Working Identity and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more


or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
Trade in Yours
For a £1.33 Gift Card
Trade in
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Colour:
Image not available

 
Start reading Working Identity on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career [Paperback]

Herminia Ibarra
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
RRP: £15.99
Price: £11.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £4.00 (25%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Only 7 left in stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.
Want delivery by Thursday, 23 May? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition £8.99  
Hardcover --  
Paperback £11.99  
Trade In this Item for up to £1.33
Trade in Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £1.33, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Learn more

Book Description

1 Nov 2003 1591394139 978-1591394136 New edition
A powerful model for career reinvention that reverses conventional wisdom

Includes fascinating case studies of personal and professional reinventions—from literature professor to stockbroker, from psychiatrist to Buddhist monk, and from investment banker to fiction writer, among others.

Gives readers a new way to understand change in their lives. Career change is not a step-by-step linear process—it’s crooked and takes much longer than we think. Nor is change the result of one big event. Rather, many small steps add up to a successful change.


Frequently Bought Together

Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career + Time to Think: Listening to Ignite the Human Mind + Coaching for Performance: GROWing Human Potential and Purpose - the Principles and Practice of Coaching and Leadership (4th Edition) (People Skills for Professionals)
Price For All Three: £27.97

Buy the selected items together


Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Harvard Business School Press; New edition edition (1 Nov 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1591394139
  • ISBN-13: 978-1591394136
  • Product Dimensions: 15.4 x 2 x 23.3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 19,238 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • See Complete Table of Contents

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

Product Description

About the Author

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

Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
"could get a middle management job in a finance department of a company."" Or, ""You could become a trainee in a management program.""" Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Customer Reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If you itch to change careers but have made little or no progress, chances are this book will help you understand why .. and what you can do about it.

With it's core "just get out and experiment" message it's a very useful antidote to conventional career advice which holds that the key to making a sucessful change lies in first knowing with as much clarity and certainty what we want to do and then using that knowledge to implement a sound strategy.

It's a powerful message although whether it needed such a long book to present it is debateable. That said, the stories it tells of other career changers are more than just padding - they are illuminating and interesting if a little narrowly focused on professionals.

There is not much in the way of specific tips and advice, but then that is perhaps unsurprising given that the author advises that you go out and find what works for you.

Overall, a very good read for those caught up in the agony of self-analysis that precedes many attempts to change careers.

NB This is a book for career changers rather than job changers.

Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"Working Identity" is a book about making a drastic career change - that is, leaving your unsatisfying profession behind and beginning to do something that's really fulfilling for you.

There must be lots of people who feel vague dissatisfaction with their current lives but can't figure out what's wrong. There are countless books on that subject that tell you to sit down and ponder over what kind of stuff you would like to do, and write it down in minutest detail. I have filled out dozens of slightly different questionnaires over all these years, done all kinds of exercises trying to uncover that knowing that was supposed to be buried somewhere deep inside of me, and ended up none the wiser. In my late thirties, I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

"Working Identity" is the first book I've seen that clearly spells out what my long-time first-hand experience has so clearly demonstrated to be true - that you can't find your true calling by self-reflection. On the contrary - you can only find out what would make you happy by trying stuff out and seeing what you enjoy and what you don't.

Well, then, what help does this book offer? The short answer is: apart from moral support, nothing.
I did find it very comforting to learn that I wasn't some kind of a freak unable to achieve ultimate happiness by fast and simple methods everyone else seemingly uses. But other than that, the book contains just anecdotes about people who experimented around and eventually found something they wanted to spend their lives doing. I didn't even read them all.

Of course, it's clear to me that one can't expect to get things from a book that can only be learned by doing. Still, the book could have been much better. In particular, I disliked three things:
1. Too many times, the author seems to have put random English words one after another just to fill pages.
2. Lots of profound-sounding but actually empty phrases, which are probably meant to make this book appear more serious or something. Just look at that utterly meaningless diagram on page 12.
3. Repeated stressing of how it's all going to be so difficult and confusing and depressing, and how it's supposed to be that way, and how it's inevitable, and how you can never expect to change your life in a smooth and easy way.

That said, it's quite possible that reading a five-page article (to which the essential content of this book could be summed up to) wouldn't have gotten the message through to me. Sometimes you need a book just to shake you up, to tell you that you've been on the wrong track. In that sense, the book served its purpose and deserves 3 stars.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Best book on the subject 16 Sep 2009
Format:Paperback
"Find a job you enjoy and never work a day in your life"

This book shows how other people have made the transition to working at what they enjoy and becoming successful in the terms that satisfy them. If you are looking for direction in your working life, this is a great place to start. It will help you think about what it is that you really want to do and inspire you to realise that doing what you really want to do is the truest and most satisfying way to succeed in your own terms.

If success really is a journey rather than a destination, this book shows you how to choose a journey that you will actually enjoy. (If you can see light at the end of the tunnel, you really need to ask yourself what you are doing in the tunnel in the first place.)

This is an excellent book on this subject and it really helped me gather my direction in working life. Being such a good book, I ended up lending it to a friend so my next move will be to acquire another copy!
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?   Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 

Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Feedback


Amazon.co.uk Privacy Statement Amazon.co.uk Delivery Information Amazon.co.uk Returns & Exchanges