I quit my job after working for 2 years as a software engineer and traveled solo for a year and some change through 30ish countries in Europe, Asia and Oceania. It's without a doubt the best decision I ever made in my life.
When you first start out traveling, you end up moving really fast since there is so much to see. I think it's because that's what you do when you're on a fixed-length vacation. After a month or two of this you get tired and you find yourself staying longer and longer in places you like. For me, that ended up being tropical places where I could scuba dive for cheap.
During a long trip you'll grow a lot as a person. It sounds cliche, but you'll be scared and lonely sometimes, but also super-charged with energy and surrounded by great friends at other times. You may even fall in love (a few times). It's important to realize it goes in waves - I found that every 3 to 4 months I would feel depressed or lonely and think about going home, only to meet some incredible people and realize how cool of a life I was living.
I came back when I ran out of money. I traveled on a "shoe-string" with only a carry on backpack for roughly $24,000 USD. For those interested in traveling like this, check out "How to Travel the World for $50 a Day" by Nomadic Matt.
Coming back and joining the workforce was incredibly hard. I didn't have a laptop with me, so a lot of my technical skills had atrophied and it showed in interviews, leading to me failing every interview from big tech companies. Luckily, after having only a few hundred dollars to my name, I got a dev job and my skills came back rather quickly after that.
I quit my job after working for 2 years as a software engineer and traveled solo for a year and some change through 30ish countries in Europe, Asia and Oceania. It's without a doubt the best decision I ever made in my life.
When you first start out traveling, you end up moving really fast since there is so much to see. I think it's because that's what you do when you're on a fixed-length vacation. After a month or two of this you get tired and you find yourself staying longer and longer in places you like. For me, that ended up being tropical places where I could scuba dive for cheap.
During a long trip you'll grow a lot as a person. It sounds cliche, but you'll be scared and lonely sometimes, but also super-charged with energy and surrounded by great friends at other times. You may even fall in love (a few times). It's important to realize it goes in waves - I found that every 3 to 4 months I would feel depressed or lonely and think about going home, only to meet some incredible people and realize how cool of a life I was living.
I came back when I ran out of money. I traveled on a "shoe-string" with only a carry on backpack for roughly $24,000 USD. For those interested in traveling like this, check out "How to Travel the World for $50 a Day" by Nomadic Matt.
Coming back and joining the workforce was incredibly hard. I didn't have a laptop with me, so a lot of my technical skills had atrophied and it showed in interviews, leading to me failing every interview from big tech companies. Luckily, after having only a few hundred dollars to my name, I got a dev job and my skills came back rather quickly after that.