you want to read and upscale during this time. That's it guys. Thank you so much for joining in. I'm happy to take any questions right now that you might have for me. Uh What's my opinion on maternity leave? Would you force yourself to find time and keep up with the industry? I don't know if I'm in the best position to answer question. Um, I, um, I, I haven't taken a maternity leave yet. Um II, I don't think it, I, it would be fair for me to answer this. I'm really sorry, doing something else or not. OK, glad that it helped you, Samantha. Um, uh, where do you work now?

I work at, uh Pay. Uh It is, uh, Fintech, uh, start up based out of UK. Uh Have you found a better job where you, where you are more satisfied? Not really. II, I was actually when I was doing my job hunt during my career break, it gave me the chance to only go for a job that I really wanted to do and was really interested in. Um, so Payan was perfect for me. Because it allowed me to do a 0 to 1 product, which I'm a product manager. Sorry, if I hadn't introduced, uh, that earlier, um, uh, it allowed me to do, build a 0 to 1 product which I hadn't done before. Uh, it also allowed me to build my own team, which I hadn't done before. So I was able to get a role that really worked for me at this point in my career. Uh talk more on the successful tips for relocation, right? So when II I would is really, really useful, but at the time when I relocated, it was during the pandemic, right? There was, there were hardly any ways for us to socialize. Um So for me, honestly, what really helped was keeping myself rooted in my family and friends. I made sure that I spoke to my mom every day. I made sure that I was talking to my friends and just communicating because the pandemic is hard enough in, in um the way it is.

But adding to that, the complexity of, you know, being a completely different country and probably even a different language adds a lot more to it, right? Your folks talking to your family really, really helps how to cope with negative stigma around taking a career break when it's not related to family. Often, I feel people will judge me as I don't have Children. OK. Firstly, I uh so do not think about what others think about right. I know it's a lot easier than said, but honestly, trust me, you will be so much better off five years, 10 years down the line if you do what you wanna do as opposed to what people expect out of you. Right. Iii I, this is probably easier for me to say some reason I just not cared so much about being judged by others, but I would highly suggest that, you know, um, don't care so much about that. And I, and I get why that might be hard because a lot of times when, when my mom or anybody was asking me, hey, well, how's the job hunt going? Have you? And I didn't have anything to say it was negative. It did make me feel better.

Um, but you have mechanisms to cope with that as long as, you know, have you on the right part, you're doing all the right things, the job is not going to be too far off. So, um, if, if you think is right for you and you think that you have a clear goal for your career break, go ahead and take it. Perfect. Thank you so much, folks. I'm really glad that you enjoyed this joining. Have a great day.