Latest / Career Skills with Fexingo: Hard Skills, Soft Skills, and Future-Proofing Your Career / How Skill Mapping Reveals Your Hidden Career Assets
Transcript
- Lucas: So you've probably heard the phrase 'know your strengths' a thousand times. But knowing them abstractly and actually seeing how they connect, overlap, or leave gaps are two different things. Luna: Yeah, it's like being told you're good at public speaking and data analysis, but never realizing those two could combine into something like data storytelling. Lucas: Exactly. That's where skill mapping comes in. It's a visual technique borrowed from design thinking and knowledge management, where you literally draw out your skills as nodes and connect them with lines to see relationships. Luna: I've seen this used in a few places. Google used to do something similar with their 'career gurus' program, but I think Amazon took it to another level. Lucas: Amazon's a great example. Back when AWS was still a small side project inside Amazon's retail business, they had a lot of engineers who were excellent at scaling retail systems. But when AWS started growing fast, Amazon needed engineers who understood distributed systems and cloud infrastructure. Luna: So they had to retrain a bunch of people. But how did skill mapping help? Lucas: They created what they called 'skill adjacency maps' — visual diagrams showing how skills in one domain were adjacent to skills in another. For example, an engineer who worked on Amazon's product recommendation algorithms — that's a machine learning skill — turned out to be adjacent to building predictive models for AWS's cost optimization tools. Luna: So the map showed not just what you know, but what you could learn faster because it's close to what you already know. Lucas: Right. And that insight changed how they did internal mobility. Instead of saying 'we need ten cloud engineers, go hire externally,' they'd look at the skill map and say, 'who has the nearest skill cluster that we can bridge?' Luna: That's smart. I tried a version of this myself a few years ago, after I got rejected from a project management role. I thought I had no project management experience, but I sat down and drew out all my skills from previous jobs and volunteer work. Lucas: What did you find? Luna: I found that I'd been running small projects for years — organizing a charity event, leading a product launch at a startup, even planning a team offsite. I just hadn't labeled them as 'project management.' The map made it obvious. Lucas: That's the hidden asset problem. You have the skill, you just haven't framed it. And a good map forces you to frame everything consistently. Luna: So what's the actual process? If someone wants to try this tomorrow, where do they start? Lucas: Three steps. First, list every skill you've used in the last three to five years, no matter how small. Don't judge, just brain-dump. Include things like 'negotiating with vendors,' 'writing quarterly reports,' 'debugging code,' 'facilitating meetings.' Luna: And be specific. Not 'communication' — but 'writing technical documentation for non-technical audiences.' Lucas: Exactly. Step two: cluster them. Group similar skills into clusters — say, 'data analysis,' 'people management,' 'content creation.' You'll start to see patterns. Step three: connect the clusters with lines where you see a relationship. Luna: And the connections are where the magic happens. A connection between 'data analysis' and 'presentation skills' might reveal a hidden strength in data storytelling, like you said. Lucas: Exactly. And here's a pro tip: after you map, ask yourself which clusters are most densely connected. That's usually where your unique value lives — the intersection of two or three skill areas that few people combine. Luna: One thing I'd add: don't overcomplicate the map. I've seen people use software with nodes and colors and arrows and they spend more time formatting than thinking. A piece of paper and a pen works. Lucas: Totally. The goal is insight, not art. And also, be honest about proficiency. A connection doesn't mean you're equally good at both skills. You might have a strong connection between 'coding' and 'project management,' but if you're a novice coder, the map should reflect that. Luna: Right, you don't want to overestimate yourself. But you also don't want to underestimate. I think a lot of us are conditioned to downplay our skills, especially if they weren't part of a formal job title. Lucas: That's a fair point. And it's one reason I like doing this with a peer or a mentor. Another set of eyes can spot connections you miss. Actually, I want to mention something real quick — if you find these career skills episodes helpful, a small group of listeners supports us through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that support is what keeps the show ad-free and focused on practical tools like this. Luna: Yeah, it's a big help. We don't run ads or have sponsors, so it's really listener-funded. And it means we can keep digging into these techniques without worrying about commercial breaks. Lucas: Exactly. So back to the map — once you have your clusters and connections, the next step is to look for gaps. Are there skills you need for your next role that don't appear on your map at all? Luna: That's where the map becomes a growth tool. You can see exactly what's missing and decide if you want to build it, or if you can leverage an adjacent skill to compensate. Lucas: Right. For example, if you want to move into product management but you lack user research skills, you might see that you have strong customer support skills that are adjacent. You can bridge that gap more quickly than starting from zero. Luna: And that's the same principle Amazon used with their engineers. They didn't say 'you need a PhD in distributed systems.' They said 'you know machine learning, and that's adjacent to what we need.' Lucas: Exactly. So I'd challenge listeners this week: grab a piece of paper, draw three circles — one for your current role, one for your past experience, and one for your side projects or volunteer work. List your skills in each, then draw lines connecting similar ones across circles. Luna: That's a great exercise. I bet a lot of people will find skills they didn't realize they had. I know I did. Lucas: And if you find something surprising, share it with us. We'd love to hear what hidden assets you uncover. Luna: Alright, that's a wrap for this episode. Lucas, next time we're diving into skill decoupling — how to separate skills from job titles so you can see your career more flexibly. Lucas: Looking forward to it. See you then.