This study demonstrates the use of metaphor analysis in needs assessment for developmental support and shows how it can be used to critically examine assumptions in the literature about the ways emerging researchers conceptualize their career trajectory. We investigated the professional development needs of a group of science, technology, engineering and mathematics early career researchers, to provide them with better grant writing support. Conceptual metaphor theory was used to explore interview data, in part to identify where training design could be modified. In the case of the group under investigation, close metaphoric analysis presented a richly embodied view of our participants' research activity and suggested ways to provide a stronger focus on strategic and processual aspects of grant writing in such settings.