Brett KosinskiJan 24

After a ten year career in product management I made the big pivot back into the development leadership track, and you know what? I’m having the most fun I've had in a long time!

#CareerBreak #coding #EngineeringManagement: https://b-ark.ca/2026/01/24/the-career-reset.html

The Career Reset

Back in the summary of 2023 I made the decision to leave my (first and only) position as a VP of Product at Invidi and take a career break. It wasn’t an easy call, but looking back I have zero regrets. It was the right decision at the right time. During those eighteen months I did a lot – traveling, spending time with family, catching up on so many things around the house, and just generally living –1 but one of the most important things I did was reflect on my career, and in particular, on the things that I value most in my work. Later, as I explored re-entering the job market, I thought a lot about my history of confronting failure, sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much. Oddly enough, it wasn’t long after I wrote that post that a path back into the job market opened as, through very little intentional action of my own, a referral led to some casual discussions and then eventually a job offer for a new opportunity. Fortunately, if you’ve been following my blog you might have inferred that things did not work out, and alas that’s true. But, thanks to a little outreach on my part and a subsequent referral from a friend and colleague, a new path opened, this time back into the technical track I left behind so many years ago. And so far, to my immense relief, it’s been pretty darn great. Yes, those an endashes. No, I’m not an AI. Yes I use them. Yes the AI police can go stuff it. I like my punctuation and y’all can’t stop me! ↩

The “B” Ark
Jason WeillDec 3

For nearly a year, I've been watching with quiet captivation as the tech world seeks "efficiency" with #AI. Are we in a #bubble? Yes. Will good AI products outlast it? Definitely.
https://weill.org/2025/12/03/tech-world-ai-mania/

#careerBreak

Watching the Tech World’s AI Mania Moment

Imagine a business meeting where someone’s presenting a document they wrote with an AI-enabled word processor, to a room full of people equipped with AI text summarizers, which provide AI-written commentary, which gets sent to the attendees as notes, and is then further summarized by AI-enhanced email clients.

Jason Weill
VTC News BotSep 19

Nghỉ hưu tạm đang là xu hướng mới nổi, đặc biệt với Gen Z! 👩💼👨💼 Nhiều người chủ động tạm dừng công việc để tái định hướng sự nghiệp hoặc tìm kiếm cơ hội mới. Đây không phải là nghỉ ngơi mà là bước đệm cho sự thay đổi tích cực! 💡🔄

#NghỉHưuTạm #CareerBreak #ĐổiViệc #GenZ #XuHướngNghềNghiệp #TáiĐịnhHướng #SựNghiệp #CareerChange #WorkLifeBalance #TạmDừng

https://vtcnews.vn/xu-huong-nghi-huu-tam-dang-len-nhieu-nguoi-danh-thoi-gian-nghi-de-doi-viec-ar966266.html

Xu hướng 'nghỉ hưu tạm' đang lên, nhiều người dành thời gian nghỉ để đổi việc

Nhiều người đang dừng chân có chủ đích trên con đường sự nghiệp, nhằm tái định hướng hoặc đổi mới; giai đoạn này gọi là “nghỉ hưu tạm” và gen Z dẫn đầu xu hướng này.

VTC News
Jason WeillSep 2, 2025
As my #careerBreak enters its ninth month, the working world has never seemed more alien to me. I'll need more introspection, more training, and more adjustment before even beginning to seriously pursue a new job.
https://weill.org/2025/09/02/reframing-relationship-with-work/
Reframing My Relationship With Work

I’ve been on a career break for just over eight months. After enjoying my first obligation-free summer since childhood, I’m now starting to think about what sorts of work I want to do next.

Jason Weill
Jason WeillJun 8, 2025

Six months into my #careerBreak, neither boredom nor exhaustion are setting in. I'm having a great time away from work, balancing commitments with relaxation and introspection.

https://weill.org/2025/06/08/half-a-year-after-work/

Six Months into a Career Break, Boredom Hasn’t Arrived Yet

Half a year ago, I quit my job and started a career break. Between travel, self-improvement, volunteering, and relaxation, I’m having a great time. I’m still undecided about what kind of work I’ll do next, and about how long this break will be.

