I'm nearly 2 years into my first "real job" in a long long time. I spent several years in college eke-ing out a living with p/t jobs with no benefits. The job I have now offers 1 or 2 weeks of paid vacation, depending on how long you've been there. Maybe people that have been there a long time get more, I'm not sure. We also get 3 PTO days a year. Can use them as sick days or just paid days off. But the company has a culture of flexible time off (unpaid) beyond those days. I took my (first!) weeks paid vacation last month and went home to New England to visit my mom for a week. I will probably take some unpaid days off through the winter to go do other things. I've been thrifty and don't live paycheck to paycheck so I'm ok with unpaid time off.