Taking a Career Break as a Nomad
Nomad Profile
I met Akshat and his lovely wife, Sakshi, on a day tour of the beautiful Kazbegi mountain region in northeast Georgia. We sat next to each other on the minibus and quickly started swapping nomad adventures. I was especially keen to learn more about how he had stepped in and then stepped out of his nomad life.
9 Fun Facts
First Name: Akshat
Age Range: 20s
Nationality: Indian
Nomadic Stance: Episodic
Last Corporate Job: Senior AI Engineer
Current Job: Senior AI Engineer
Favourite Country: Guatemala & Iceland (can’t choose one sorry, both are my favourite child lol)
Next Stop: Japan
What do you like best about the nomadic life? Novelty
Tbh, there’s no one favourite country, I have at least 5 that are at the same level. Also, I would say the best part about nomadic life for me is the amalgamation of novelty and freedom, if one of them is missing, it wouldn’t remain as exciting!
2 Questions
1) You were a nomad for 1.5 years, then stepped back again into a full-time, stationary role. Why? How was the transition?
There were a couple of reasons for my transition out of the nomad life:
I was on a planned career break, so whatever savings I had were running out after travelling to 40 countries across all 7 continents, so I thought maybe it’s time to resume my normal work life.
I didn’t really want to transition to slow-travel while working. After 18 months, I was reinvigorated by my work with new goals to chase. I was ready to focus on my career and immerse myself in evolving my skills.
The transition was bittersweet. Bitter since I was no longer exploring new places every other week; sweet because I had the cushion of stability and comfort after such a long time on the road. I really enjoyed returning to my warm home every day as well as being surrounded by friends and family—especially after such a long stretch of vagabonding.
2) Are you looking to resume nomading again? Why or why not? What is holding you back?
Now, I take regular holidays to satisfy my wanderlust, either solo or with friends & family. Of course, short-term vacations are not the same as travelling carefree for extended periods of time. I find that if I don’t do these trips, I start feeling unhappy.
But multi-month or multi-year travel is not on the horizon. I’m the kind of person who derives fulfilment from deep work, and constant travel hampers my productivity. (I’m an AI engineer and we solve a lot of hard problems, lol).
When I work while traveling, I just want to go out and explore. And when I’m exploring, I still have aspects of work in my head. So I can’t fully immerse myself in one thing. I ended up feeling unsatisfied in both areas — work and travel.
Also, my priorities in life have shifted. I’m now married to the love of my life, and she has an office job. I was aware of these trade-offs before our marriage, and I happily chose to be with her rather than continuing to nomad forever.
My new wife, family commitments, and my own career goals have kept me busy and happy in life in the last few years. I’m grateful for my full life and happy with the pace and balance of every aspect of my life! 😊
Have you entertained the idea of stepping into or out of the nomad life? What is driving your decision to stay or go? Can you turn off your work mind while traveling?
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Christened “Wander Woman” by National Geographic, Erin Michelson is a professional speaker and author of the Nomad Life™ series of curated trips and travel guides, including the #1-ranked “Explore the World with Nomads.”
I got to know this amazing, sweet and caring nomad through his brother. though the introduction was quite formal, we got to know each other better and now he is my inspiration to start traveling and explore my life. Cant thank him enough.
Thank you so much Erin for featuring me on your page! It was indeed a lot of fun talking to you and getting to know about your journey and your experiences!!