Career Day Questions to Ask Speakers
Questions for students to ask visiting speakers at a school career day, and for teachers preparing a class beforehand. They move from what the job actually looks like day to day, through training and pay, to the parts of the work people rarely volunteer on their own.
20 questions, each with the reason to ask it · includes a conversation guide
The questions
Open any question to see why it works.
- 1
What did you actually do at work yesterday?
This is the single best opener because it defeats the rehearsed version of the job. Speakers arrive with a description of what their profession is for, and one specific day gets you meetings, paperwork and waiting around, which is what the job is really made of.
- 2
What time do you start and finish?
Hours shape a life more than job titles do. Listen for shift work, on-call weeks, early starts and the difference between the hours they are paid for and the hours they work, which speakers often mention only when asked this plainly.
- 3
What is your job title, and what does that title actually mean?
Titles hide enormous variation, and a student who understands that an analyst at one company is a manager at another will search for jobs more effectively later. Ask what the level above and below them does too.
- 4
How did you get your first job in this field?
You want the specific mechanism: an application, a family friend, a placement, a chance conversation. Speakers tend to describe the qualification they hold rather than the route in, and the route in is the part a student can copy.
- 5
What did you want to do when you were my age?
Most adults did not plan the career they ended up in, and hearing that from someone standing in front of a class does more for an anxious fifteen year old than any careers leaflet. It also opens the story of how they changed direction.
- 6
What do you need to study to do this job?
Ask about the minimum requirement and what people actually have, because they are often different. Also ask whether the requirement has changed since they started, since some fields have added degrees and others have dropped them.
- 7
Is there a way into this without going to university?
Apprenticeships, technical certificates and internal promotion exist in more fields than students expect. A speaker who has hired people will know which routes their own workplace accepts, which is more reliable than what a website says.
- 8
What subjects at school turned out to matter, and which ones did not?
Adults usually name one subject they wish they had taken more seriously, and it is rarely the obvious one. Answers like writing, statistics or a second language tend to be more useful to a student than a list of required courses.
- 9
What surprised you most in your first year?
The gap between training and the actual job is where people struggle, and this question names it. Answers often involve how much of the work is talking to people, how slowly things move, or how little supervision there is.
- 10
What is the hardest part of the job?
Speakers at a career day are there to make the field appealing, so this question needs asking directly. If the answer is something breezy, follow up with what makes them tired at the end of a week, which usually gets a truer answer.
- 11
What part of your job would people be surprised by?
Every field has hidden components: paperwork in medicine, sales in engineering, cleaning up in kitchens. This question gets at the unglamorous middle of the job that no television programme shows.
- 12
How much can someone starting out expect to earn, and how does that change?
Ask about the range rather than a personal figure, which is easier for a speaker to answer honestly in front of a class. Also ask how long it takes to move from the starting number to the middle of the range.
- 13
What tools or technology do you use every day?
Naming actual software and equipment gives a student something concrete to look up or practise. It also shows how much of a modern job is spent in front of a screen, even in fields students imagine as hands-on.
- 14
Who do you work with most, and do you work alone or in a team?
Students choose careers based on subjects they like and then discover the social shape of the work does not suit them. Whether you spend the day with colleagues, customers or by yourself is a better predictor of enjoyment than the topic.
- 15
What does someone have to be good at to do well here?
Ask for the skill rather than the personality type. Answers like staying calm when someone is angry, or writing clearly under time pressure, describe something a student can practise, while being a people person does not.
- 16
Has this job changed since you started, and how do you think it will change again?
Someone with fifteen years in a field has watched parts of it disappear. Their view of what technology has already absorbed is more grounded than a prediction, and it tells a student where the field is heading.
- 17
What does a bad day look like?
A good day is easy to describe and tells you nothing. The bad day reveals the pressure in the job, whether it is a deadline, an angry customer, an outcome that went wrong, or simply boredom, and whether they can shake it off afterward.
- 18
Do you take your work home with you?
This covers both hours and emotional weight. Some jobs end when you leave the building and some follow people to dinner, and speakers are usually candid about this even when they are guarded about other things.
- 19
If you could go back, would you choose this again?
Ask it near the end, once the speaker has warmed up. A hesitation before the answer is informative, and a speaker who says yes but would do one thing differently is giving you the most useful advice of the whole session.
- 20
What could someone my age do this year if they are interested in this?
This turns a talk into a next step. Ask for something specific, like a club, a certificate, a summer job, a person to email or a place to volunteer, and write down anything they offer to help with before they leave the room.
Making career day worth the visit
Practical guidance for the conversation itself.
For students
For students
- Pick three questions before the speaker arrives and write them down. The room usually goes quiet when the floor opens, and having something on paper is the difference between asking and regretting it.
- Ask about the day, not the field. What does an accountant do is a broad question, while what did you do before lunch gets a real answer.
- Follow up once. The second question is where the interesting material is, because the first answer is usually the one they had ready.
- If a speaker mentions a job you have never heard of, ask what that person does. Career days are mostly useful for finding out that jobs exist.
- Ask for a way to contact them at the end. Most speakers say yes and almost nobody asks.
For teachers running the session
For teachers running the session
- 1Have students write questions the day before and collect them, so you can seed the first few and keep the room from stalling.
- 2Tell speakers in advance that students will ask about pay and hours. It gives them time to think about how to answer, which is better than a deflection on the spot.
- 3Ask students to note one thing that surprised them about each speaker. It gives you something to work with afterward besides did you enjoy it.
- 4Pair a speaker from a route that did not involve university with one who took a traditional path, so the comparison happens in the room rather than in your summary.
- 5Leave the last five minutes for the what could I do this year question. It is the one that turns into action.
Questions that tend to fall flat
Questions that tend to fall flat
- Do you like your job. Almost everyone says yes in front of a class.
- What are your strengths and weaknesses. This is an interview question and it makes the speaker sound like a candidate.
- How much do you earn. Asking about the range for someone starting out gets you the same information without the awkward pause.
- Anything answerable from a website, such as what qualifications the profession requires. Ask what the speaker did instead.
- Questions with yes or no answers. Add and why to the end and the answer gets three times longer.