[nick0garvey]

I took around 6 months off and travelled for a while.

The travelling was great. I was out of the country for about 3 months and visited friends for the other 3. I filled my calendar during this and was constantly moving. I was in the best shape of my life by the end of it.

When I was done travelling, I came back and lived out of Airbnbs in the Bay Area until I found a job. This was really expensive, and gave me urgency in the job hunt. I was able to fully dedicate myself to job hunting, and interviewed at a lot of companies. This let me price my labor well and negotiate effectively as a result. No companies had a concern with the time off.

The income bump from the aggressive job hunting meant the 8 months didn't hurt me financially at all. This let me have an experience I'll remember for the rest of my life without much downside.