[eklitzke]

I took about 12 months off from working and it was totally fine. When I started looking for work again most companies either didn't ask why I took the time off, or if they did I told them I just wanted to take some time off and they said "cool" and moved on.

The other benefit I got from this is I ended up moving into a different career direction when I did go back to work. Previously I had done a lot of infrastructure stuff in Go/Python, and during my time off I realized I wanted to do more low level work in C++. This wasn't my plan or intention in any way when I took time off, it was just something that occurred to me while I was taking a break. It ended up working out great for me and it's probably something I wouldn't have done had I not had the time to rest, think about things, and then study while preparing to interview again.