Smart Careers: how to turn a mid-career crisis into a rewarding work life
Publication date: 28 August 2025 from Bloomsbury Business
Pre-order or register here for occasional updates
Have you dedicated your working life to climbing the corporate ladder, only to discover years later that your work has become unsatisfying and unfulfilling? Would you like to do something about it? Jess Annison is here to give you the tools to turn your mid-career crisis into a rewarding and meaningful work-life.
Mid-career crises are on the rise. It’s no wonder: working lives are getting longer, ‘jobs for life’ are a thing of the past, and there’s more opportunity than ever before to change role, companies or careers. As a result, more people are questioning whether their work is truly serving them – in emotional, spiritual, and practical terms.
Yet mid-career crises can also become the springboard to finding greater meaningfulness at work, resulting in huge psychological and performance benefits. In Smart Careers, Jess Annison shows you how to craft your career by designing and sustaining a work life that is deeply satisfying and fulfilling.
This accessible and hands-on guide deals with the deepest questions of meaning and purpose, and how they impact both what we do and how we work. Once you understand your personal sources of meaning at work, you can make changes that boost and amplify those experiences, from small day-to-day tweaks to a complete career change, and everything in between.
Smart Careers includes:
• A simple framework to help you fi nd more meaning at work, whatever your starting point and aspirations;
• Real-life stories and evidence-based insights from positive psychology and career development science; and
• Practical exercises to guide you through your career crafting journey, including a free 60-page online workbook.
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Publication date: 28 August 2025 (United Kingdom) and Autumn 2025 (around the world).
Pre-order here or in all good bookshops.
Michael F. Steger, PhD, Professor and Director of the Center for Meaning and Purpose
“We don't need to suffer foolish co-workers, unethical bosses, or soul-withering working conditions any more! Jess Annison gives us a friendly, approachable and authoritative playbook for filling our lives with rewarding, meaningful work instead.
Turn your mid-career crisis into the most joyful stage of your working life with the stories, research, and exercises packed into Smart Careers.”
Claire Pedrick, Author of Simplifying Coaching and The Human Behind the Coach
“Packed full of possibilities for people who are stuck mid-career. And with a beautiful view into coaching conversations and what else a thinking space can offer.”
Andrew Soren, Founder & CEO, Eudaimonic by Design
“Jess Annison has written the book we need now: honest, human, and unflinchingly useful for anyone seeking more meaning at work. Smart Careers is part workbook, part wake-up call. With the clarity of a coach and the depth of a scholar, Jess offers a toolkit for shaping a working life that actually works – for you and the world. This isn’t just another career book – it’s a field guide to making work matter, backed by evidence and brimming with heart.”
Smart Careers: how to turn a mid-career crisis into a rewarding work life
Publication date: 28 August 2025 from Bloomsbury Business
Pre-order or register here for occasional updates