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10 questions about your working life

Tuesday 3rd August 2010 | 6 comments

I run a program called the Escape Hatch, because it is my belief that we should all find our strengths, tap into our passion and get paid for it. Because of this, I'm seeing a lot of unhappy people in CorporateWorld at the moment - mainstream professionals or executives who feel stifled, trapped by their own success, people who are looking for the exit but aren't sure where to start.

Of course, I'd be delighted if you wanted to do the program...

But if not, here are the preliminary questions I send out to people who do sign up, as a way of starting the process of reflecting on your work. They are a really useful way to step back from your current job for a few minutes, to think about the bigger picture of your working life, to take a sounding of where you are at and where you are headed. There's a mix of left-brain and right-brain stuff, some detailed questions and some more open-ended big picture ones.

The questions aren't just for those who are unhappy in their current role - we should all assess our lives from time to time, if only to see what is working well and be grateful for it, to work out what brings us satisfaction, so we can get more of it.

Here they are:

1. What have been your 3 best work experiences (be as specific as you can - what project, team, role, activities)?
2. What have been your 3 worst work experiences (again, be specific...)?
3. What are 3 essential elements of a job for you (things you absolutely must have to be happy at work)?
4. What are 3 absolute no-nos in a job (things you could not put up with, no matter how good the job otherwise)?
5. What skills, talents, pursuits would you like to have or develop in your life?
6. What fires you up, makes you feel excited or gets you hot under the collar - where are your passions?
7. What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?
8. What is stopping you from having your ideal career? What is in the way?
9. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? (When you were very young, in primary school, a teenager...) It doesn't matter how strange or unlikely or impossible it seems now ( I wanted to be an alien...). Have you lived the fantasy in some way, either as a career, or through a hobby or in another form? What have you let go of...why? Did it seem unattainable, or not sensible enough? Did you get talked out of it, or lose interest? How could you give space to these dreams in your life now?
10. List 12 experiences / skills / activities / jobs that you would like to have in this lifetime, but haven't yet done.

So, what are your career questions?

Tags: career, curiosity, questions

Comments

1. Isn't funny how we like to plow through questions and feel better the more honest we are with answers?
   And how then....when they come to a close... I would like to find a step-by-step list of how to achieve what is kind of unfinished business in me...the work/career, answering to my wishes and skills, which are more covert and not that open at the surface..

   Posted by Astrid | Wednesday 4th August 2010 @ 8:55am

2. Thanks Astrid. I often think of Rilke's comment that we all need to learn to live with the questions, in the hope that one day we will then be able to live into the answers. I love how that reflects what a messy and iterative process all this is. There is no join-the-dots approach to career issues (or much else as far as I can see, except maybe putting together IKEA furniture...).

   Posted by Joanna Maxwell | Wednesday 4th August 2010 @ 9:01am

3. Thanks Joanna - these are really BIG questions that deserve some thought, whether you're currently thrilled with your work or not. I especially like 'what would you do if you knew you couldn't fail' - I think fear is a big thing that holds us back from making big changes. Something to ponder over the weekend! :)

   Posted by Sara | Wednesday 4th August 2010 @ 9:34am

4. Yes Sara, big questions indeed. I hope I didn't give the impression that you could dash of the answers in a spare 10 minutes, after which a fortune cookie would drop from the heavens with the answer:)

   Like all worthy endeavours, time and thought are very helpful, so good luck!

   Posted by Joanna Maxwell | Wednesday 4th August 2010 @ 9:39am

5. wise...................words.................................Joanna

   Posted by Astrid | Wednesday 4th August 2010 @ 9:53am

6. Thank............you.............Astrid :)

   Posted by Joanna Maxwell | Wednesday 4th August 2010 @ 9:56am