Month Long Vacation Career Options

Hello, does anyone here get a month long vacation? Or do any career paths allow for a solid 1 month (or dreaming, obviously, 2 month) vacation time? (aside from being European; I am American). Working during vacation time is definitely allowed, but I mean, for example, able to go to another country during this month.

4/5 points for not June, July, August
1/5 points for June, July, August

I lived a couple years overseas with my savings and would like to re-visit if possible. Let's say my background would be starting from the bottom, help desk and this is planning for the future. I'm trying to do it this time without totally sabotaging my career efforts! Preferably not entrepreneurial work, I've tried that so many times, it's difficult.

Thank you

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Comments

NetworkVeteran

bfeuropa wrote: »

Hello, does anyone here get a month long vacation?

In the tech field, accruing three weeks per year seems to be about average.. but many companies grant four when you have enough years of service. In addition, this is something you can negotiate when you're hammering out a contract. I usually negotiate for more pay, but I have a friend who negotiated for the perks of five years of service instead. I doubt you can get away with that at the entry-level, but it's not a big deal once you're in-demand in your field.

I'd add, four weeks every 1.25 years is okay even starting out, as is working very remotely the three days before a four-day weekend so you can sneak in an extra week.

DPG

Month long vacation in IT? Probably not going to happen. You may be able to accrue that much time but you could only realistically get up to a few weeks off at once.

NetworkVeteran

DPG wrote: »

Month long vacation in IT? Probably not going to happen. You may be able to accrue that much time but you could only realistically get up to a few weeks off at once.

Hrm. Only the smallest company I worked for set a two-week limit. Most just want someone to cover whatever you do, and an emergency contact number. There's nobody who can do exactly what I can do, but there's at least one other person who can do each part of what I can do.

petedude

Aren't too many regular IT jobs with these sorts of options, outside of possibly upper management (e.g. CIO).

Best way to achieve same results is to stash a nice nest egg, then take lucrative consulting gigs. You'd have to have specialized, highly in-demand skills. You could take a probably take a month off between gigs without issue, though.

Iristheangel

My last job was a non-profit health system that gave 25 pto days a year but that was a bucket for everything: sick, holidays, vacation, etc. You chose the days and you got them as long as you gave enough notice. Since it was all the same bucket, if you took a month off and later decided you wanted Christmas off or got sick, it may not be paid

Everyone

I could, and probably will for the 1st time next year. It is a little difficult to save up that much vacation time when you have kids though. I often end up eating away at it with a day or 2 off here and there, usually so I can be at some event during the week with my kids. Now I'm in a position where I can usually schedule around that sort of thing and not have to take a vacation day to do it.

I'm not only saving up my vacation days, but I'm saving up benefits from various travel program, airline, hotel, rental car, etc. So my next vacation will be very cheap, only thing I'll have to pay for is food and entertainment.

techdudehere

I can only speak from my own experience. I worked part time for a small company while I was at University and still gave me vacation days. I think I only started with a week off (plus personal and sick days) but I received one extra day each year and I staid with the position all the way through graduation so I ended up with closer to two weeks. As a consultant, I worked three twelve hour days doing project work as part of a large team. Having four days off allowed me to do a lot of local exploring which was nice. Since then I've mostly been offered X many vacation days plus holidays (varies by industry) and Y personal days. It's also important to note whether vacation days roll over and when they are granted. In regards to how to get more days, you have two choices: Work at the same place for a very long time to accrue the maximum amount of PTO or simply ask for more days off. I currently have 3 weeks off and I don't think I'd want to work anywhere that offered less than that. I'm not sure how many sick days I have, because unless I am having surgery or infectious I go to work. If I had surgery in the morning, I'd probably at least make the afternoon shift. I don't care for people who take off during the middle of the day for trivial reasons.

onesaint

My company offers 3 weeks of vac after 6 months of employment, plus the company goes dark the week of Christmas to New Years. I'm on a week per month on call rotation, but would imagine I could take a few weeks as I so desire. As josh said though, my wife already has a lot of my vac time ear marked for covering school holidays and whatnot.

