Career Questions to Ask Tarot
Twenty-one career questions framed for a tarot reading, whether you pull the cards yourself or sit with a reader. They are open rather than yes or no, they keep to one subject at a time, and they are grouped by situation: the job you are in, a decision in front of you, and what to do next.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What do I need to look at in my working life right now?
Why ask it
A reasonable opener for a general reading, and the only broad question worth asking. Note that broad questions give broad answers, so treat whatever comes up as the subject for a second, narrower question rather than as the reading itself.
What am I avoiding looking at in this job?
Why ask it
This works because it presumes there is something, which stops you dismissing the card too quickly. If your first reaction is that it does not apply, sit with it for a day before you decide, since resistance is usually the point of this question.
What am I bringing to this situation myself?
Why ask it
Most career readings are asked about other people: a manager, a team, a company. Turning the question inward is uncomfortable and more useful, and a card you do not like here is usually worth more than a flattering one.
What have I outgrown here?
Why ask it
Useful when you feel restless without knowing why, because it separates outgrowing a role from disliking one bad month. Look for whether the card points at the work, the level, or the people, since those lead to different decisions.
What is going unrecognized in what I do?
Why ask it
Ask this when you feel unseen at work, and use the answer as a prompt rather than a verdict. It often surfaces something you have stopped valuing yourself, which is worth checking against what colleagues actually say about your work.
What am I carrying from my last job into this one?
Why ask it
Old patterns follow people between employers, and this question is designed to name one. If the card suggests caution or self-protection, ask whether the habit that kept you safe in the old place is costing you something in the new one.
What is the cost of staying as I am?
Why ask it
Half of a pair, and the pair is what makes it work. Ask this one first, note the card, and leave the second question until you have written down what you saw, so the two answers stay separable.
What is the cost of making the change?
Why ask it
The other half. Laying both costs side by side stops a reading from becoming a search for permission, because most real decisions are a choice between two prices rather than between a right and a wrong answer.
If I take this role, what am I walking into?
Why ask it
Frame it as a description rather than a prediction, and it stays useful: what would this environment ask of me, what would it demand that I do not yet have. Asking whether the job will make you happy invites a yes or no, which a card cannot honestly give.
If I turn it down, what am I choosing?
Why ask it
The version of the question people skip, because staying feels like the absence of a decision rather than a decision. Ask it in the same sitting as the previous question, since the contrast is where the clarity comes from.
What is underneath my wish to leave?
Why ask it
This distinguishes wanting different work from wanting rest, recognition, or a different city. If the card points somewhere other than the job, that is worth taking seriously before you resign, since a new employer will not fix any of those three.
What does my ambition actually want?
Why ask it
A question about the gap between what you tell people you want and what you find yourself doing. Answers about status, security or freedom are all legitimate, and naming yours plainly usually explains several past decisions.
Which strength am I underusing?
Why ask it
More practical than asking about your purpose, because the answer can be tested next week. Take whatever comes up and ask which piece of work in the next month could use it, then treat that as the outcome of the reading.
What am I overdoing?
Why ask it
The counterpart, and it tends to be a virtue pushed too far: preparation becoming delay, helpfulness becoming an unmanageable workload. The useful follow-up is what you would have to tolerate in order to do less of it.
How am I seen by the people I work with?
Why ask it
Keep this one honest by treating it as a hypothesis to check rather than information you now have. A card that suggests you are read as distant or as unreliable is worth taking to a colleague you trust, which is where the real answer lives.
What support am I not asking for?
Why ask it
People carry work alone out of habit long after help is available. Ask this, then name a specific person and a specific request before you put the cards away, or the insight will not survive the week.
What is my money anxiety telling me to do, and is it right?
Why ask it
Worth asking because fear about money drives more career decisions than ambition does. Note plainly that a reading cannot tell you whether your finances will hold, so pair this question with an actual look at your numbers.
What have I been calling a failure that was not one?
Why ask it
This tends to produce the gentlest and most useful reading of the set. Look for whether the card reframes a decision you still apologize for, and consider whether you would judge someone else the same way.
What would I do if I were not worried about how it looks?
Why ask it
Good for people whose career has been shaped by other people's expectations. The answer often names something small and specific rather than dramatic, and that is the version worth acting on.
What should I attend to first this month?
Why ask it
Time-bound questions produce more usable readings than open-ended ones, because you can look back and check. Write the card and the date down, and read it again at the end of the month.
What am I hoping the cards will say?
Why ask it
Ask this before you draw, not after. If you can already name the answer you want, you have your decision and the reading is a formality, which is the most useful thing a spread can tell you.
Framing and reading
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
How to frame a career question
Open, not yes or no
Will I get the job forces the cards into a verdict they cannot carry. What would this role ask of me leaves room for an answer you can actually use, and it survives being wrong.
One subject per question
Questions that bundle the job, the money and the move produce a muddle you can read any way you like. Ask about one of them, note the answer, then ask about the next.
Put a timeframe on it
This month, this quarter, before the interview. A bounded question can be reviewed later, which is how you learn whether your readings are telling you anything.
Ask about your part in it
Questions about what a manager will do leave you a spectator. Questions about what you are bringing, avoiding or overdoing leave you with something to change.
Decide what would count as an answer
Before you draw, say what you will do differently depending on what comes up. Without that, a reading becomes something to feel rather than something to use.
Simple spreads for career questions
One card, one question
Best for the action questions, such as what to attend to first this month. Fewer cards means less room to build a story around whichever one suits you.
Three cards: situation, what I am adding, what to do
A plain structure for a job that has gone stale. The middle position is the one that earns its place, since it puts you in the picture rather than only the circumstances.
Two cards: cost of staying, cost of going
Use this for any decision between two paths, and draw them in separate passes with a note written between. Read them as two prices rather than a recommendation.
One card per option
For a choice between offers, give each one a card and ask what it would ask of you. Resist adding a card for which is better, since that is the question a spread cannot settle.
What goes wrong
Drawing again until you like the answer
Re-asking the same question in different words is the clearest sign the decision is already made. Note what you wanted, and work with that instead.
Asking about other people's private business
Whether a colleague will be fired, or what your manager privately thinks of someone else, is not yours to read for and rarely helps you act. Keep the question on your own choices.
Using a reading instead of information
Cards cannot tell you whether the company is solvent, whether the contract is fair, or whether the salary is market rate. Get those from accounts, an employment adviser, and people doing the job.
Reading during the worst week
A spread pulled on the evening of a humiliating meeting will be read through that mood. Wait a few days, then ask, and compare what you see with what you saw before.
Turning to it daily
Asking the same career question every morning tends to raise anxiety rather than settle it. A single question with a timeframe, revisited once, teaches you more.
After the reading
- 1Write the question, the cards and the date down before you interpret anything, so the record is not shaped by the conclusion you reached.
- 2Note one sentence on what you plan to do differently, however small.
- 3Set a date to look back at it, at the end of the month or after the interview.
- 4Check any factual part of the reading against the world: ask a colleague, look at the numbers, read the contract.
- 5If the reading pointed at something painful, decide whether the next conversation belongs with a friend, a mentor, or a professional rather than with the cards.
If you are paying a reader
- Bring one framed question rather than asking for everything about your career.
- Say what you have already decided, so the session is not spent on ground you have covered.
- Ask how they handle questions they consider off limits, and be wary of anyone who promises certainty about outcomes.
- Be cautious with a reader who tells you a further paid session is required to lift a problem they have just described.
- Ask whether you may record or take notes, and use them when you review the reading later.