This is great. At age 42, I’ve had a few careers and done a lot of contract work. In between contract work I sometimes take breaks on purpose to recharge and consider my next move. At this point, I’m looking for a full-time job and a few health coaching clients. Later, I might coach full time, or not, or maybe I’ll decide that I’m fulfilled enough in my full-time job, and there’s another way I can help those I want to serve in my coaching without coaching clients.

At a job interview yesterday I told the interviewers about those deliberate work hiatuses, and that I only apply for jobs that I think I’ll excel at, and that I think would be fulfilling. I said that a happy employee is a productive employee. Most of the time, when I’ve taken a job just for the money, it hasn’t worked out well, but sometimes it’s necessary.

Employers know that people aren’t staying in roles for decades, and yet they still see gaps in employment history as a reason for concern (e.g. potentially unemployable). I wasn’t thinking about that at yesterday’s interview, but recruiters have told me so in the past. My resume has one of my long-term freelance roles on it simply the time-frame doesn’t look like a hole.