Can a career break actually enrich your career?
With Nicoletta Idilli.
After eight years in the humanitarian sector, Nicoletta Idili felt something had to change. Instead of jumping straight into the next role, she took a year-and-a-half career break — a deliberate pause to reflect, explore her skills, and redefine what work should look like. Today, she’s the host and producer of Career Breakers, an independent podcast sharing stories of transformation and reinvention, and she’s training as a transformative coach helping people reconnect with their true path.
Redefining Identity Beyond the Job
Nicoletta describes herself as “multi-potential” — someone with many interests and possible careers, not just one neat label. Her break became a space to detach her identity from her job title, accept that she doesn’t have a linear career, and see her creativity, ideas, and curiosity as assets rather than flaws.
From Oxfam to the Unknown
Growing up in Sardinia, drama school felt unrealistic, so she chose “Plan B”: languages, social development, and eventually a master’s in humanitarian emergencies that led to an eight-year career at Oxfam. When the role stopped fitting, she initially asked for a sabbatical — but a lack of real support made it clear she needed a clean break. Resigning was hard and took over a year, but it became the turning point.
A Break That Was Anything but a Pause
For Nicoletta, the career break wasn’t about switching off, it was about switching in. She used the time to explore her skills, creativity, and what truly energised her — volunteering, experimenting, and allowing herself to move beyond productivity checklists and task-based thinking. Letting go of timelines and “outcomes” unlocked a sense of infinite possibility for what her next chapter could be.
The Hard Part: Coming Back
The return to work was anything but smooth. Despite feeling more skilled and grounded, she was ghosted for months when she started applying for roles. That clash between inner growth and external rejection is a recurring theme in career-break stories — and a reminder that the emotional and financial realities need to be faced, not romanticised.
Why We Need to Normalise Career Breaks
Many of Nicoletta’s podcast guests took breaks because of severe burnout. Their stories highlight how current systems rarely support people in exploring their potential at work — they’re hired to perform tasks, not evolve. She argues that careers can’t be assumed to be linear anymore and that more people are choosing quality of life, health, and meaning over constant grind and late nights in the office.
The Case for Sabbaticals and Better Policy
From post-Covid reassessments of life to Prince William calling for career breaks for NHS workers, Nicoletta sees a growing recognition that pauses are not luxuries but necessities. She believes sabbaticals and structured schemes should be standard parts of benefits packages — especially in high-pressure sectors — so people can step away before they reach crisis point.
Turning a Break into a Launchpad
Nicoletta’s own break gave birth to Career Breakers, a podcast and emerging community where women share honest stories about stepping away and starting again. From surgeons in Japan to human rights lawyers dancing salsa in Colombia, the conversations show that stepping out of the traditional path can be both terrifying and life-giving — and that burnout doesn’t have to be the end of the story.
Practical Advice If You’re Considering a Break
Nicoletta shares grounded advice for anyone thinking, “I want to do this”:
Do the inner work: journaling, meditation, and honest reflection on what isn’t working.
Get real about money: savings, budgets, relocation, or staying with friends.
Visualise your break: what you’ll be doing, where you’ll be, how you’ll feel.
Build support: people to talk to, stories to learn from, and communities to lean on.
And she’s clear: a break is rarely simple or seamless — but it can be deeply enriching, both personally and professionally, when approached with intention.
👉 Listen to the full conversation with Nicoletta to hear how a career break can shift your identity, reshape your definition of success, and help you design a career that fits the life you actually want to live.
