Not quite a year: my voluntary break ended up lasting nine months. I moved from Munich, Germany to Chicago, USA in July of 2013 (aged 35). The original plan was to find a job quickly, but my parents convinced me to spend that winter with them (they live in a ski town in Colorado). So I spent July-November crashing at my sister’s in Chicago and then November-March being a ski bum. I did very little planning other than the logistics of moving across the Atlantic. I was lucky that I was able to stay with family in both places, so that reduced my costs significantly, but it still ate a decent chunk of savings (especially health insurance but that’s US-specific). Zero regrets. I got to know Chicago better than I would have if I’d started working immediately. And being a ski bum for a full winter was amazing, especially spending so much time with my parents after being separated by an ocean for seven years. After returning to Chicago it took me about a month to find employment. I was asked about the gap but the reaction when I explained it was universally positive-although there were some applications that got no response at all so I can’t say if the gap was why I didn’t get a response.