Photo by Ketut Subiyanto
As we navigate our jobs and lives, we prepare to answer many career questions.
We tirelessly prepare to craft the perfect answer to the most common interview questions. We prepare our elevator pitches and career summaries when someone asks, "So, what do you do?" We answer career questions while we network, as we climb the career ladder, and as we market ourselves as employees.
But when was the last time you asked yourself a few honest questions about your own career and career options? When is the last time you took a good, honest look at your own career happiness?
It's not uncommon to get sucked into a career only to find yourself a decade into a job and a career field that you...might actually hate?
Table of Contents
- 1. What are My Main Priorities Today? Have They Recently Changed?
- 2. What are My Best Skills and Strengths?
- 3. What are My Interests?
- 4. What Weaknesses Can I Improve?
- 5. What Do I Like About My Career As It Stands?
- 6. What Would I Change About My Career Tomorrow If I Could?
- 7. What Does My Ideal Work-Life Balance Look Like?
- 8. What Opportunities Does My Current Career Offer Me?
- 9. What Skill or Competency Can Take My Career to the Next Level?
- 10. What Brings Me Joy?
10 Career Questions to Ask Yourself (+ How to Honestly Answer)
Don't wait until your next job search to take a deep look at your personal attributes or to prepare challenging answers to difficult questions. Ask and answer the following questions to really explore the future opportunities you want to pursue.
What kinds of problems do you want to solve? What do your ideal typical workdays look like? Does corporate culture suit your life as it did ten years ago?
Instead of using these questions to make a final decision or to find the so-called "dream job", keep them on rotation so that you always have your finger on the kind of work that suits you right now and in five, ten, or twenty years down the line.
1. What are My Main Priorities Today? Have They Recently Changed?
The entry-level positions and their accompanying work-life balance are not the same kinds of jobs you'll want as you advance through your career.
When starting out, the job offer with a cool title works as a resume builder. As a young employee, you might have felt more willing to make sacrifices in your personal life to build the foundation for the type of career you wanted.
As your progress through your career, it's important to take stock of your own shifting priorities. Your career goals rarely are the same as they were when you were starting out.
Make sure to identify and rate your priorities. Use this as the foundational inspiration for pursuing the career that suits your life in the future. Don't get stuck in the salary, job responsibilities, and faux-prestige of the "hustle all the time" jobs that seemed glamorous in your early career. Embrace your growth.
2. What are My Best Skills and Strengths?
Now, it's time to give yourself a little credit where it's due!
While the interview question, "What are your strengths?" is almost universally reviled, it's a great question to ask yourself. Any and every answer counts! What hard skills, soft skills, and personality traits set you apart in your personal and professional life?
3. What are My Interests?
What do you like to do when you're not at work? What are some of your favorite classes you've ever taken? What extracurricular activities make you feel happy and whole? Are there ways to infuse these elements of joy into your career? Can you foray them into a new and unexpected career?
4. What Weaknesses Can I Improve?
Another least-favorite interview question, but this time, you're asking it yourself. What are some skills or personality traits you can improve on your own? Do you tend to feel jealousy toward coworkers? Could you improve your attention to detail?
5. What Do I Like About My Career As It Stands?
How would you describe your career to strangers on the street? Are you excited about your career prospect, or do you droll through the same explanation of a typical day at your boring never-ending current job?
If you can't name any meaningful pros or perks about your job, is there a way to improve it? Is it time to move on to something new and fulfilling?
6. What Would I Change About My Career Tomorrow If I Could?
Close your eyes and picture what you could change about your career by simply snapping a finger. Now, snap out of it and start making moves! Create small, medium, and large goals that can lead you en route to the ideal career.
The fixes you want to make to your career might be really small but completely transformative.
Here are some ideas:
- New boss
- More responsibility
- More support
- Better title
- More learning resources
- An entirely new job in a new industry
7. What Does My Ideal Work-Life Balance Look Like?
This is one of the most important questions that can be tough to answer honestly. As lifelong professionals, we become bogged down in salaries, job titles, job security, and everything that comes with financial security.
However, if we've learned anything in the past few years, it's that work-life balance is the key to happiness, longevity, and real success in a career. Does your current career offer you the flexibility to live outside the office?
8. What Opportunities Does My Current Career Offer Me?
Does your current career feel like an open, ten-lane highway with endless opportunities? Does it feel more like an unpaved road on which you're rapidly approaching a big red STOP sign?
If your career feels like it has nowhere to go, it might be time to explore new options.
You should also be honest with yourself when answering this question. Maybe your career has "nowhere" to go, and you're perfectly happy with that right now. We love the idea of embracing a good enough job rather than striving for a "pie-in-the-sky" dream career that doesn't really exist.
If your job fits your life, feels fulfilling enough, and allows for you to have hobbies and interests outside of your 9-5, your "perfect" job might already exist.
9. What Skill or Competency Can Take My Career to the Next Level?
We also firmly believe that learning should never stop—both in our careers and personal lives. Is there a competency, skill, or software that could take you to the next level professionally? Is it time to enroll in that leadership course?
10. What Brings Me Joy?
If you were to write the mission statement for your life today, what would it sound like? What pursuit brings you joy, fulfillment, and a sense of purpose?
