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Bex Thomas

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Bex Thomas Career Transition Coach | Sabbatical Stories Podcast Host | Former Recruitment Director

Bex Thomas is a career transition coach and sabbatical specialist who draws on 20 years of recruitment experience across the UK and Australia. Originally from Lyme Regis on the Jurassic Coast, she emigrated to Sydney in 2011 on a corporate sponsorship and was promoted to director at a global recruitment firm before taking an eight-month sabbatical in 2016 that reshaped her professional life.

Bex now runs a coaching practice with three strands: the Crossroads programme for career transitions, the Purposeful Pause programme for intentional career breaks, and one-to-one coaching tailored to individual needs. She continues to work two days a week in retained recruitment for a strategy-focused firm in Sydney, giving her clients direct insight into the current hiring landscape.

She hosts the Sabbatical Stories podcast, now entering its fourth season, and partners with BreakSpace, an online community co-founded by Katrina McGee and Lindell Farley. The podcast features individuals sharing honest accounts of career breaks and transitions, alongside expert guests covering finances, health, and career strategy.

Bex Thomas Intentional Career Breaks: Sabbaticals That Lead to Real Change
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May 21, 2026

Bex Thomas Intentional Career Breaks: Sabbaticals That Lead to Real Change

Bex Thomas spent 20 years in recruitment, earned a director-level promotion at a global firm, and realised the achievement felt hollow. That moment of anti-climax led to an eight-month sabbatical that became the catalyst for designing a portfolio career as a career transition coach, sabbatical coach, and podcast host of Sabbatical Stories.Bex explains her five-question framework for planning intentional career breaks: why you are taking the break, when to take it, where to go, who to spend time with, and who you want to become afterwards. She describes the financial planning behind extended breaks, including the currency hack of spending time in Asia on Australian dollars. For experienced professionals sensing their current role no longer fits, Bex shares why the integration period after a sabbatical determines whether the break transforms your career or fades into a distant memory. She also covers how to negotiate leave when your company has no formal sabbatical policy, the p…
Guest: Bex Thomas