To be honest, I don't know that I would want to be out for a solid month. Playing catch up and getting back in the swing of things would be a huge pita.

techdudehere

I would take a month off it allowed. I'd either purchase round the world airfare or rent a cottage and see what it would be like to "live" somewhere different for a month. I would have some concern that there would be a backlash (it's always easier to have a scapegoat so "if only Joe were here") but that's just how it goes. You only live once! As much as I love tech, work is something I do to enable me to experience a high quality of life. Your manager, your manager's manager, and so on are all looking for the best deal as well.

powerfool

There is also a big difference between accruing a month of vacation time and taking it all at one. I can accrue 21 days of PTO and have flex-time, as well. Taking it all at once would require aligning several factors with the nexus of the universe.

I understand what you are looking to do, however. When vacationing internationally, a huge part of the cost is traveling. If you can stay longer, it is like getting two or three vacations in one. My goal is to find work in another country and then just take extended weekends here and there. It allows you to get a better understanding for the area and learn from the locals about various places that you may not find otherwise.

onesaint

powerfool wrote: »

My goal is to find work in another country and then just take extended weekends here and there. It allows you to get a better understanding for the area and learn from the locals about various places that you may not find otherwise.

I was fortunate to land this kind of position recently. 20-30% international travel to places like Nauru and South Africa in addition to my normal *nix admin duties. I get a taste of exotic foreign cultures and still keep my career on path. It's a fantastic opportunity to experience the world's cultures.

MiikeB

Getting a month of vacation a year is not that hard, but taking it all at once would be very difficult. Working for a school district or university might allow this, but normal companies don't.

The big risk is that even if a company were to allow you to take a month at once is that they then think "Well we got by just fine for that month, maybe we can just do without him."

If you want job security then you make yourself a vital asset to your company, but with that you lose the ability to be gone for long periods.

I have never had a role where I could be gone more than a week.

blargoe

The only time I have seen 3 or more weeks off consecutively is when some of the developers on the team from overseas go back home for a few weeks, but they are all contractors... probably written into their contract.

NetworkVeteran

I have never had a role where I could be gone more than a week.

When I first entered the workforce, I felt totally irreplaceable. Now I am doubtless more effective at what I do, but I know I'm very replaceable. It might temporary harm my company's bottom line.. but my departure from Cisco, Juniper, Verizon, Yahoo, etc. wouldn't result in them falling into ruin. Even our country seems to survive--more or less--regular changes in its highest positions.

MiikeB wrote: »

The big risk is that even if a company were to allow you to take a month at once is that they then think "Well we got by just fine for that month, maybe we can just do without him."

I choose managers who can count! That they can survive with (n-1) employee doesn't mean they can survive with (n-2) employees, which is what would happen after they cut me and then someone else went on PTO. Additionally, if they decided an (n-1) headcount was in their best interest, they are more likely to cut their least productive workers, not their most productive workers.

(That is, of course, if there's isn't a macro-level cut where an entire team, or all people with red hair and tattoos, vanish with the stroke of an executive's pen. It happens!)

On the bright side, I can take vacations.

MiikeB

NetworkVeteran wrote: »

When I first entered the workforce, I felt totally irreplaceable. Now I am doubtless more effective at what I do, but I know I'm very replaceable. It might temporary harm my company's bottom line.. but my departure from Cisco, Juniper, Verizon, Yahoo, etc. wouldn't result in them falling into ruin. Even our country seems to survive--more or less--regular changes in its highest positions.

I know I am totally replaceable, but I do not want to be replaced. What I mean is I have never had a role that could go without being done for more than a week or so.

lantech

I took a two week vacation and hated playing catch up when I got back. Having to go through all those emails really sucked. I couldn't imagine have to go through an entire month of emails.