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Gap Years for Grown Ups
The benefits of Gap Years for students have long been accepted, but increasing numbers of older people are now following their example by putting their normal lives on hold and going off to see something of the world. For these people this fully revised second edition of Gap Years for Grown Ups includes all the essential information on the enormous range of opportunities,
Specialist Gap Year schemes that accept older participants.Doing something worthwhile through voluntary work.Pursuing a hobby or a new project.Taking the trip of a lifetime to remote and romantic places.Gaining some new skill or qualification.Spiritual retreats and pilgrimages.The paid jobs around the world that can be found by travellers.
There are many reasons why someone may choose to leave their job and take a Gap Year. Younger people may want a breathing space, a chance to step back, evaluate their career and perhaps to head off in a new direction, while older people whose children have left home may realise that they now have the freedom to travel or to achieve some personal goal or ambition that has long laid dormant.
The book also covers the nuts and bolts of how to take time
How to finance a break from work or running a home.Persuading the boss to give you leave.Ensuring that you have a job to return to. Whether to go off alone or to take a partner.How to tackle the return to work or home domesticity.
The text is vividly illustrated with over 100 first hand stories and case histories from grown ups who have taken Gap Years to show the reader what they can expect from their career break.
Specialist Gap Year schemes that accept older participants.Doing something worthwhile through voluntary work.Pursuing a hobby or a new project.Taking the trip of a lifetime to remote and romantic places.Gaining some new skill or qualification.Spiritual retreats and pilgrimages.The paid jobs around the world that can be found by travellers.
There are many reasons why someone may choose to leave their job and take a Gap Year. Younger people may want a breathing space, a chance to step back, evaluate their career and perhaps to head off in a new direction, while older people whose children have left home may realise that they now have the freedom to travel or to achieve some personal goal or ambition that has long laid dormant.
The book also covers the nuts and bolts of how to take time
How to finance a break from work or running a home.Persuading the boss to give you leave.Ensuring that you have a job to return to. Whether to go off alone or to take a partner.How to tackle the return to work or home domesticity.
The text is vividly illustrated with over 100 first hand stories and case histories from grown ups who have taken Gap Years to show the reader what they can expect from their career break.
- GenresTravel
358 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
2 people are currently reading
91 people want to read
About the author
Susan Griffith
35 books1 followerLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Please see: Susan Griffith
Susan Griffith is a freelance editor and writer who has specialized for more than 25 years in writing books and articles about travel, especially working and volunteering abroad. The first edition of her best known book Work Your Way Around the World was researched in 1982 mainly by listening attentively to the stories of travelers met abroad and by interviewing people summoned to the Nag’s Head (the pub behind her publisher’s office in Oxford). At that time she had plenty of personal experience of working abroad since she had left her native Canada after doing a degree in English at the University of Toronto to study at Oxford and then decided to stay on working in England.
In the early 1980s so few guidebooks about funding yourself on the road were available that travelers were grateful for any scrap of information and encouragement. The world of travel has changed dramatically since then. Working abroad has become such a mainstream idea that it has given rise to scores of web sites; student travel agencies have specialist working abroad departments and a huge infrastructure has developed for those who want to combine work and travel. Work Your Way has grown up with the travel industry and now takes account of all the shortcuts to fixing up work abroad that now exist. Personally updated every other year since its beginnings, it is now an acknowledged classic in the field. Other titles which Susan has written and regularly updates include Teaching English Abroad which gives a comprehensive account of that booming business, Taking a Gap Year, The Au Pair & Nanny's Guide to Working Abroad, and Gap Years for Grown Ups. She has also been a contributing editor to Transitions Abroad since the early days of its publication and contributes occasional articles to the travel pages of The Independent, a British daily newspaper. Her consistent aim has been to make her writing as concrete and up-to-the-minute as possible, to cut out vague generalities and meaningless waffle.
