A question BEFORE a job hunt

When your working life gets interrupted, everyone asks the same question. So, what are you looking for?It's a kind question. It's also premature. Before you can answer what you're looking for, you need to know what you're choosing between, and almost nobody has that list.I didn't. So before I started looking for anything, I went and built it.The default is invisible until it breaksA career runs on autopilot for years at a time. You don't choose it every morning. You inherit it, then you maintain it. Promotions, reorgs, new managers, none of it disturbs the assumption underneath, which is that a salary is how you fund a life.An interruption disturbs it. Redundancy, illness, a move, a company that stops needing you. However it arrives, the same thing happens. The default stops running long enough for you to get a proper look at it.That look is worth more than the time off. Most people never get it, and the ones who do usually spend it filling the gap as fast as possible rather than…