Photo by Nick Seagrave on Unsplash
Career mapping is a great way to get an imaginative view of what your career could look like.
As job hopping has become more common, employees are less likely to become “lifers” at a particular company.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average employee changes jobs 12.4 times between ages 18 and 54. Nearly half of the job changes happen in an employee’s early career, between ages 18 and 24.
Table of Contents
- What Is a Career Map?
- What Is Career Mapping?
- What Are the Benefits of Career Mapping for Employers?
- What are the Benefits of Career Pathing and Personal Career Mapping?
- How to Create Your Own Career Map
- Career Map Template
So, how can employers get their employees to stick around long term, to stay for promotions, and to pursue their career development in-house?
What Is a Career Map?
Career mapping (also known as career pathing) is used by organizations to retain talent by promising a traveled career map to a successful future. A career map is a visual representation of that future.
A career map shows you the visual journey, including steps to take toward career goals. This framework showcases your career progress so you can clearly identify the following:
- Where am I now? What's your current job title?
- Where do I want to take my career in the future? What are your future goals?
- What career plans do I need to set to achieve my goals?
Your career growth plan will also consider what's important to your employer, which is why this exercise can be completed on your own or with input from your manager. Here are just a few skills that can help aid your career mapping process:
- Self-Reflection + Self-Assessment
- Learning + Research
- Goal-Setting
What Is Career Mapping?
Traditionally, career mapping or career pathing is offered by employers to show potential or current employees an overview of the development opportunities that are available.
Career mapping is usually used as a retention tool. By creating a road map of the job roles within the company, companies can entice their employees to stay within the company while making lateral or vertical moves in the employee's careers.
But what if you mapped your own career? What if you create a map—or a series of maps—that allows you to pre-plan various career paths?
In this article, we’re diving into how employers create employee career paths, what’s included in career pathing, and how we can reverse-engineer this tool to take back control of our own careers and professional goals.
Employer-provided career maps are typically comprised of the following:
- A roadmap detailing different roles within the company
- Detailed job descriptions for each job, including the skills and experience necessary to perform the role
- The resources—like in-house training, course reimbursement, or skills training—needed to advance to the next level of roles within the company
What Are the Benefits of Career Mapping for Employers?
Career mapping empowers employees from day one by giving them a look into their potential future at a company. Envisioning a reliable roadmap can entice employees to advance their career development with a company instead of job searching every other year.
Some of the most attractive benefits for employers looking to create and share career maps include:
- Improving employee retention
- Boosting employee engagement
- Increasing unified teamwork
- Identifying skills gaps
- Upskill your workforce
- Succession planning
- Attracting new candidates
- Improving diversity in leadership
By envisioning career maps, employers can also create new employee career advancement opportunities.
Career mapping helps employers and employees to unlock possibilities for expanded training programs, create a pipeline of mentorship programs, expand their individual and collective ambitions, and help employees climb their own career ladders.
By prioritizing best practices to chart and empower an employee's career, an organization is also empowering and retaining top talent. The ultimate objective for career mapping is creating a vision-first workplace that allows all participants to take thoughtful control of their careers. For employers looking to impress and empower their new hires, career mapping is one of the key steps in onboarding a new employee and is way more fun than climbing the corporate ladder blindfolded.
What are the Benefits of Career Pathing and Personal Career Mapping?
So, you’re considering creating your own career map, but why? There are some profound benefits to taking a good look at your career, especially as it relates to your personal values, your aspirations, and all of your goals.
Creating a goals-based path to pursue
Career mapping allows you to gather your goals, your aspirations, your skills, your strengths and weaknesses, and your values into one place. From here, you can build a career map that prioritizes what’s most important to you right now—and what might become important in the future, which brings us to our next point.
Allowing different potential career paths to emerge
When thoughtfully career mapping your own path, you might focus on one set path with a large, ultimate goal. However, you might also remain open and willing to explore different emerging paths.
Career mapping can be beneficial when you are thinking of switching jobs, making a lateral move, swapping industries, or when deciding whether or not to make a big career move. In these times, your career map (or maps!) can look like a thorough pros and cons list.
Our advice is never to get stuck on a dream job or a dream “end goal.” Instead, we encourage you to explore different routes, unexpected changes, and exciting additions you can make to your career maps. You can even create several career maps that span industries, decades, skill sets, and life goals.
Showing a thoughtful direction in future job interviews
Believe it or not, career mapping can be useful when navigating your interview process. Use your career maps to inform your job search. The next time an interviewer asks, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” you can actually melt their mind with your meticulous career map.
Plus, recruiters will be thrilled to interview a candidate that has taken the time to do this exercise proactively!
