Career decisions often become difficult when people focus too early on specific roles, classifications or organisations. Questions such as “Should I apply for this role?”, “Should I pursue promotion?” or “Should I move agencies?” can create pressure to identify a next step before there is clarity about what success actually looks like.
The Mapping Your Career Journey workshop provides a practical framework for exploring career direction through a different lens. Rather than starting with job titles or organisational structures, participants explore the conditions, environments and experiences that enable their best work.
Using the metaphor of a journey through different landscapes, participants develop clarity about what they want from their next chapter, what they already carry with them, what they may need to leave behind, and which directions are worth exploring further.
The goal is not a perfect career plan. It is greater clarity, confidence and intentionality about direction.
What this workshop is designed to do
Many career development approaches begin by asking people what role they want next. In practice, this can lead people to pursue specific jobs, classifications or organisations without fully understanding whether those environments actually suit how they work best.
This workshop helps participants:
- identify the types of work that naturally engage and energise them
- understand the working conditions that support their performance and wellbeing
- clarify the types of people, teams and cultures where they thrive
- explore the level of responsibility and influence they want in their next chapter
- recognise the strengths, experience and networks they already possess
- identify assumptions, habits or expectations they may wish to leave behind
- recognise environments and patterns they want to avoid in future
- develop a clearer sense of direction without needing to identify a single fixed destination
Participants work through a structured reflection framework that helps transform uncertainty into a practical understanding of what to look for in future opportunities.
What participants take away
By the end of the workshop, participants will have:
- a personalised map of the conditions that support their best work
- greater clarity about what they want from their next career chapter
- increased awareness of the strengths and resources they already possess
- a clearer understanding of what they no longer want to carry forward
- insight into the environments and dynamics they wish to avoid
- several possible career directions worth exploring further
- practical next steps that can be tested without making major commitments
The outcome is not a rigid career plan, but a clearer and more confident understanding of the landscape they want to navigate.
Organisational value and applications
Organisations use this workshop to support:
- internal mobility and career development initiatives
- leadership development and emerging leader cohorts
- performance and development conversation frameworks
- workforce planning and capability alignment programs
- return to work or career re-entry cohorts
- employees considering promotion, role change or career transition
- broader talent and retention strategies where clarity of career direction is a priority
Organisational outcomes include:
- greater clarity and consistency in how career conversations are supported across teams and cohorts
- improved quality of internal mobility and promotion discussions through a shared framework for career thinking
- reduced misalignment between employee aspirations and role or capability requirements
- shared language for discussing career direction, development needs and career fit
- stronger foundations for workforce planning, capability development and retention strategies
- increased employee self-awareness, leading to more intentional and better informed career decisions
How the workshop is delivered
The Mapping Your Career Journey workshop is delivered as an interactive facilitated reflection and group coaching experience.
The workshop can be delivered:
- in person or online
- as a lunch and learn, 90 minute, half day or full day session
It is designed to be highly practical and reflective, enabling participants to build a structured understanding of their career landscape through guided exercises, discussion and applied reflection.
The workshop provides practical support that helps employees develop a clearer understanding of the conditions in which they do their best work, improving the quality of career decisions before they enter recruitment or promotion processes.
How this connects to real career decisions
Many people approach career decisions by asking:
- What role should I apply for?
- Should I seek promotion?
- Which organisation should I move to?
- What level should I aim for?
This workshop encourages a different question:
What kind of career landscape allows me to do my best work?
Once participants have greater clarity about the landscape they are seeking, decisions about roles, organisations, promotions and opportunities often become easier and more intentional.
The Career Journey Framework
The workshop uses eight interconnected elements to help participants map their career landscape:
Terrain
What sort of journey are you on?
The nature of the work itself, including the problems you enjoy solving and the activities that create meaning and engagement.
Climate
What working conditions help you do your best work?
The pace, structure, flexibility and environment that support your performance.
Companions
Who do you want to journey with?
The people, teams, leaders and organisational cultures that bring out your best thinking.
Base Camp
What lifestyle conditions support your work?
The practical foundations that make work sustainable and fulfilling.
Altitude
How much responsibility or influence do you want?
The level at which you want to contribute, lead and create impact.
Backpack
What are you carrying that will help you navigate?
The strengths, experience, relationships and capabilities you already possess.
Leave Behind
What are you ready to let go of?
The assumptions, habits and expectations that may no longer support your future direction.
Dark Cave
What do you want to avoid?
The environments, dynamics and experiences that consistently reduce your effectiveness or sense of fit.
Together, these elements help participants create a career map based on fit, values and direction rather than simply pursuing the next available opportunity.
Who is this for
This workshop is designed for professionals who are:
- considering promotion or advancement opportunities
- feeling uncertain about their next career move
- exploring a career transition or change of direction
- returning from extended leave or career breaks
- seeking greater alignment between work and life priorities
- reassessing their career goals or definition of success
- navigating the APS or other complex organisational environments
It is particularly valuable for people who find themselves asking:
“I know I want something different, but I’m not sure what.”
The APS career journey
For APS employees, the framework provides a practical alternative to focusing solely on classifications, agencies or promotion pathways.
Participants explore questions such as:
- What kinds of APS work energise me?
- What agency cultures help me thrive?
- What forms of leadership suit me best?
- How much influence do I actually want?
- What assumptions about APS careers am I ready to leave behind?
- Which career landscapes within the APS align with how I work best?
This helps people move beyond questions such as:
“How do I get an EL2 role?”
towards:
“What kind of APS career landscape allows me to do my best work?”