Identity Shift

*Craft experiments: Devise ways to sample a new role without giving up your current job. Take courses, try freelancing, do pro bono work, or moonlight in a field that interests you. Use vacation time or take a sabbatical to experience some aspect of that field.

*Shift connections: Expand your network of contacts beyond your usual circles. Go to conferences in the industry that you're considering, attend your college reunion, or reach out to people who do work that you're interested in for advice and information.

*Make sense: Create a story that you can tell yourself and others about what you're trying to do and how it connects the old you with the person you wish to become. Think of it as your own personal elevator pitch. Don't be afraid to revise it regularly, based on your progress and your growing understanding of where you want to go.

The subjects in Ibarra's study who used this test-and-learn approach had better luck changing careers than those who followed more-conventional approaches. But it can't be done overnight. Most of her subjects took three years to find the work that finally quieted their gnawing sense of discontent.

Granted, it's a daunting prospect. But, according to Ibarra, the biggest mistake made by would-be career changers is waiting too long to start the process. And with the current malaise in the economy, people are staying stuck even longer. "Because the job market's been so bad, people say, 'I can't afford to dream now,' " Ibarra says. "But if you know it's going to take three years, why not start preparing yourself? You might as well take advantage of the slack times, instead of waiting until everybody else is changing."

In addition, career changers must be willing to endure a transitional period that's often high on frustration and uncertainty. As Lesly Higgins, who made the switch from high-tech manager to executive coach, says, "You have to go through a neutral zone where your old career has ended, but the new career hasn't yet begun. You're neither fish nor fowl. It's a very unsettling place."

But if you're not confused, you're not engaging the problem, Ibarra says. You must be willing to live through the contradictions between identities in order to understand what you're trying to change.

Needless to say, this process can be rough on a spouse or partner. "It's hard to see the person you love go through these convulsions, where one day they want to be an investment banker, and the next a street musician, and the next a scuba-diving instructor," Ibarra says. People with supportive partners had an easier time with transitions, and those who had an outside network with whom they could share stories--and angst--handled the inevitable frustrations of the process even more successfully.

Those who have toughed it out say the rewards are worth the turmoil. As Sandra Comas, a literature professor who became a financial consultant, says, "If I felt indifferent about life, I would never do this. It's a lot of work, and you've got to care. But if you love life and have high expectations of what it can bring, it can be very enriching and rewarding." nFC

Sidebar: Inch by Inch

Tiny experiments lead to a new life

Five years ago, Lesly Higgins had a top job with Commerce One, a hot pre-IPO software company in Pleasanton, California. As VP of software engineering, she had just shipped her first project and was debating which part of the company's product line she wanted to supervise following a major acquisition. By any measure, she had one of the Bay Area's dream tech jobs.

Then her husband asked her if she was really happy.

"I went to the gym the next morning and thought, Why am I doing this?" Higgins says by cell phone as she tools through Silicon Valley. "I told myself I had to stay until we go public. But then I thought, 'I'm miserable. And I'm not willing to trade another year of my happiness for more stock options.' "

In the late 1990s, that was a radical statement. To step away while the boom was still thundering through the West Coast was, to most people, unthinkable. But for Higgins, the deep-seated discontent that had troubled her for years had finally become unbearable.

Twenty years earlier, Higgins had fallen into high tech when a mentor saw her potential and encouraged her to become a software developer. Logical and detail- oriented, she quickly excelled. But a little voice inside kept saying, "I hope I'm not still doing this 10 years from now." Yet, as promotions and raises kept coming, the prospect of change became too confusing to contemplate.

Trouble was, Higgins didn't really love technology. Unlike a true code warrior, she viewed it more as a means to an end than as a product to be loved for itself. She knew she wasn't happy, but she also knew she was baffled when it came to articulating what she should do instead.