Developing skills and competencies that can superpower your career
When career mapping, you’ll inevitably create a list of goals, including skills to learn, experience to gain, and connections to make. While crossing these professional to-dos off your list, you might notice your career map expanding. Suddenly, you can take another route—and it might suit your current goals more than your original map.
Pro Tip: Effective career pathing must remain flexible and open to pivots when necessary.
In these scenarios, you can regard your career map as a sort of magical, evolving treasure map. While X might mark the spot, the treasure (and its location) can be moving pieces. Keep searching!
Keeping track of your successes throughout your career
Another piece of advice we always like to give is to celebrate your successes and achievements. By creating a physical career map, you’re doing both at once. Career mapping, in its attention to taking steps and actions to advance your career, requires every employee to pay attention to their achievements and overall professional development,
Remember that achieving the short-term, smaller goals can be just as impactful as hitting the long-term goals in your own career.
Make sure to celebrate these milestones, too. You can even build your small celebrations into your career map!
How to Create Your Own Career Map
If you're interested in charting your own professional map, let's go!
Here are the steps to follow to create your career path.
1. Create your starting point
Simply put, your starting point is wherever you are right at this point. It can be helpful to have a copy of your company's org chart so you can physically see where you're starting from right now, too.
2. Imagine your desired destination
When career mapping, think about your long-term, big goal. For now, allow your big goal to be your final destination. Keep in mind that this destination can change. While navigating your career map, avoid getting caught up in one overarching goal.
3. Work out the steps in-between
This step requires you to build the actual pathway from Point A to Point Z.
The "in-between steps" is like taking a look at your career. This can include job positions to achieve, people to network with, companies where opportunities exist, and promotions to acquire to reach your final destination.
Remember to think of your career more like a jungle gym vs. a straight ladder. It's ok for your career path to success not to be linear—very few are!
4. Detail any skills, promotions, or smaller goals to achieve between your starting point and your final destination
This step is where all the work happens. Beneath each job position, promotion, and each rung of the career path, you'll add the skills, experience, and competencies needed. Don't skip this step. Not including the specific skills a job will require will leave too much ambiguity.
5. Don't be afraid of adding detours to your career map
Finally, don't be afraid to create a career map that has unexpected detours, interesting "side streets," and various potential desired destinations.
Bonus Tips:
6. Keep the company goals in mind
If you're creating your career map with a specific company, be sure to keep their goals in mind as you think about your future aspirations
7. Identify your learning needs
Once you have mapped out your career goals, do a gut check. Is it realistic for you to achieve these goals based on the current employee development opportunities? Analyze what job training, upskilling, or other mentoring resources are made available to current employees.
8. Share your goals
Another final step when you're creating a career map with your employer is to be sure to share your goals! Make them known to your manager and your boss' boss! Great opportunities don't come to the person who keeps their head down. Share and share often.
Career Map Template
If you create your career map with your employer, they probably already have a template to create your personal plan. If you're working on a career map by yourself, try this simple template below:
Starting Point/ Current Job Title:
Current Job Description:
Current Required Job Skills:
Goal Objective/ Desired Outcome:
Goal #1:
Goal #2:
Goal #3:
Final Destination Job Title:
Final Destination Job Description:
Final Destination Required Job Skills:
Current Job Description:
Current Required Job Skills:
Goal Objective/ Desired Outcome:
Goal #1:
Goal #2:
Goal #3:
Final Destination Job Title:
Final Destination Job Description:
Final Destination Required Job Skills:
Career Map Example
Starting Point/ Current Job Title: Recruiting Coordinator
Current Job Description:
The Recruiting Coordinator will report to and support a Sr. Recruiter in working with business leaders to identify outstanding candidates to work across multiple business areas at all levels. Recruiting coordinators will actively participate in the recruitment process by scheduling interviews and meetings, answering applicant and candidate inquiries, utilizing the ATS to enter and track candidates, and performing any special projects as requested. Under the direction of the Sr. Recruiter, the coordinator will be responsible for sourcing, screening, and recommending candidates to the Sr. Recruiter for further interviews.
Current Required Job Skills:
• Responsible for high-volume candidate and applicant management/tracking
• Facilitate and coordinate high-volume interview process via phone and in person
• Conduct regular preliminary phone screens, informational calls, first-round interviews, and scheduling of candidates
• Conduct reference checks for candidates as needed
• Post job descriptions
• Process new hires through Workday
• Provide support to applicants throughout their recruiting, hiring, and onboarding process
• Manage call logs, messages, and communication between hiring managers
• Source and maintain active engagement with passive qualified candidates for future roles
• Partner with Sr. Recruiter to maintain a robust pipeline
• In conjunction with Recruiters, assist in the execution of recruiting strategies
• Maintain and execute on hiring goals as needed
• Utilize effective communication and follow-through while acting as a dependable point of contact for candidates
• Assist the Recruiting team with key initiatives, ad hoc projects, and other tasks as needed
Goal Objective/ Desired Outcome: To become a Senior Recruiter. Requires that I put in my time to learn the recruitment process, build the skills to hire new employees, work with the hiring manager, and be extremely organized. I will need to be able to pivot quickly, handle a heavy workflow, and have a positive attitude in a corporate environment.
