I think highly of Herminia Ibarra, the author of this book. She’s a smart scholar and researcher, and she’s written a book that’s full of a good mix of interviews, citations to other books and studies, and the author’s interpretation of what it all means.
“Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career” is the book’s subtitle. This is my only real quibble with the book. I expect that in the book publishing and promotion world, there are people whose job it is to create subtitles, and nobody in that job gets promoted for a title that says, “If you’ve read and thought about this topic, you probably won’t be too surprised by what’s in here.” But that’s not Ibarra’s fault, or the book’s fault. If you’re going to make a promise like that, I’d like you to back it up. I’m just not sure whether the strategies or conclusions she draws are all that unconventional.
Essentially, she suggests a few things:
- Experiments help you recognize and sharpen your ideas about what you like. You can’t just think your way into real knowledge.
- It takes time and attention to make a change, and you might be scared or reluctant along the way. That’s to be expected
- The people you surround yourself with have a big influence on your ideas about what’s normal, good, or “successful” — so if you mix with different kinds of people, your ideas and expectations will be different. You can be intentional about that.
- Timing matters; some chapters of our life (or periods in the larger zeitgeist) are more fertile for change.
- When you’re in the midst of change, figuring out how to talk about it can be hard. Patience and reflection are useful.
She’s not wrong about any of this, and she has interviews and case studies and citations that back up these assertions. It’s a good look at people who make major life transformations. Her focus group tend to be highly educated people, and most of them appear to have robust personal and professional networks, often from highly selective educational institutions or organizations. It might restrict the conclusions she draws about the efficacy of this process, but her sample is pretty closely aligned with my client base, and I think there’s a lot of good in this book for people with those characteristics. (Often their ideas about success and prestige are narrow — so the messages and transformations in the book will be helpful).
I loved the literary references she drops into the book, and felt like I was in the company of a strong mind while reading it. That’s a big compliment, in my book.
