Conquering the Midlife Career Crisis: Find Your Next Steps

For millions of mid-career professionals, something doesn’t sit right.

Despite the prestige, the paycheck, the packed calendar, none of it hits quite like it used to. Instead, there’s a creeping restlessness, a quiet questioning of purpose, and a growing urge to make a change. Welcome to the midlife career crisis, supercharged by today’s uncertain world.

From mass layoffs and economic stress to political uncertainty and post-pandemic-fueled burnout, the external forces driving this crisis are real. Coaching is emerging as one of the most powerful tools to help people manage it.

The World Has Changed and So Have Our Careers.

For decades, midlife was seen as the career “prime.” Today, it’s starting to feel more like a professional pressure cooker. A record number of professionals in their 40s and 50s are rethinking everything from what they do to why they do it.

The economic climate plays a huge role. In the U.S., major tech companies, media giants, and finance firms have cut tens of thousands of jobs since 2023. More than 257,000 layoffs were announced in the first half of 2024 alone, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

At the same time, inflation, volatile markets, and political uncertainty are making people more cautious, but also more disillusioned.

“People began to question the long-standing deals they made with themselves: high performance in exchange for purpose someday,” wrote The New Yorker in its piece on the rise of the COVID-era midlife crisis.

Now “someday” has arrived and many are realizing they can’t (or won’t) wait any longer.

Burnout, Boredom, and the Hidden Cost of “Success”

This crisis isn’t just about layoffs. It’s emotional, too.

According to Gallup, only 21% of employees worldwide are actively engaged in their jobs. The rest are sleepwalking through their workday, or actively disengaged.

And for midlife professionals, it’s particularly tough. Many feel trapped between high expectations and a gnawing sense that their work no longer matters. Some wrestle with imposter syndrome while others admit that even their achievements feel hollow.

In interviews with professionals aged 41–55, themes of identity loss, emotional fatigue, and a longing for meaningful work frequently emerge. Many describe midlife as a moment of clarity or need for change.

Why This Midlife Crisis Feels Different

Today’s midlife professionals face a unique combination of pressures:

Economic strain: Housing costs, tuition fees, and healthcare expenses leave little margin for career experimentation.
Longer careers: With retirement age rising, many are staring down another 20+ years of work and wondering if they can stomach it in their current role.
Ageism: A Harvard Business Review article warns that professionals over 45 face increased bias in hiring, especially in fast-paced or tech-focused industries.
Disconnection from purpose: After decades of climbing ladders, many realize they’re not sure why they’re climbing at all.

Even millennials (now entering their 40s) are facing the same crisis, but with less financial cushion. As Business Insider noted, many can’t even afford a proper midlife crisis: “They’re too burnt out to break down.”

Ditching the Old Playbook

In the past, midlife crisis meant buying a sports car. Now, it can mean quitting a six-figure job to start a bakery, go freelance, or retrain in something completely new.

Across the U.S., professionals are making bold shifts. In Australia, the trend is even more pronounced, where workers are walking away from $140K careers to earn a fraction of that doing something they care about. One former marketing exec, featured in News.com.au, left her high-paying role to lead wellness retreats and says she’s never felt more alive.

This isn’t failure. It’s redefinition.

What Coaching Can Offer

This is where coaching becomes life-changing.

Jamie Rawlings, an executive coach who specializes in midlife transitions, sees this shift firsthand:

“Many of my midlife clients come to me, realising they are operating on autopilot, drifting through a career that once lit them up, but now are feeling stuck, exhausted, and unfulfilled. On paper, they’re doing well. But beneath the surface, something’s missing. They don’t want to keep going like this, yet fear making the wrong move and disrupting what they’ve built.

But this isn’t a midlife career crisis. It’s Middlescence a phase of profound questioning and transition, much like adolescence, only with decades of experience and wisdom behind it.

Middlescence brings disruption, confusion, and deep reflection especially around identity and purpose at work. The challenge? Corporate doesn’t recognise it. But for those willing to pause and explore, Middlescence can become a powerful catalyst for change.”

Jamie helps Midlife leaders avert their midlife career crisis using his Liminal Coaching Solution. Guiding their transition to What’s Next careerwise with clarity, courage and confidence. To stop the drift and design a life they won’t want to retire from.

Most professionals, he says, drastically underestimate their own adaptability and potential.

“You already have the raw material with decades of wisdom to draw from. You already know the way through. Coaching gives the time and space to reflect, listen, think and act and to get you out of your own way. No more anxiety about ‘what’s next?’. Just clarity, direction and momentum.”

Coaching Helps You:

Reconnect with purpose – Clarify what actually matters in your next phase.
Test ideas before leaping – Reduce financial and emotional risk by exploring in stages.
Develop a strategy – Move from vague frustration to a real plan.
Build resilience and confidence – Replace self-doubt with grounded self-belief.
Create accountability – Keep moving when fear and uncertainty hit.

Career coaching isn’t therapy, and it’s not cheerleading. It’s a structured process that helps you take control of your career, and your life, with intention.

You’re Not Too Late. You’re Right On Time.

The world is changing fast, and the old idea of a single, linear career path is fading. Today, more professionals than ever are writing second and even third acts.

With the right support, it’s possible to pivot, repurpose your experience, and create a working life that actually works for you.

Ready to start building a career that finally fits?

Register at RISE.coach to match with a coach who gets it. Midlife isn’t a crisis. It’s a crossroads.

Sources & Further Reading

This article first appeared on rise.coach.

Photo credit: Shutterstock/ Brasil Creativo

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