Synopses & Reviews
Most of us will navigate at least one major career change in our lives. Not a simple "job hop," but a life-altering transition that will require us to abandon years of investment in a career path. It's an exhilarating, terrifying decision that will change not just what we do, but who we are. Whereas most career experts say we must begin with a careful assessment of our skills and interests to discover the perfect career match, Herminia Ibarra says that advice is backwards. Instead, knowing what we really want to do is the result of doing and experimenting. She argues that we harbor a whole cast of "possible selves" we might become. And it is by continuously testing these possible futures not by examining our past that we learn what and who we want to be.
Drawing from in-depth research on managers and professionals in transition, Ibarra describes reinvention as an iterative process of trial and error. Through engrossing stories of successful career-changers from a literature professor-turned-stockbroker to an investment banker-turned-novelist she unveils a new model for change based on three "acts of reinvention": experimenting with new activities, interacting in new networks of people, and constantly reworking the story of our changing identities. Reinventing the act of reinvention itself, Working Identity dares the dreamer in each of us to craft a more fulfilling future.
Review
"It's no 10-point plan for figuring it all out, Ibarra says, but rather a well-reasoned guide to making the decision of whether or not to stay in a career or move on. Readers who study the stories and their accompanying analyses will take away some valuable lessons on changing their way of thinking and being, going out on a limb, and building in a much-needed "transition period" during a career shift." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Ibarra...makes an important contribution to the career development genre with her intriguing view that 'we harbor a whole cast of "possible selves"'....The personal case stories, including a psychiatrist who became a Buddhist monk, provide a pragmatic link to this high-concept material." Library Journal
Synopsis
Arguing that employees harbor a whole cast of "possible selves, " a Professor of Organizational Behavior at Harvard Business School advises readers to test possible futures when considering a career change.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. [183]-192) and index.
Table of Contents
Reinventing yourself -- Identity in transition. Possible selves. Between identities. Deep change -- Identity in practice. Crafting experiments. Shifting connections. Making sense -- Putting the unconventional strategies to work. Becoming yourself.