I own both the Audible book and the Kindle edition; however, this book is a personal-branding textbook, so I will need to get a print edition. Why? There are so many tasks! If I follow the steps outlined by Dorie Clark, success will be mine! Or, if not immediate, stellar, success, I will surely know myself, my friends, my mentors, my protégés, and my colleagues a hell of a lot better -- and they will know me better. I will need the print edition so I can hunker down with a pencil, colored pens, a yellow highlighter, and a yellow legal pad and do my best impression of the brilliant student I once was.

Don't worry, Dorie Clark does hold your hand. Everything you need exists within the pages of this book. You really don't need any background. You just need to believe in yourself; and, if you're not quite ready to believe in yourself just yet, that you can believe that following Dorie's advice will allow you to fake it 'til you make. Just going through the motions will engender confidence as you see things starting to turn in your direction.

Success begets success.

Because Reinventing You works if you work it -- and if you put the time and energy in and actually do the practical work the book suggests, you don't need to be "already rich" or "already Ivy league" or "already the 1%" to find this book amazingly useful. Some reviewers accuse this book of being maybe too elite; however, I know Dorie personally and there's nothing further from the truth. She's down-to-earth and wants everyone to succeed.

In fact, people who have already been trained in the 360-degree feedback process might not get as much out of Dorie's book as someone who is new to all of this. And yes, Dorie does an amazing job of motivating, surely, but this isn't a motivational book, it's a work book and you really must do the work!

Do you have a mentor? Get one? Do you know how the people around you perceive you? "Ask, the here's how," writes Dorie in her book. And her advice is not just research analysis, either. She once scheduled a call with me and my business partner; and, when we took the call, she picked our brains about what we did, how we used social media, and about our innovations in communications.

And I guarantee she picked many, many, brains. I believe that Reinventing You is a synthesis of both her personal experience reinventing her own life mashed up with the experiences of all the people she interviewed for this book. If you are willing to accuse this book of just being a book by an elite for the elite, you've just got cold feet.

This book requests that you work through some personal demons, address some personal flaws, and expose yourself to a little critique. It suggests you expose yourself through your writing, through your teaching, and through public speaking -- don't they say that Glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, is our number one fear? Above death?

Don't worry, even I am dragging my heels when it comes to doing the homework required to extract all the self-improvement juice from this book, but I am unwilling to blame the book, it's all me.

I recommend this book highly and have been recommending Reinventing You to all my friends.

In fact, I recently spent one of my Audible credits on the gift of this book to my friend Aimee, someone who is preparing for the third act of her professional life -- and she's freaked out.

And, she needn't be: she's amazing, brilliant, passionate, and now owns the audiobook of Dorie's invaluable book.

Let's face it. Your professional brand likely is your most valuable asset. But, if you are like most people, you probably don't pay enough attention to actively managing it. Dorie Clark's book is a wake-up call. Turn off the automatic pilot, and start being proactive!

If you are going through a career change, this book is a must read. Dorie walks you, step-by-step, through the mechanics of reformulating and retooling, a process which she adroitly calls "reinventing you."

This book is an easy and quick read, aided by a clear and logical framework and supported by numerous examples. Each chapter is a gem, chock full of useful and practical suggestions.

To begin your journey, you will need to go out and collect some data, a personal brand audit of sorts. Dorie suggests building your own focus group to give you feedback on how others see you. I tried this, and was amazed at the insights that would have otherwise been hidden and unavailable to me.

In another chapter, Dorie discusses finding a mentor. She warns against just settling for any mentor, and points out how important it is to ensure that your mentor is a good fit. "Good mentors should listen to what a mentee is saying and help them figure out what they want for themselves, rather than having a set idea and pushing them to actualize that plan."

"Reinventing You" is an accessible, practical and useful guide to professional brand stewardship. It can hold the keys to a fulfilling and productive career. Go and read it!

A very good material to think over if you dream or have to change your professional career. Part of the change is building your new professional brand as all the people who know you, know your past experience. So you need to somehow build consistent message who you are now professionally and build the story around it. I assisted many people n career transitions and saw their struggles and concerns about the change. This book gives good insights about elements you need to consider during career changes. You can build a good plan based on the insights and tools from the book. I didn't like some of the recommendations as I do not think you always need to write a blog or get speaking engagements in your new professional life. But if you treat it as suggestions and possibilities that can support you in reinventing your brand you can find treasures in the book. What I enjoyed about the book is that you can apply many things right away. I finished reading full of energy to reflect on my personal brand. If you dream to change your career, read that book first!

The book is useful but the approach taken by the author is very unrealistic. How will one possibly find 15 people that can basically sit in a hall and perform a 360 degree roast or evaluation of one's personality. This could be used as a text book somewhere in HBS, but for us normal working class people - this book is useless.

Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future by Dorie Clark is worth a read for its useful nuggets of advice and for the perspective she spent years developing and refining. Many of us in the baby boom generation need to be reinventing ourselves to deal with a changing retirement picture and the related need to work long into retirement, both for our economic viability and for social enrichment. Read her book for an insightful perspective that can be useful not only to boomers.

