paid career break vs sitting it out?

i am 29, have been workin for 10 yrs in the same company (private sector), am now bored with the work I am doing and am finding it increasingly difficult to motivate myself. There is a pay freeze at the moment and it looks like this will continue for a while. I have been thinking of asking for a career break (I could get a paid one EUR25k for 2 years) then heading back to college to study for a masters degree for a year then seeing what happens..I dont have a mortgage, I earn 40k gross per annum currently, I dont have any real savings though and have become really used to earning money! Would I be mad to take a paid career break or should I just go for it - I would like to do the masters, not sure how much of a benefit it would be for me but it would be a challenge etc...I'd appreciate any one's views...thanks guys!

If you can't motivate yourself to work for money, do you think you will be able to motivate yourself to study for no money ?

Keep the job for the moment. There is no point in leaving a well paying job at this time without a clear idea of what you want to be doing. You need to get some quality career guidance now, and map a plan for the next couple of years including trying out your hunches bout areas you might be interested in. Study part time maybe. But it would be madness and possibly career suicide to This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language around unnecessarily for 2 years during a recession

I think you have a unique opportunity here that you'll probably never get again. Have you worked out how you can survive on the €25k. Do you have rent/mortgage commitments? How would you pay the fees for the masters? You have little to lose, other than that difference between salary and the €25k.

Im living at home so the rent wouldnt be an issue thankfully, If I am get a place on the masters of my choice I will be asking the company to pay for it, if they say no i will have to pay for it myself and get tax relief etc, I would be hoping the company pay for it though. I have been performing really well for the last few years and getting top ratings in my reviews etc so I am highly thought of, its just that there isnt going to be promotions in the next year or two and the business is contracting like many others so Im thinking is this a good time for me?

I would say go for it. If, you are really interested in the masters.
You have no debts or fixed overheads, therefore not as vunerable to the economy as most of us.

In a few years you might want to get married, have kids etc...doing a masters then would be a pain.

A warning though. I took a year out to do a masters and found it really hard/impossible to cut back my spending as all my peer group were working. If your peer group are all students doing studenty cheapo things its much easier. So you may end up with an overdraft...try to avoid if you can at all!!

Good luck.

eirefinq said:

Im living at home so the rent wouldnt be an issue thankfully,

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Make sure you have a good chat with your folks before you make any assumptions here. They might have plans to go off SKI-ing (Spending Kids Inheritance) for the next few years, instead of keeping house for you!