Squiggly Careers

What if you could pull the right career opportunities toward you while pushing away the work that drains you? In this episode, Helen and Sarah explore how the physics of magnets can help you shape a more intentional squiggly career. Through three questions, they share practical ways to make new connections, rethink what’s in your diary and move from ‘either/or’ to ‘and’ thinking. 🎯 What You'll Learn – How to attract more people, possibilities, and projects using weak ties and sponsorship – Why asking "Do you know anyone who...?" speeds up your network growth – How to use the "repel and replace" strategy to protect your time and energy – Can you balance your day job and your development without burning out? – How to navigate the tension between being clear and being kind in your communication – How to hold flexibility and career progression together without trade-offs For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: [email protected] Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.squigglycareers.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.squigglycareers.com/squigglysprints/ 3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/squigglynewsletter_pod 4. Order our new book Learn Like a Lobster: https://www.squigglycareers.com/books/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What helps us connect with the people we work with, and what happens when that connection is missing? In this episode, Sarah is joined by organisational psychologist and bestselling author Adam Grant to explore his new book, Vibe, and what the science of connection can teach us about our Squiggly Careers. From seeing someone else’s ‘snow globe’ to sharing what brings out your worst, Adam shares practical ways to understand each other and work better together. He also answers questions from the Squiggly community about difficult feedback and feeling disconnected when working remotely. 🎯 What You’ll Learn – How curiosity about someone else’s world helps you build connection – Why sharing what brings out your worst can reduce misunderstandings – The difference between social and task cohesion, and why shared goals matter for teams – How to use a reciprocity ring to ask for help and share your knowledge or connections – How to respond when your boss says “your vibe is all wrong” – Practical ways to connect and learn from others when working remotely 📚 Resources Mentioned Vibe - Adam Grant: https://bit.ly/3WsyYXO For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: [email protected] Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.squigglycareers.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.squigglycareers.com/squigglysprints/ 3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/squigglynewsletter_pod 4. Order our new book Learn Like a Lobster: https://www.squigglycareers.com/books/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Profilers can help you understand yourself, find words for your strengths and choose where to focus your development. But your results are clues to explore, rather than labels that limit you. In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from three profilers: Lynda Gratton’s Living the 100-Year Life diagnostic, 16Personalities and the Squiggly Skills Profiler. They share their own results, what they found useful and what they questioned, with practical ideas to turn what you learn about yourself into action. 🎯 What You'll Learn– Understand the benefits and common pitfalls of using career profilers– Discover Lynda Gratton's 100-year life diagnostic to assess your life threads– Learn how to use 16Personalities to identify your strengths and blind spots– Find out how to use profiling data to communicate your value on LinkedIn– Explore how to map team profiles to identify gaps in diversity of thought– Try the new Squiggly Careers Skills Profiler to identify your super skill and gap for growth 📚 Resources mentioned:-100-Year Life diagnostic: https://www.livingthe100yearlife.com/assessment-16Personalities: https://www.16personalities.com/-Squiggly Careers Skills Profiler: www.squigglyskills.com For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: [email protected] Need some more squiggly career support?1. Download our free career tools: https://www.squigglycareers.com/toolkit/2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.squigglycareers.com/squigglysprints/3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/squigglynewsletter_pod4. Order our new book Learn Like a Lobster: https://www.squigglycareers.com/books/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is something at work feeling harder than it needs to be? It could be a meeting that takes too long, a decision that goes back and forth, or a process with more steps than it needs. This week, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from The Friction Project by Robert Sutton and Huggy Rao. They explore how to spot the friction that slows you down, what you could subtract to make work easier, and why some friction is worth keeping. 🎯 In this episode, you’ll learn how to: – Spot where friction is showing up in your work – Ask your team what’s making their work harder – Subtract steps, meetings or handoffs that aren’t helping – Add useful friction through better questions and saying the hard thing For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, email [email protected]. More Squiggly Career support: 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.squigglycareers.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.squigglycareers.com/squigglysprints/ 3. Sign up for our weekly Squiggly Careers newsletter: www.squiggly.me 4. Order Learn Like a Lobster: https://www.squigglycareers.com/books/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Could putting more constraints on your career actually create more possibilities? In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from David Epstein's book (Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better) to explore how choosing your own constraints can help you think differently and more creatively about your career. They experiment with constraints across six areas of career development, from learning and strengths to confidence and future possibilities. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Why constraints can help you think more creatively – How to experiment with constraints in your career – How to focus your learning, strengths and values – How constraints can help with confidence and networking – How to explore your future possibilities differently 📚Resources mentioned David Epstein – Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better https://davidepstein.com/inside-the-box/ Adam Morgan & Mark Barden – A Beautiful Constraint https://www.eatbigfish.com/thinking/a-beautiful-constraint Squiggly Careers podcast episode #256 – You Coach You: Overcoming Constraints https://www.amazingif.com/listen/you-coach-you-overcoming-constraints/ Squiggly Careers podcast episode #220 – How to Explore Your Progression Possibilities For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/ 3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/squigglynewsletter_pod 4. Order our new book Learn Like a Lobster: https://www.amazingif.com/books/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Getting ready for a job interview can feel daunting, but what happens when you have to face an AI interviewer or answer tough questions about how you use artificial intelligence? In this episode, Helen puts Sarah on the spot with real AI interview questions shared by the Squiggly Careers community. Together, they explore how AI is changing the interview experience, what interviewers might be looking for in your answers, and how you can prepare to talk confidently about how you're using and learning about AI at work. 🎯 What You'll Learn– How AI is changing the interview experience– The AI questions you could be asked in an interview– What interviewers might be looking for in your answers– How to talk about where AI adds value and its limits– The AI questions you could ask an interviewer 📚Resources mentioned - Claudia Harris on the future of AI and work: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudia-harris-obe-71793374/ - We Are Not Machines by Sarah O’Connor: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/462159/we-are-not-machines-by-oconnor-sarah/9780241704226 - Hannah Fry’s AI agent experiment with Cass/Cassandra: https://microblog.christhomas.co.uk/blog/hannah-fry-cass-why-ai-agents For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: [email protected] Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/ 3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/squigglynewsletter_pod 4. Order our new book Learn Like a Lobster: https://www.amazingif.com/books/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When things change at work, how good are you at changing how you think or act in response? In the second part of our No Regret Skills mini-series, Helen and Sarah turn their attention to adaptability. Sarah breaks this skill down into eight different dimensions and puts Helen through a real-life scenario to explore where her adaptability strengths are and where she could get better. 🎯 What You'll Learn – The difference between flexibility and adaptability – The eight different dimensions of adaptability – How to spot your own adaptability strengths – Where you could get better at adapting to change – How to explore adaptability as a team For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/ 3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/squigglynewsletter_pod 4. Order our new book Learn Like a Lobster: https://www.amazingif.com/books/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices