How much time off could I take?

[ShawnHoo]

I've been fortunate enough to have had a great job for the last few years. I was working in business development for a small startup when we got acquired by a major Internet search engine. We had an IPO last year that's left me in an enviable, yet strange situation.

I finish with my stock vesting in 4/07 and plan to move on to new things a little after that. (I like the company and my co-workers a lot, but I can see myself getting bored with the position itself at that point, plus there's no longer an out-sized financial incentive to stay.)

What I want to know is how long I could remain voluntarily jobless, provided that I'll have a good brand name on my resume and that finances aren't an issue. There's a good chance that I'll end up joining a startup or perhaps starting a business of my own, but I'd like to take some time off first and right now I have no burning desire to pursue a particular entrepreneurial venture. Would I be able to get a job at a "good company" with a 6 month resume gap? A year? Three years?

tl; dr

[Thythe]

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tl; dr

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Come on, it wasn't that long. As to your question, I think it depends on what you do. Later when you explain it to companies, if you sat on the couch all day watching TV, that would seem lazy. If you fulfilled your dream of visiting every European country, I think that's better.

[theben]

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What I want to know is how long I could remain voluntarily jobless

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Although I cannot give you an answer to this question, I want to say this. i'm already starting to like you [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[theben]

follow up suggestion--if you take a really long time off and it becomes a liability, returning to graduate school for a year is always a way to make you 'current' again. you could do a graduate business 1-year masters program or something like that (get a half-assed business degree). just a quick and certainly inconvienent suggestion