The key ideas

Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career

Herminia Ibarra, 2003

Why does a whole year of thinking about a new career so often produce not a single real option? Herminia Ibarra spent several years following people who were changing careers, and she saw that for those who succeeded, clarity came after action, not before it. You'll learn how to run small experiments without giving up what you have, who helps a change along and who holds it back, and how to get through the uncomfortable middle of the journey.

Who it is for

For anyone whose old job and old life have stopped bringing joy, while a new one is nowhere in sight yet. And for anyone who has been thinking about a change for a long time but can't decide where to begin.

Only through our actions do we learn who we want to become.

A year of searching that turned up nothing

After business school, Gary McCarthy landed at a respected firm almost by accident and treated it as temporary. He was waiting to find his true calling. Then everything came together in one stretch of his life: a milestone birthday, changes in his personal life and the first poor review of his career. Gary decided it was time for a change, and he went at it thoroughly. He took career aptitude tests, met with more than one headhunter, talked to friends and family, researched industries and drew up two lists of options. A year went by. Not a single real option had appeared.

Herminia Ibarra studies how people change their work and themselves. Her field is organizational behavior, the science of how people think and act at work. She has taught at Harvard Business School and INSEAD. For this book she spent several years following people who had dared to make a big change. Among them were a psychiatrist who became a Buddhist monk, a literature professor who became a stockbroker, and a technology executive who became an executive coach.

Her main finding turns the usual advice upside down. We are told: first figure out what you want, then act. Ibarra saw the opposite. For those whose change worked out, action came first, and understanding followed. Who you can become is discovered not by thinking, but by trying.

The book is about work, but it speaks to a feeling many people know: the old life no longer brings joy, and the new one isn't in sight yet. You'll learn why long deliberation keeps you stuck, how to set up small experiments, who helps a change along and who quietly holds it back, and why the road from your old self to your new one winds the way it does. And you'll find out how Gary's story ended.

The more careful the plan, the longer you stand still

What Gary did, Ibarra calls the "plan and implement" model. It has three steps. First, know yourself: take the tests, get clear on your temperament, values and abilities. Then consult the people you trust. And finally, take one decisive step that solves every problem at once. It sounds sensible, and it's exactly what most career change advice teaches.

Ibarra watched this model fail again and again. Her explanation is simple: long introspection easily gets stuck in daydreams. You dig deeper and deeper into yourself, and the dream never meets real life. You don't get more answers, you just get more tired of searching.

There is a second trap too. While you are thinking, the world keeps seeing you as you were. Gary admitted that he had wanted to do something different and had realized with horror that people had already put a label on him. Every option he was offered turned out to be a version of his old job. Even his own two lists were telling: one held completely different careers, the other the same old work in a slightly altered form. He never managed to choose between them on paper.

The mistake isn't that you think. The mistake is believing the right answer is already lying somewhere inside you, just waiting to be found. Ibarra believes there is no such ready-made answer. It has to be created.

Read in Livria

About the author

Herminia Ibarra is a professor of organizational behavior at London Business School. Born in Cuba, she has taught at Harvard Business School and INSEAD, and she studies career transitions and leadership.

All books by this author: Herminia Ibarra

Terms from the book

  • Alexander
  • Coach
  • consulting
  • Sabbatical
  • McCarthy
  • INSEAD
  • Roberts
  • Headhunter: A recruiter who searches for candidates for senior or hard-to-fill positions on behalf of companies.
  • Organizational behavior: A field of management science that studies how people think, feel and act at work and in organizations.
  • Psychiatrist: A doctor who treats mental disorders. In the book, one of the people who changed careers.
  • Stockbroker: A go-between who buys and sells securities on the stock exchange on behalf of clients.
  • Plan and implement: Ibarra's name for the usual approach to changing careers: first get to know yourself and make a plan, then take one decisive step. The author's term.
  • Introspection: Reflecting on yourself: your wishes, traits and motives. Ibarra believes introspection alone is not enough for a change.
  • Possible selves: A concept from psychology introduced by Hazel Markus and Paula Nurius in 1986: images of who a person might become, wants to become or is afraid of becoming. It is one of the key ideas in Ibarra's book.
  • Ought self: The image of who a person feels they should be, according to other people's or long-held expectations. Ibarra sees breaking free of it as the heart of a transition.
  • Working identity: The central idea of the book: how a person sees themselves at work, who they believe they are and how others see them. According to Ibarra, it isn't found, it is built.
  • Test and learn: Ibarra's approach to changing careers: instead of one decision, a series of small experiments, each of which shows you something. The author's term.
  • Fontaine: Suzanne Fontaine is one of the people in the book, a former partner at a consulting firm. After a failed leap, she found her place consulting for charities.
  • Freelance: Working for yourself on individual projects, without a permanent staff position.
  • Pro bono: Professional work done for free for the public good. A Latin phrase meaning literally "for the good".
  • Nonprofit sector: Organizations that don't work for profit: charitable foundations, community associations.
  • Diving: Underwater swimming with scuba gear. A diving center teaches it and organizes dives.
  • Investment banker: A banker who helps companies raise money, issue shares and carry out mergers and acquisitions.
  • Regulatory affairs: Working with the government agencies that review medicines, medical devices and other products and approve them for the market.
  • Alfred: Harris Roberts's main mentor at his old company. According to Ibarra, he was too attached to his role as protector to let his protégé grow.
  • Jerry: A company founder Harris Roberts met at a conference. He believed in Harris as a leader and hired him.
  • Chief operating officer: The executive responsible for a company's day-to-day operations, second only to the head of the company.
  • Astrologer: Someone who makes predictions from the positions of the stars and planets. Astrology is not considered a science.
  • Internal venture capitalist: An employee who looks for new, risky ventures inside the company or close to it and decides where to invest money.

All terms

Similar books