Boomer here - that's pretty much how I managed my software career. Do a contract job for 6 mos to a year, then do theatre until I needed to work again. Had to go back to fulltime work once I got married and had kids. I miss those days tho. Also, fuck your tiny stereotyping brain if you think a whole generation has the same likes and dislikes.

This gets a lot easier if you have somewhere reliable and preferably free to stay when you need to start working again. Even if you have paid off your own place or been given a place for free you have bills to pay on it. I guess you can rent it out while you are away, but that seems less than ideal to me as how do you keep it maintained if you aren't in the country? It just ends up being another cost.

I would have loved to have done this but the housing situation has always put me off.

This is literally the route I took in my life. Entered the workforce in the early 2000s in IT as helpdesk. Worked till I had a resume good enough for the next level up. Lived below my means. Take several months off to do whatever. Apply for a higher level position. Rinse and repeat every couple years until I was in my 40s at a company I intend to retire with.

I always lived in a smaller place than what I could afford. Never owned a new car. My current vehicle is a 2001 pickup truck, purchased in like 2018. So, gotta trade one luxury for another.

2 caveats: IT as a career was not in the state its in now. Much easier to move up and around. I'm also now in my late 40s and looking to buy my first home, since I wasn't building a nest egg my whole life, and that's no fun.

Also, it was really important to have some significant achievements on the resume as I left each place to show growth professionally so I could always jump up in role/salary with each move.

My career is solid and I make a great salary for my age, but homes are just insane. My brother is 6 years younger and took a more traditional route and started a family, he was able to score a good home before COVID.

Still, I wouldn't trade anything material for the life I took and the places I went.

This is what my old housemate did, starting in the 90s. Worked out quite well for him. My dad used went round the world with the navy in the 50s and used to talk about how some other cultures did stuff like this.

How does that work when you don't live with your parents?

Rents are extremely expensive and would slow down the "build a safety net" part of the cycle.

As someone with kids, that's not happening. Then again, my sibling did this and went on a year-long trip with their kids, and it worked out for them.

If you're gonna do this, go drive a truck in a mining area. (In Australia this basically means WA) They're often desperate for drivers and the pay is insane.

There's a sea shanty to that effect.

Only works if you are not working a shitty job and living paycheck to paycheck. Good fucking luck in most economies greedy billionaires are keeping this from happening.

I've got a buddy who does a variation of this. He's got a little shack pretty close to town. He'll work in the oil field for a few months, come hang out with everyone, and live a "normal" life. Then when he's saved up enough he rolls out and lives in the woods with his dog hunting and fishing and growing veggies. We go by and check on his place every so often to make sure no one has broken in and it's not rotting to the ground.

When he no longer has the money to stay in the woods he comes back. I say that, but he's got the skills to feed himself out there. I think he gets bored after a year or two and wants to be around people for a while.

I asked him about retirement once and he's got another shack right on a lake that's been paid off since the 90s. His plan is to go there and fish and not come back.

This only works without kids.

I thought Gen Z aren't really into drinking or drugs. I hope they do this. Make holes in your resume the norm so they can't hold anything against you. I have friends that did/do this and they got it out of their system. They're pretty happy with their lives.

Tried something like this. Recruiters told me the gap didn't look good and I should lie about needing that time off for my mental health. The 1st class honours degree I was told would allow me to walk into a job was deemed essentially worthless since I had only around 2 year's industry experience. Took me months to get another role offered - a 15k paycut and overall a major downgrade - which I had to take to pay the rent. 0/10, would not recommend.

Healthcare costs in the US is usually the blocker for me when I think about extended stays as a hermit.

You'd have to find a job that pays enough for this lifestyle. And with the kind of resume this produces, it's a pipe dream.

She thinks the jobs will be waiting for her. That’s adorable.

If you're ever on the backpacking circuit you'll meet people like that. They work just long enough to save up for their next trip.

This is a Gen X thing but whatever

"Sounds like we're paying these guys too much"

Im already doing this, can recommend

I’ve done this for the past several years. Not on purpose. I keep telling myself I’ll settle down.

I got a new job a year ago. It looked promising and I was ready to make a life here. But I don’t see myself in it. Leaving soon. Saved enough for modest living and adventurous cheapish traveling for at least a year.

Before that job I was mostly on the road for a year and a half, with some temporary odd jobs here and there.

It has its pros and cons. It’s exciting and adventurous. Sometimes it’s intense. I basically have no retirement savings. Super hard to find a partner.

I work in a place where they had specific arrangements for that.

It was something like after 5 years of employment there you could take a year off and come back to the same position you left.

Bad idea because

1. Jobs hiring will complain about the gaps in your resume
2. when you are too old to work anymore you will have nothing