Working Identity, by Herminia Ibarra

Stuck between your old career and your dream life? You will love this classic book

Every so often, I find myself considering a major career change. Whether I’ve been having a hard time at work, or unemployed for too long, my mind will go to what else I could do instead of my current job. It’s usually something completely different, where I can be a different version of myself and somehow still pay my bills.

Like most people, I didn’t choose my career out of passion (after all, what 5-year-old dreams of doing arts marketing). I picked it based on my interests in the arts, and because it seemed a more sensible choice than being an actual artist. I came to enjoy it as I progressed, and I think I’m fairly good at it now. In fact, I can’t imagine what else I could do.

If you are reading this, I am guessing you might also have fallen into your career out of some sort of convenience. Maybe it was something you were good at in school, or what was available or practical for you at the time. Maybe it was what your family was hoping you would do, and you wanted to make them proud.

A friend of mine once told me he’d fallen into his recruitment career after he met a guy in a bar who offered him a job at his company. Although that may sound like a dream if you’re currently unemployed (spoiler alert: the market is brutal), it shows that sometimes we just make the practical choice, rather than the passionate one.

Whether you loved your first career or not, after a few years it’s highly possible that you no longer like it, or that it no longer likes you. Maybe the skills you developed have been made obsolete by industry changes. Maybe the “work hard, play hard” lifestyle which was fun in your 20s is no longer compatible with your family life, or energy levels. Perhaps you have lost interest because you have been doing the same thing for too long, and you wonder if there is more to life.

Whether you’re after a lifestyle change or wish to pursue something more aligned with your personal values, there are hundreds of reasons why you might want to move on.

But how do you change careers halfway through? From not knowing what else to do, to financial responsibilities or other real-life practicalities, there are many hurdles.

If you can relate, you will love reading ‘Working Identity’.

This book has become a classic because it goes beyond traditional career advice, and looks at the practical and psychological aspects of a mid-career change.

The author, Herminia Ibarra, has been a professor at top business schools (including LSE and Harvard) and has done extensive research on how professionals change careers. Her analysis is supported by numerous case studies.

The main premise of the book is that the usual way we approach career changes doesn’t work. We are normally advised to know ourselves, our skills and values, before we can identify our new dream role. But starting from introspection is unlikely to bring the desired results, because until we start doing something, there is no way to know for sure that we will like doing it – clarity comes from taking action, not the other way round.

With that in mind, the process is less about finding our ‘one true self’ and more about experimenting with several ‘possible selves’. We are encouraged to imagine various career paths and put them to the test in real life through small experiments, to figure out what it is we actually like.

This iterative process helps “de-risk” the change, and makes it more likely that we land on a better fit.

We’ve all heard of people who gave up their corporate jobs to pursue a passion project that they ended up hating. It is not unusual to pivot a few times before finding the right fit. But by taking curiosity-led action before going all in, we can avoid making drastic leaps in the wrong direction.

If you’ve been contemplating making a career change, or even actively tried but not managed yet, the book will help you…

• Feel supported. The change process is lonely and you’re unlikely to get much help from the people you know. In fact, meeting new people is key to success.
• Troubleshoot and understand the reasons why you might be stuck. Gain valuable insights and practical tools to move forwards.
• Manage the awkward ‘in between’ period when you’re no longer invested in your old career, but you’ve not arrived in the new one yet.

I particularly enjoyed ‘Working Identity’ because it acknowledges that career change entails a deep reflection about ourselves, our lifestyles, and ultimately our identities. In Ibarra’s own words:

“You will know what you are learning on a deeper level once you start to question what aspects of your life, aside from your job, also need changing.”

This is likely to happen over a long period of time (think years, not months), because to make space for the new identity to form, we also have to let go of our old selves and routines, which is, in itself, not easy.

If this feels like a tall order, you are not alone, and help is at hand.

PS – If you’re contemplating a career change, you might also want to check out the Careershifters programme, which isn’t linked to this book but puts the “trial and error” method in practice within a supportive community.