I met Dorie Clark at a political workshop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa a few years ago, and found her personal anecdotes about fundraising to be useful and spot on. She was not afraid to tell us to do the hard work, and if one followed her advice, superior results could be attained. I felt similarly when she wrote in Reinventing You about the 360 interview, something that in some businesses has become a stale and mechanical process driven by professional human resource managers. She breathed new life into this long-standing process. While what Clark proposes is often hard work, based on my past experience with her advice, I would be willing to try it and hopeful for positive results after reading Reinventing You.

Some of what Clark writes is time-tested advice on things like highlighting our differences for competitive advantage and the role of volunteerism during transition. She adds a layer regarding social media which is important to consider. There was plenty of sound new advice in the book on topics that were already familiar.

I found the book engaging and a quick read, offering pragmatic advice as I transition into what's next. You might too.

This book is written for: people well-established in their careers looking to change roles or fields altogether, people who know what their dream job is, young people starting out who want to make sure they get to the top

This book is not written for: people for whom work is "just a job," people who have no idea what they want to do with their lives, people who perform at a mediocre level

Feel free to call that snobby--it is what it is, and you need to know that upfront. I don't think it's snobby; I think it just has a specific audience. If you're not that audience, this book isn't going to be able to do much for you.

One of this book's one star reviews says, "The book speaks only to the multi-degree'd and fully funded reinvention- not the 'lost my job at 45 with a few months savings and one degree to my name' - I would hope if I had degrees from Harvard and Stanford and was a CFO, I'd be savvy enough to figure out what's next without Dorie Clark. But no, I made the mistake of thinking she'd address the real issue of the middle-waged and middle-aged needing to carve a niche in the new employment market of unpaid internships." The reviewer has a point (one I don't wholly disagree with) which is why I'm posting it here. If that is what you want out of this book, you will be disappointed.

This book is also not written for: people who have studied branding. This is a primer, not an in-depth, next level discourse.

Now, ALL OF THAT SAID, I loved it. I absolutely loved it. I devoured it on a plane ride and finished it feeling inspired. I'm going to lend this to everyone I mentor (I generally mentor people just starting out who haven't yet gotten to the place they want to be yet). I'm going to use twitter more effectively. I'm going to ask HR for a 360 evaluation. Hell, my new big goal for 2014 is to get myself a speaking engagement. I finished this book ready to go.

I would highly recommend it to any ambitious folks out there. Dorie Clark is kind of my new hero.

With so many disenchanted with their own personal growth and or career choice, I found the book pretty powerful in how the author approached the subject matter. While most will consider it a roadmap about career enrichment and or change, I found the book to be about something far more important - achieving career happiness. Some of the suggestions are commonsense, yet how the messages were delivered; with specific examples really hit home. One of the more profound statements I found in the book was “The path is not always linear.” And it’s true. Often the greatest attribute is generated from the 2nd or 3rd derivative of a business's original product or idea; something originally never even considered. Why not with careers? It is that type of analysis by Ms. Clark that encourages the reader to not just “think about” maximizing all the resources at our disposal, but to actually “do it.” Especially opportunities outside our expertise or comfort zone.

I was going to rate the book a 4 star – until I attempted to honestly answer a slew of questions posed at the end of the book to assist the reader in executing their plan for change.

Some advice; answer those questions and you’ll see why the book truly is worthy a 5 star rating.

Keith T. Bishop

I just wanted to start out by saying that the book came quickly and in good condition. This book is truly for anyone who is transitioning or are wanting to transition(but not sure how to go about it) in their career. There is a lot of emphasis surrounding the idea that anyone can successfully make a change in their career. Dorie gives a layout of what every chapter provides as far as steps and advice. The use of other peoples stories were enjoyable and happened to be the best examples to get her points across. I truly recommend this book, just make sure you approach this book proactively and with an open mindset.

Muchos ejemplos, bastante pragmatico y ayuda a ordenar las ideas y focalizar en los puntos mas importantes.

If you're about to graduate from University or make a big career change this is your guide to landing your dream job.

Packed with step by step advice on everything from conducting informational interviews to combing your online presence for 'smoking guns' that could cause you to not get your dream job, to building the narrative around the new version of YOU, this is a career change bible.

From an entrepreneurial perspective, if you are about to start a business, there is a value in following some of the advice, but it's really not an entrepreneurs book. It's best suited for an employee looking to make a career change. For example, if you're currently a lawyer but you really want to become a restaurant manager, or if you are a management consultant but you want to become a talent agent, your current brand and reputation isn't what you need to make a leap. It's not like you can announce to the world you are now x and have everyone wipe their memory of what you were known for before. This book guides you through what to do to make that big change.

If you're feeling unsure of how to get where you want to go in your career, this book could be the exact guide you need.

I had been curious about the author for a while, and selected this particular title from her works as it suited where I was in my career. I wasn't expecting too much from it but was pleasantly surprised at how useful it was to me. The book was well structured, with valuable information and an easy-to-follow process. I took many notes that I've found valuable to keep referencing. I'll likely buy the rest of her books now. Highly recommend.

Great concepts, but very beginners level content.

It is a good book, but it seems to have been written for already successful people that are wanting to change career. The author presumes you already have a network of influent people, and that everybody is wanting to help you to get to your new objective. Besides that, you should meet your friends and ask them what are your own weaknesses. I don't know about you, but I have not such friends (at work), coleagues or boss who I can ask such a question.