Working Identity, Updated Edition, With a New Preface

7 Making Sense

Seldom is a good story so needed as when a major professional reorientation is under way. In times of unsettling change, how we explain ourselves to coworkers, friends and family, or even strangers in a conference room makes all the difference by inspiring belief in our capacity to take a leap and land on our feet. Our stories equally help us believe in ourselves. But a good story is hard to tell when we don’t yet know its ending—as is the case when we’re in transition.

In the middle of confusion, many of us hope for one event that will clarify everything, that will transform our stumbling moves into a story that makes sense. Julio Gonzales, a doctor trying to leave the practice of medicine, put it like this: “I was waiting ...