It’s Thanksgiving week, 2022. It’s been months since I last logged into WordPress and a year and a half since my last published post. This is not my first attempt to write an “I’m back!” post, nor, I’m sure, will it be the last. So this post? It just is. No pressure for myself, no promises for the future. Just me, where I’ve been, and what I’m doing.
Switching Jobs and Voluntary Unemployment
In my last update, I was on the up-and-up at work. Things were going well, I was getting recognition, and I was getting compensated well. I was also angling for a promotion, which didn’t pan out. Two months after that update post, I got poached by another company for significantly more pay and for a role with more executive visibility. A dream come true! So I thought.
As many others have experienced, interviewing and starting a new job during the pandemic has its pitfalls. I won’t go into details, but I knew early on that I wasn’t going to last at this new job. I gave myself six months, because how can you truly know something won’t work out until you’ve properly onboarded? Despite an amazingly supportive team (and did I mention great pay?), I found myself emotionally exhausted and dreading work daily. I left after 10 months, with no job lined up, making a conscious decision to focus on myself and lean into non-work for a while. That was June 2022.
Summer of Funemployment
With no job lined up, my boss and I agreed on a two-month notice, so I had plenty of time to plan for what would be next. First up, a month-long trip to Italy, where we spent at least once a week swimming in lakes and I cooked almost daily. It would not be a falsehood to say that I seriously considered my next career move to be going to culinary school upon returning to New York; I had that much fun cooking.
It’s a little amusing to me that it took three and a half years for me to finally visit Italy after mentioning it as a dream destination in a timeshare presentation.
I don’t know if it’s recency bias (aka the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon), but it feels like Italy was the go-to travel destination for people this year, and let me just say, it did not disappoint. It’s a travesty, but I now have very strong opinions on tomato flavor, and I now know how easy it is to make risotto. This is not budget-friendly or health-friendly knowledge!
Italy was the mental reset I needed, and the vacation of a lifetime.
Affording Funemployment
I mentioned my last job paid well, yeah? Since I had no intention of staying long-term, I never ended up opening a work-sponsored retirement account, and it was easy for my savings to build up. I regret not contributing to my 401k this year, but thankfully I have many prior years of contributions that are still compounding.
By the time I left my job in June, I had 60K saved up for unemployment spending. This is not counting my emergency fund or my investments, which I have no intention of pulling from while unemployed. Roughly six months later, I’m down to 30K. I didn’t worry about expenses while in Italy, or as I began my holiday shopping, and it’s made this unemployment period all the more relaxing without the financial strain.
Back to the Grind
While I still have savings to spare, my intention isn’t to let it deplete before returning to work. I’m attempting to be more conscientious about my next role, and am currently ‘passive interviewing’, which is far less stressful than bulk applying or having to manage a lot of different companies at once. With luck, I’ll be employed before the end of the year, but I won’t be too concerned if I’m not.
I’m also testing the waters with different kinds of roles. Working in analytics has been enjoyable for me, but there are other things out there I can do well, and now is a great time to try.
Is that it?
For now, yep! There’s so much I haven’t shared on the blog (Salary growth updates! I bought an apartment! We now have two dogs!), but the stories I want to share will come in time.