Goal #1: Become an expert in recruiting software and technologies, including ATS and CRM
Goal #2: Build relationships with hiring managers and learn how to source candidates
Goal #3: Exceed hiring goals
Final Destination Job Title: Senior Recruiter
Final Destination Job Description:
You will be responsible for the entire hiring process. This includes the sourcing of candidates, moving them throughout the hiring process, maintaining communication between the candidate and the business, and negotiating offers.
Final Destination Required Job Skills:
• Manage the full recruitment lifecycle for roles across all departments: including job postings, sourcing, screening, phone interviews, and offer negotiations
• Scheduling phone calls and on-site as needed
• Partner with hiring managers to clearly define their hiring needs and support them with creating engaging job postings
• Use creative sourcing techniques to uncover passive talent and make initial introductions in an authentic and personalized way
• Work with People Ops team members to develop and implement a recruiting strategy
• Assist in the onboarding process and follow up with candidates and new hires
• When working with external recruiting partners, help refine our contract terms, ensure they understand our needs and partner closely to move candidates through our process seamlessly
• Maintain our ATS system (Greenhouse) so we can accurately report on key metrics through the hiring process
• Track, monitor, and report all recruiting activities within MeUndies and manage all job postings and job descriptions for compliance
Current Job Description:
The Recruiting Coordinator will report to and support a Sr. Recruiter in working with business leaders to identify outstanding candidates to work across multiple business areas at all levels. Recruiting coordinators will actively participate in the recruitment process by scheduling interviews and meetings, answering applicant and candidate inquiries, utilizing the ATS to enter and track candidates, and performing any special projects as requested. Under the direction of the Sr. Recruiter, the coordinator will be responsible for sourcing, screening, and recommending candidates to the Sr. Recruiter for further interviews.
Current Required Job Skills:
• Responsible for high-volume candidate and applicant management/tracking
• Facilitate and coordinate high-volume interview process via phone and in person
• Conduct regular preliminary phone screens, informational calls, first-round interviews, and scheduling of candidates
• Conduct reference checks for candidates as needed
• Post job descriptions
• Process new hires through Workday
• Provide support to applicants throughout their recruiting, hiring, and onboarding process
• Manage call logs, messages, and communication between hiring managers
• Source and maintain active engagement with passive qualified candidates for future roles
• Partner with Sr. Recruiter to maintain a robust pipeline
• In conjunction with Recruiters, assist in the execution of recruiting strategies
• Maintain and execute on hiring goals as needed
• Utilize effective communication and follow-through while acting as a dependable point of contact for candidates
• Assist the Recruiting team with key initiatives, ad hoc projects, and other tasks as needed
Goal Objective/ Desired Outcome: To become a Senior Recruiter. Requires that I put in my time to learn the recruitment process, build the skills to hire new employees, work with the hiring manager, and be extremely organized. I will need to be able to pivot quickly, handle a heavy workflow, and have a positive attitude in a corporate environment.
Goal #1: Become an expert in recruiting software and technologies, including ATS and CRM
Goal #2: Build relationships with hiring managers and learn how to source candidates
Goal #3: Exceed hiring goals
Final Destination Job Title: Senior Recruiter
Final Destination Job Description:
You will be responsible for the entire hiring process. This includes the sourcing of candidates, moving them throughout the hiring process, maintaining communication between the candidate and the business, and negotiating offers.
Final Destination Required Job Skills:
• Manage the full recruitment lifecycle for roles across all departments: including job postings, sourcing, screening, phone interviews, and offer negotiations
• Scheduling phone calls and on-site as needed
• Partner with hiring managers to clearly define their hiring needs and support them with creating engaging job postings
• Use creative sourcing techniques to uncover passive talent and make initial introductions in an authentic and personalized way
• Work with People Ops team members to develop and implement a recruiting strategy
• Assist in the onboarding process and follow up with candidates and new hires
• When working with external recruiting partners, help refine our contract terms, ensure they understand our needs and partner closely to move candidates through our process seamlessly
• Maintain our ATS system (Greenhouse) so we can accurately report on key metrics through the hiring process
• Track, monitor, and report all recruiting activities within MeUndies and manage all job postings and job descriptions for compliance
