HONEYCOMB PRESS · COMING 2027
The Career Bridge
Take ownership of the messy middle.
A field guide for early- to mid-career professionals and the leaders who develop them, to help you build a career that matters.
By Jonathan Rennie
Be the first to know when pre-orders open.
For the stretch where the path stops appearing
The messy middle is the stretch where you're not new anymore, not yet senior, and no one is handing you the next step.
You have experience to build on, responsibilities to carry, and questions that a job title alone can't answer. That stretch is the messy middle, and it can feel like falling behind. What it turns out to be is the handoff, the moment the hand that has guided your growth lifts and the work of growing your career quietly becomes yours.
The Career Bridge is a field guide for that stretch. A ladder has to be handed to you, and it climbs in one direction. A bridge is something you build yourself, pointed where you choose and strong enough to carry your weight across. The book brings ownership and partnership together, taking responsibility for your growth while inviting the people and perspectives that help you grow. Its aim reaches past another role, toward the kind of growth that makes your next chapter matter.
For early- to mid-career professionals
You're building experience, carrying more responsibility, or wondering what comes next. The book helps you connect your aspirations with growth and contribution where you are, and not only where you hope to go.
For the leaders who develop them
You manage, mentor or lead people in that season. The book works alongside the development programs you already run, giving individuals ownership of their growth and giving you a starting point for more meaningful career conversations.
What the messy middle sounds like
In their own words
I open every coaching cohort with one question: What is proving hard about your career growth right now?
“There is no clear path or direction.”
“There's no roadmap. How do I even know what direction to grow in?”
“I'm so focused on getting through the day that I don't have time to ask where it's all headed.”
“Having to be much more independent than expected.”
“Earning supervisor's trust.”
Answers from early- and mid-career professionals in my coaching cohorts, 2025 and 2026.
Nobody is asking for a bigger title. They're asking for a way to grow where they are.
“Thinking about my career in the long-term gave me a sense of ownership that I didn't have before.”
From participants in my coaching cohorts.
The change the book invites
From feeling stuck to seeing what is possible. From waiting for a path to owning the next step. From growing alone to growing in partnership. From pursuing a title to preparing for meaningful contribution, and helping others do the same.
Honeycomb Press · Coming 2027
Be the first to know
I'd love for you to be part of this from the start. Join the list and you'll be the first to know when pre-orders open, and along the way I'll send the occasional note as the book comes together, with something useful you can put to work in your own career. If you lead people in the messy middle, you're welcome here too.
How the bridge gets built
Every bridge needs supports, and The Career Bridge is built in four parts that move from where you are, to the work only you can do, to the people around you, and then to the choices ahead.
When my path went quiet, I was sure I'd missed something. I hadn't.
Part I
Where You Are
Recognize the terrain before you build. Put a name to the messy middle, take an honest look at the messages you carry about work and success, and find a place to begin.
Part II
Look Inward
Four supports only you can build. They start with the mindset you choose and the mirror you'd rather avoid, and they end with the road behind you, which has more to teach than you might expect.
Part III
Look Outward
Four supports built with the people around you. Your colleagues, your mentors, your boss and your company all have a part to play, and you'll see how to invite each one in.
Part IV
Look Forward
Cross with intention. Weigh the tradeoffs, explore what's possible, and get ready for a future no one can predict. Then turn around and help someone else build a bridge.
Frustration left unaddressed is burnout in slow motion.
What you'll find inside
A name for the messy middle, and a way to start building from right where you're standing today.
Reflect, Reframe and Ready. Three words that change what your past can do for you.
The Partnership Playbook, and why the one-on-one with your boss might be the most important meeting you aren't running yet.
Two Roles Ahead, a different way to see what's next when no one can show you the whole path.
The Five C's. Five words that decide whether you're ready when the door opens. You'll meet them in the book.
For leaders, a starting point for career conversations that connect what a person wants to become with what the organization needs.
“It was the first time I sat down and truly thought about what my next steps were.”
From participants in my coaching cohorts.
From Jonathan
A couple of years after a development program that had carried me beautifully, I found myself in a mentor's office, frustrated and stuck, with no clear idea where my career was headed. He let me vent for a while, then walked to the whiteboard and wrote four words: Live in Your Future. He told me to start thinking like the leader I hoped to become, and the rest of my career was built on what he meant.
I've never forgotten what the messy middle felt like, and that memory is a big part of why I coach today and why I wrote this book. I had a lot of help along the way, from mentors who told me the truth to colleagues who sharpened me and teams who carried what I couldn't. My hope is that The Career Bridge helps you the way those people helped me, and that one day you'll turn around and do the same for the person coming up behind you. If someone is going to own your career and write your story, don't you want it to be you?
Jonathan
Jonathan Rennie is an executive coach, author, and the founder of Honeycomb Anthems. His own career took him from document controller to engineer to division president, leading more than 6,000 people. Today he coaches C-suite and senior leaders and their teams, along with early- to mid-career professionals on their way up, the next generation of leaders. The Career Bridge is Coming 2027.
You are not the only one standing where the trail markers stopped.
Start building your bridge.
Be the first to know when pre-orders open.
The Career Bridge · Honeycomb Press · jonathanrennie.com