Working Identity

Herminia Ibarra is Professor of Organizational Behavior at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.

“Aimed at mid-career professionals who have invested much in careers that may no longer fully satisfy, Ibarra's book challenges the traditional belief that a meticulous assessment of one's skills and interests will automatically lead one to discover the right job. In reality, she argues, "doing comes first, knowing second." This is not to say that a marketing director should abruptly resign to become a modern dancer; instead, defining the arc of the future is a "never-ending process of putting ourselves through a set of knowable steps that creates and reveals our possible selves." Most people will navigate a career shift at some point in their lives, and in this smart, positive guide, organizational behavior professor Ibarra shares the stories of 23 people who did it successfully. 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“Recent changes in the economy have left a large segment of the workforce at odds with their careers, with downsizing and disillusionment causing many to rethink their place in the corporate world or even consider abandoning a profession they no longer find fulfilling. Ibarra believes that, contrary to conventional thought, there is no "one perfect job" for each individual. We each experiment and find our way through trial and error, hopefully on the path of becoming who we really are. This book is designed to help those who are on that path but feel stuck because they feel they should be doing something completely different but don't know what it is yet. Rather than giving glib advice, Ibarra illustrates how to make radical transitions one day at a time through the examples of 23 people who have successfully made the plunge from just a career to a whole new lifestyle. This is about a transition to something more personal, more creative or spiritual, but always liberating.” — Booklist"Herminia Ibarra has written one of the year’s most important business books. Sophisticated and savvy, it challenges much of the conventional wisdom about how and why people change careers and illuminates the experimentation, struggle, and joy that are essential to the process. For professionals contemplating a career change, Working Identity is essential reading." — Daniel H. Pink, author of Free Agent Nation"Through countless stories that inspire because they come so close to our own, Ibarra provides a world-shifting breakthrough in how we can go about refining our lives and changing our careers. She has given us long-awaited, enormously practical, and deeply insightful wisdom about the improvisational nature of our selves and our professional development." — Ronald A. Heifetz, Cofounder, The Center for Public Leadership, Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government and coauthor of Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading"Career and life transitions are as certain as death and taxes, and we are prone to face them with the same fear and anxiety. Working Identity affords us the courage of common sense. Ibarra's in-depth research and sharp insights show that successful transitions occur one step at a time, by trial and error, experimentation, and incremental experience." — Randy Komisar, Virtual CEO and author of The Monk and the Riddle"Working Identity is one of those rare and wonderful books that combines deep knowledge drawn from careful research with practical ideas that can be put to immediate use. The book’s message of hope and possibility that it is possible to reinvent careers and lives should be embraced by everyone thinking about transitions in today’s turbulent world." — Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School, author of World Class and Evolve: Succeeding in the Digital Culture of Tomorrow