Activity: Mapping Your Professional Journey

This activity will help you identify key moments throughout your professional journey and mark important events and reasons for their importance along the way.

Purpose

By creating a professional journey map, you are able to capture and organize significant milestones that led you to the professional you are today. 

Time

45-60 minutes (15-30 minutes individually, 30 minutes for discussion)

Materials

Handout: Mapping your Professional Journey, Writing, utensil, paper, art supplies (optional)

Who

Complete the map individually and then discuss the experience with your mentoring partner.

What

  1. Identify 6-8 life points that you want to capture.
  2. Draw a professional journey map.  It can be as simple as a line with words or creative with images and drawings.  Make sure to also capture why this life point is significant.
  3. Use the following questions to have a discussion at your next mentoring meeting.
    • What have you learned about yourself?
    • What did you decide to leave out? 
    • What are the patterns? Motivations along the way?
    • Is there anything that surprises you?
    • What is the most significant on your map? Was there a pivotal moment? 
    • Who helped you out along the way? What was their motivation for doing so? Have you stayed connected? Why/why not?
    • Where did you have a sense of belonging/not-belonging? Why?
    • What should appear next on your map? What capabilities or skills do I need to help you develop to get there?
  4. After the conversation, reflect individually how now understand your map? It may have revealed both positives and negatives. What reflections or realization from this exercise can you use to articulate and advance your professional goals? 

Tips

Keep your map visible, visit it regularly, make updates and check-in. 

Materials

Download the instructions for this activity.

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Download the handout for this activity.