Latest / Career Skills with Fexingo: Hard Skills, Soft Skills, and Future-Proofing Your Career / How Skill Mapping Reveals Your Career Blindspots
Transcript
- Lucas: Let me start with a story. A software engineer at Shopify — I'll call her Priya — had been at the company for about four years. Strong technical track record. Great code reviews. She was up for a staff engineer promotion. And she got passed over. Luna: Ouch. What was the reason? Lucas: Her manager told her she wasn't visible enough across teams. Her technical skills were solid, but she hadn't built the cross-functional relationships that a staff engineer needs. And she had no idea that was the gap until that conversation. Luna: So her blindspot was essentially a missing skill she didn't even know she needed. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the premise of today's episode — skill mapping. It's a structured way to visualise your current skills and, more importantly, spot the ones you're missing. Think of it like a heat map for your career. Luna: I love that. But how is this different from a regular skills audit? We covered that back in episode 43. Lucas: Good catch. A skills audit is typically backward-looking — you assess what you already have. Skill mapping is more about the connections between skills and the gaps in your network of competencies. It's like looking at a map of a city versus just listing the buildings. Luna: So it's about the relationships between skills, not just the inventory. Lucas: Right. And the process is pretty straightforward. Four steps. Step one: inventory your skills. List everything you do well — technical, domain-specific, and soft skills. Be honest. No false modesty and no over-claiming. Luna: And where do people usually get stuck here? Lucas: They either list too broadly — 'I'm good at communication' — or too narrowly — 'I know Python and SQL.' The sweet spot is specificity with context. So not just 'Python,' but 'Python for data pipeline automation.' That helps later. Luna: Okay, step two? Lucas: Categorise them. I like three buckets: technical skills — the hard stuff like coding, data analysis, design. Domain skills — industry-specific knowledge, like healthcare regulations or supply chain logistics. And soft skills — collaboration, negotiation, adaptability. Priya from Shopify, for example, had strong technical and domain skills but a gap in the soft skill of cross-functional collaboration. Luna: So that categorisation already starts revealing blindspots. Lucas: Exactly. Step three: rate your proficiency for each skill. Use a simple scale — beginner, intermediate, advanced, expert. And be honest again. It's easy to think you're advanced at something until you compare yourself to a true expert. Luna: I've seen that happen a lot in marketing. Someone thinks they're an expert at SEO until they work with a specialist who lives and breathes algorithm updates. Lucas: Right. And step four: identify missing nodes. These are skills that are important for your target role or career trajectory but are absent from your map entirely. For Priya, that was cross-functional collaboration. For a marketing manager aiming for a director role, it might be strategic budgeting or executive presentation. Luna: So the map gives you a visual of where you are and where you need to go. I'm thinking of a counter-example, though. I once worked with a marketing manager who did a skill map and decided she needed to get better at data analytics. So she took a six-month course. But her company didn't actually value that skill for her role — they cared more about brand storytelling. Lucas: That's a great point. Skill mapping only works if you align it with your target context. Otherwise you end up investing in skills that don't move the needle. The map needs a destination — the target role's requirements. Luna: So you map your current skills, then map the skills required for the role you want, and compare. Lucas: Exactly. And that's where the real blindspots emerge. I've seen people realise they have ten years of experience but are missing a skill that junior hires have, because they never needed it. That can be a wake-up call. Luna: Let's talk about tools. Do you need a fancy app or can you do this on paper? Lucas: Paper works great. In fact, I recommend starting with a simple grid. Columns for skill name, category, proficiency, and whether it's needed for your target role. Colour-code it — green for strengths, yellow for developing, red for gaps. The visual impact is powerful. Luna: And how often should someone update this map? Lucas: At least once a quarter, or after any major project, promotion, or role change. Skills evolve. Your target might shift. The map is a living document. Luna: One thing I find interesting is that skill mapping can also reveal over-investment. Like the marketer who spent six months on data analytics she didn't need. Lucas: That's a great angle. The map can show you where you're spending time on skills with diminishing returns. Maybe you're an expert at Excel but your next role needs SQL. That's a gap. But you might also be an expert at something that's no longer valued — like knowing a legacy software system that's being phased out. Luna: So it's about rebalancing your portfolio. Lucas: Exactly. And the most common blindspot I see is around soft skills. People list 'communication' as a strength, but when they map it against their target role, they realise they need 'executive communication' — writing briefs for C-suite, not just team updates. That's a different skill. Luna: That specificity is crucial. 'Communication' is too broad. But 'board-level presentation' is a specific skill you can develop. Lucas: Right. And that's the kind of insight skill mapping gives you. It moves you from vague self-improvement to targeted development. Luna: So for someone listening who wants to try this today, what's the one concrete step? Lucas: Write down the top five skills you think you need for your next promotion. Then, without looking, write down the top five skills you actually use every day. Compare the lists. If they're very different, that's your first blindspot. That exercise alone is eye-opening. Luna: That's a great starting point. And if this episode helped you see a gap you hadn't considered, I'll just say — the way we keep these episodes ad-free and focused is through listener support. If you found value, you can buy us a coffee at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It really helps. Lucas: Yeah, it's a small gesture that keeps us independent. And on that note, let's circle back to Priya. After her failed promotion, she did a skill map, identified cross-functional collaboration as her gap, and spent three months leading a cross-team initiative. She got the staff engineer title the next cycle. Luna: So the map didn't just show her the gap — it gave her a plan. Lucas: Exactly. It turned a vague feeling of being stuck into a concrete action plan. That's the power of skill mapping.