A group of my friends are going to take a gap year to travel round South East Asia and Australia for and I'm thinking of joining them.I've been working for 3.5 years for a consultancy in London since graduating and I'm sick of my job. I don't have any real commitments and I won't always be this young and fancy free. The time out would also give me the good opportunity to rethink what I want to do for a living.Obviously though, I don't want to do this if its going to limit my careers prospects... If I wanted to apply to other consultancies when I got back, how do you think recruiters would view my time out?

This shouldn't be a problem. Your 3.5 years demonstrates that you can stick at a job for a decent period of time. If you go on your career break now, at least you'll get it out of your system and won't be itching to leave your next employer for this purpose. Out of 5 experienced hires that joined my firm this year, 3 have just come back from some kind of gap year/half-year, so I don't think it will put you in an unusual position.

Cool, that what I thought. If I left after a year, then it might look bad but I think 3.5 years is enough to show I'm not just being drifting around.

"I'm sick of my job. I don't have any real commitments and I won't always be this young and fancy free. The time out would also give me the good opportunity to rethink what I want to do for a living".......DUH ! I tend you think you've already thought about and justified it to yourself..... write the letter and go pack your bags....enjoy !

Ed - get outta here, and off to the sunny far reaches of the world, you lucky so and so

Ed I actually think this can be a positive (speaking as a recruiter/headhunter); it can - if done with some gutso - demonstrate both initiative and self-confidence, and also makes you a more interesting and rounded person on your return, adding something to your CV. Just be sure to make it clear on your return that you have gotten the travel bug out of your system, as it is this which will unsettle recruiters about the experience.Enjoy!!

He was a drifter... ...not a care in the world... ...seeing the sights, watching the world go by......a couple of hundred dollars in his pocket, a rucksack on his back, and a new adventure every day......the last thing on his mind was "going the extra mile and pulling an all-nighter to delight the client with a killer report whilst ghosting his hours to keep the project within budget"

This is a good question! The first part is whether to take the time out or not, then secondly, what recruiters could think of it.My own view is that you live once and travel broadens the mind. I would not hesitate to take the time out. The real question is what you will do with that time, that's the issue.If you add to your skills and experience in a demonstrable way, there is no reason why any recruiter should view it negatively. Furthermore, the consultancy market is exploding, so the opportunities will be there for the foreseable future.Go for it!Ray Kleiner