Jason Weill
Show threadJason WeillApr 7, 2025
This is probably the most #coding I’ve done since starting my #careerBreak almost 4 months ago, and I did so via #raspberryPiConnect on an iPad with a Bluetooth keyboard. Didn’t work great; Safari kept interrupting the connection in the tab that had my remote terminal session.
Jason WeillMar 16, 2025

Three months into my #careerBreak, I’m deprogramming from work and keeping my body and mind busy as I learn new skills. So far, feeling good.

https://weill.org/2025/03/16/deprogramming-from-work/

Deprogramming from Work

Three months into my career break, I’ve stopped having dreams involving work. It’s a good sign that I’m mentally shifting away, however slowly, from a work-first mentality.

Jason Weill
Brett KosinskiMar 9, 2025
Yup, it happened. Over nineteen months and two eclipses later and the career break is officially behind me. I still can’t believe that time came and went so quickly, but I can say honestly that I’m excited to start something new.
#CareerBreak #Sabbatical #Work: https://b-ark.ca/2025/03/09/back-to-work.html
Back to work

How do nineteen months fly by so quickly? In some ways it feels like just yesterday that I made the difficult decision to leave my old role and, after over twenty long and fruitful years with my first and only real professional role, simply stop for a while. In the over year and a half that followed, the world around me changed dramatically. The AI hype cycle truly took off with an investment bubble that has seen untold billions sunk into startups, large established players, and the picks-and-shovels companies that underpin the industry. In parallel, we saw increasing evidence of a white collar recession taking shape, with the software industry no exception. While I don’t personally believe the former trend has played much of a part in the latter, these parallel trends have seen the software industry disrupted in a way it hasn’t been since the dot-com crash of 2000. Meanwhile, the political landscape has been utterly transformed. As the alt-right continued to rise and eventually take power in our neighbour to the south, we’ve seen sustained pushback against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and practices, and a decline in support for investing that takes into account environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, with some of that pushback taking the form of real changes to the legal and regulatory landscape in the US. As if that weren’t enough, in the first quarter of 2025 we’ve seen a sustained attack on Canadian sovereignty, as the new American administration has begun to wage an economic war on this country while cozying up to strongman dictators across the globe. I genuinely don’t remember the last time the world felt this… precarious. As you can imagine, given this context, I was more than a little anxious about beginning the hunt for a new job. So imagine my surprise, back in late November, when a former colleague reached out after noticing I was open to work…

The “B” Ark
Jason WeillFeb 2, 2025

During my #careerBreak, to make up for the lack of a regular paycheck, I’ve been building a fixed-income redemption ladder, using CDs and bonds. So far, the stability has been worth the slight time investment.

https://weill.org/2025/02/02/redemption-ladder-career-break/

#personalFinance

A Fixed-Income Redemption Ladder for a Career Break Paycheck

One of the most immediate challenges associated with a career break is that there is no more direct deposit coming into my checking account to pay bills every month. There are a few ways to keep cash flowing. I opted for a redemption ladder with a mix of fixed-income investments. So far, so good. Here’s how mine works.

Jason Weill
Filip Tokarski’s BlogJan 23, 2025

My 9-Month Career Break in 2024: Reflections on Growth, Risks, and Rewards

Now that 2024 has wrapped up and we’re already a few weeks into 2025, I’d like to share a chapter of my life I haven’t discussed publicly before: last year, I spent nine months on a self-imposed career break. For someone who had been working almost nonstop for nine years—sometimes more than 40 hours a week—it was both a bold decision and a transformative experience. This sabbatical significantly boosted my life satisfaction without derailing my career. If anything, it enhanced […]

https://blog.tokarski.biz/2025/my-9-month-career-break-in-2024-reflections-on-growth-risks-and-rewards/

My 9-Month Career Break in 2024: Reflections on Growth, Risks, and Rewards - Filip Tokarski’s Blog

Now that 2024 has wrapped up and we’re already a few weeks into 2025, I’d like to share a chapter of my life I haven’t discussed publicly before: last year, I spent nine months on a self-imposed career break. For someone who had been working almost nonstop for nine years—sometimes more than 40 hours a

Filip Tokarski’s Blog - Filip Tokarski's professional blog.