Andrea Fomera: "What's in my sabbatical?"

As of Friday, May 13th 👻 I’m officially on ‘vacation’ for a week for RailsConf, then off for four weeks for a Sabbatical from my day job. When I return to work on June 21st, it’ll have been five weeks. This is the longest I’ve ever taken off of work since I can remember, and certainly since I started programming.

Something that keeps coming up in conversations is “Do you have any plans for your sabbatical?” This is probably the first if not second question I get asked… and honestly my answer has been ‘I have no firm plans’.

That’s not entirely true, I have a few things on my agenda. I plan to spend some time reflecting on the past few years, and thinking about the future, my career, my role, what I want out of life. Deep thinking on things that are hard to think about with the burden of work in the way.

That’s not to say my current role, or company isn’t great or amazing. It’s more on past reflections and forward thinking about the next 3 to 5 years for me.

Things I’m thinking about these next few weeks include;

Who am I (really)?
How happy am I (really)?
Have I achieved my professional goals I set for myself up to now?
What have been the most challenging moments in my work?
What works for me at work? (And what doesn’t work for me)
What kind of impact do I want to make?
Where do I want to be in five years?
Am I growing in my skills?

That’s not a conclusive list, but merely something to get me started on my reflection.

Perhaps I’ll blog more while I’m off, I’ve been meaning to! Perhaps not. I’m hopeful time off can help the burnout I’ve experienced for the greater part of the last 8 months.

Talk soon and take care 👋