Susan has traveled relentlessly both for work and pleasure, and has spent substantial periods of time on her own in the Indian Subcontinent and the Antipodes including Papua New Guinea. She also travels widely with her family including her partner, who is the Oxford Professor of Latin and is therefore interested in travel to ancient sites around the Mediterranean. Now based in Cambridge, she is hoping that her twin sons who have hit adolescence will have imbibed a love of travel since she is all the more convinced that a spell of independent travel in wild and woolly places is a good and necessary thing.
Please see: Susan Griffith
Susan Griffith is a freelance editor and writer who has specialized for more than 25 years in writing books and articles about travel, especially working and volunteering abroad. The first edition of her best known book Work Your Way Around the World was researched in 1982 mainly by listening attentively to the stories of travelers met abroad and by interviewing people summoned to the Nag’s Head (the pub behind her publisher’s office in Oxford). At that time she had plenty of personal experience of working abroad since she had left her native Canada after doing a degree in English at the University of Toronto to study at Oxford and then decided to stay on working in England.
In the early 1980s so few guidebooks about funding yourself on the road were available that travelers were grateful for any scrap of information and encouragement. The world of travel has changed dramatically since then. Working abroad has become such a mainstream idea that it has given rise to scores of web sites; student travel agencies have specialist working abroad departments and a huge infrastructure has developed for those who want to combine work and travel. Work Your Way has grown up with the travel industry and now takes account of all the shortcuts to fixing up work abroad that now exist. Personally updated every other year since its beginnings, it is now an acknowledged classic in the field. Other titles which Susan has written and regularly updates include Teaching English Abroad which gives a comprehensive account of that booming business, Taking a Gap Year, The Au Pair & Nanny's Guide to Working Abroad, and Gap Years for Grown Ups. She has also been a contributing editor to Transitions Abroad since the early days of its publication and contributes occasional articles to the travel pages of The Independent, a British daily newspaper. Her consistent aim has been to make her writing as concrete and up-to-the-minute as possible, to cut out vague generalities and meaningless waffle.
Susan has traveled relentlessly both for work and pleasure, and has spent substantial periods of time on her own in the Indian Subcontinent and the Antipodes including Papua New Guinea. She also travels widely with her family including her partner, who is the Oxford Professor of Latin and is therefore interested in travel to ancient sites around the Mediterranean. Now based in Cambridge, she is hoping that her twin sons who have hit adolescence will have imbibed a love of travel since she is all the more convinced that a spell of independent travel in wild and woolly places is a good and necessary thing.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 25, 2019
As someone who has actually done this - took a gap year at 45- I found this book an interesting read. I wish I’d seen it before I took the plunge into my 13 month RTW trip. But it did confirm I’d done many things right and that once done it’s easy to get a new life, change career direction and have nothing to fear for your future.
I’m now 24 years on from that leap into the unknown (quit the job and travel) and I don’t regret any of it. I definitely can confirm that the info in this book is useful, accurate and worthwhile following.
Get the book and just do it!
I’m now 24 years on from that leap into the unknown (quit the job and travel) and I don’t regret any of it. I definitely can confirm that the info in this book is useful, accurate and worthwhile following.
Get the book and just do it!
July 5, 2017
An informative book, the more you read, the more you would like to pursue this gap period (any period longer than the usual, e.g. > 2 weeks)...
July 9, 2011
Griffith's well-rounded mix of travel ideas, inspiration, advice, travel resources, and case studies should be beneficial to anybody who considers taking a sabbatical. The books has even more value to you if your travel experience is limited. Griffith calls her book "the most comprehensive, practical guide to taking a career break", and at least with regard to travel and the kind of travel (adventure, charity/volunteering, etc.), she is right. The book contains some advertisements by third parties, but they actually enhance the book. The book seems to be updated frequently. The slightly European perspective is refreshing because many travel resources listed are not the ones you might find in American books. Since travel is a big and very professionally organized industry in Europe, her resource lists should be very valuable to you.
December 8, 2009
Thorough: if you're thinking of going abroad she covers loads of options concisely
November 2, 2011
Actually had to buy this update. What a useful volume -- so glad she's updated it.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews