Squiggly Careers Podcast Summary

Episode: Map Your Career: 5 Visual Tools to Find Clarity and Direction
Hosts: Helen Tupper & Sarah Ellis
Date: October 21, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, hosts Helen and Sarah explore how "mapping"—inspired by the literal sense of drawing maps—can offer fresh frameworks for visualizing and navigating career development in today's non-linear ("squiggly") world. Drawing from personal experiences, design thinking, and online inspiration, they introduce five practical, visual mapping tools to help individuals and teams find greater clarity, direction, and momentum in their careers. The episode is lively, conversational, and centered around making reflection playful, accessible, and actionable.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Map Your Career?

• Maps provide structure, clarity, and direction when navigating uncertainty or new situations. (06:30)
• Traditional career maps often resemble "ladders" or "staircases," lacking the visual and flexible qualities necessary for today’s careers.
• Effective career mapping needs both intention ("what are we mapping?") and the freedom for personal adaptation.

Quote:
"Mapping for your career is a process that can help you create clarity and give you a sense of direction, but it requires a framework to make it easier to do."
—Helen (08:20)

2. Borrowed Brilliance: Maps as Career Tools

Sarah shares her inspiration from Jurgen Apello’s Substack, discussing "M-shaped" careers—where depth in multiple areas opens up possibilities and resilience in a changing world. Visual mapping, she notes, is a skill where AI currently lags behind humans. (04:35)

Quote:
"He talks about this idea now of being more M-shaped...provocation is I want to sort of get good at multiple things because it will open up more possibilities."
—Sarah (04:41)

The Five Career Maps (Timestamps Included)

1. Energy Map (11:00)

A daily exercise for a week to visualize high and low energy moments using battery icons (green for gains, red for drains).

• Helps surface patterns and prioritize activities.
• Can be adapted: rank things by energy or change battery size to visualize impact.
• Useful for individual reflection or as a team conversation-starter.

Quote:
"Arrows would be okay, but words we should challenge ourselves on."
—Sarah (09:54)

Memorable Moment:
Helen and Sarah compare their visual approaches, noting how small tweaks personalize the same reflection. (12:43)

2. Give-Gain Map (15:00)

A visual sketch (arrows/lines) placing yourself in the center to map people you support (give) and those who support you (gain).

• Arrow width = degree of support; arrow length = frequency.
• Not every relationship is equal—recognizing this can inform rebalancing or self-care.

Quote:
"Often when you do this, it just helps you to reflect on your career community. Have you got the right people around you?"
—Sarah (16:43)

3. Skills Map (20:20)

Options to map skills you want to stretch (e.g., deepen existing abilities) and skills to invest in (new learning areas).

• Could be one skill at the center (e.g., "AI") with action steps as branches (a la mind map).
• Useful solo (to track progress) or as a team to spot learning overlaps and collaboration opportunities.

Memorable Moment:
Helen and Sarah role-play solo vs. team mapping, highlighting both focus and inspiration benefits. (24:55)

4. Career Possibility Map (24:34)

Encourages looking at your career from several directions—obvious, ambitious, pivot, and dream possibilities.

• Recommend picking four and brainstorming ideas for each.
• Can use AI prompts to visualize options and inspire new thinking.

Quote:
"The point of a career possibility map is to help you to see your development from different directions... trying to encourage a little bit of curiosity here."
—Helen (24:54)

5. Problem Mapping (28:00)

For persistent or recurring work frustrations, create a facts vs. feelings map (with icons).

• Name and differentiate between emotional responses and objective realities.
• Facilitates clearer problem-solving, helpful in team settings or self-reflection.
• Next step: design simple experiments to address identified issues.

Memorable Exchange:
Sarah and Helen walk through feelings ("overwhelm, worry, tired") vs. facts ("more messages, more people, one big project") about their own workload. (28:35–30:40)

Quote:
"By saying them out loud... that is even a good thing. You could create your map live with someone else."
—Sarah (28:41)

Notable Quotes

• "Maps provide structure and certainty when you don’t know." —Sarah (06:30)
• "It actually feels really difficult. So my conclusion was for mapping to be useful for our careers, we've got to give it a frame." —Sarah (07:15)
• "The point then is... maps almost give you the awareness. And then you've got to keep asking yourself that, 'so what now?'" —Sarah (13:40)
• "I think the best thing to do is to think about what map is most useful for you right now." —Helen (35:07)

Flow, Tone, and Listener Takeaways

• Tone: Practical, inclusive, playful, and honest about the realities of modern work.
• Listener challenges: Try one map, adapt it visually in your own way, focus on clarity rather than perfect artistry.
• Team applications: All maps can spark valuable team discussions, identify collective patterns, or provide starting points for addressing shared challenges.

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 04:35 — M-shaped careers and inspiration from map drawing
• 11:00 — Explaining and applying the Energy Map
• 15:00 — Give-Gain networking map and relationships
• 20:20 — Skills mapping: stretching and starting new abilities
• 24:34 — Career Possibility mapping: four directions, AI prompt
• 28:00 — Problem mapping: facts vs. feelings, experiments

Final Thoughts & Resources

• Experiment with whichever map suits your current career question best, customize the visuals, and reflect on any clarity or new ideas that emerge.
• Hosts will post their map examples on social media and in the show notes.
• Free resources and prompts available at amazingif.com.
• Check out their “Squiggly Shortcuts” for practical five-minute episodes, and sign up for the Squiggly Careers in Action newsletter for weekly inspiration.

This episode is a rich resource for anyone feeling uncertain in their career, offering playful, visual ways to get unstuck and move forward—one map at a time.