Questions to Ask Guest Speakers in Class
Questions students can ask a visitor to their classroom, phrased the way a student would actually say them, with notes for the teacher on preparing the class and moderating.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What does a normal Tuesday look like in your job?
Why ask it
Naming a specific weekday stops the answer becoming a job description. Students learn what the hours, the meetings and the waiting around actually feel like, which is what they cannot get from a careers website.
What did you study, and how much of it do you use now?
Why ask it
The second half is the part students need, and the honest answer is often not much directly. It also opens the door to what they had to learn on the job instead.
How did you get your first job in this field?
Why ask it
Real routes in are messier than the official ones: a family contact, a summer job, an accident. Hearing the messy version is more encouraging than hearing a plan that no longer exists.
What is a part of your job you did not know existed until you had it?
Why ask it
Every job hides administration, negotiation or paperwork behind its public image. This question gets that quickly and gives students a realistic picture rather than a brochure one.
How much of your work do you do alone, and how much with other people?
Why ask it
A concrete question that matters enormously to students deciding what suits them. The answer often surprises the class, since most jobs are more social than they look from outside.
What do you do when you do not know how to do something at work?
Why ask it
Shows students that professionals are regularly out of their depth and have a routine for it. The answer, usually asking a colleague or looking it up, is quietly reassuring to anyone who feels behind.
How do you know when you have done a good job?
Why ask it
Some jobs give feedback in numbers, some in a client's reaction, some almost never. Students judge everything by grades, so hearing what replaces grades is genuinely new information.
What is the hardest decision you have had to make at work?
Why ask it
Invites one story rather than a general answer, and it is the question that usually gets the most attention in the room. Give the speaker room to think before filling the silence.
What is something you got wrong that turned out to matter?
Why ask it
Speakers who answer this honestly are the ones students remember. It also reframes mistakes as survivable, which is more useful to a sixteen-year-old than any advice about hard work.
Do you need a degree for this, and does it matter which one?
Why ask it
A direct question with a practical answer, and one students often feel awkward asking. Whether the field requires a license or a specific qualification is a fact worth pinning down.
What do you look for when you hire someone my age?
Why ask it
Turns the visit into something usable, because the answer describes what to do this year. Ask for one thing they notice first, rather than a list of qualities.
What kind of person does well in your field, and what kind burns out?
Why ask it
The second half is the honest half and it is rarely volunteered. Students self-select more accurately after hearing what actually wears people down in a job.
What is the most boring part of your work, and is it worth it?
Why ask it
Permission to admit the dull parts, which every job has, and speakers usually answer cheerfully. Students trust the rest of the talk more once someone has admitted something unflattering.
What is changing in your field that will be different by the time we finish school?
Why ask it
Better than asking about the future in general, because it fixes a timeframe the class can picture. Expect the answer to be about tools and regulation rather than dramatic change.
What should I be doing this year if I want to try this?
Why ask it
This year is the key phrase: it forces a concrete, small answer instead of general encouragement. Teachers can build a follow-up lesson out of whatever three speakers say to this.
Is there a way for someone my age to see this work up close, shadowing, volunteering or a summer job?
Why ask it
The most practical question in the set, and sometimes the visit turns into an actual opportunity. Ask it before the session ends rather than in the corridor afterwards.
How much does someone earn starting out in your field?
Why ask it
Students want to know and hesitate to ask. Phrase it about the field rather than about them personally, and most speakers will happily give a range.
What would you do differently if you were starting now?
Why ask it
Acknowledges that the route they took may no longer exist, which is the real question behind most careers advice. Answers about skipping a step tend to be the most useful part.
What do you wish someone had told you at my age?
Why ask it
Speakers almost never answer this with something about grades or qualifications; they answer with something about asking for help sooner, or about how long things take. Placed at the end, it is usually the line students repeat afterwards.
Would it be all right if we emailed you a question later?
Why ask it
A one-line ask that turns a single visit into a contact. If they agree, send one short message that week rather than a long one next term.
Making a classroom visit worth the visitor's time
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Preparing the class
Assign one question per student, in writing
Have every student write their question down the day before and hand it in. It removes the silence at the start, and you can quietly redirect any question that will not work before the visitor arrives.
Do the basic research first
Ten minutes finding out what the speaker's organization does means nobody spends the visit asking what it is. Save the session for what only the person in front of you can answer.
Send the visitor three questions in advance
Most speakers prepare better with a sense of what the class cares about, and it saves them from pitching at the wrong level. Say the ages and how long they have.
Agree the shape of the session
Twenty minutes of talking and twenty of questions works better than forty minutes of presentation. Tell the speaker who will introduce them and who will keep time.
During the visit
- Call on students by name from the written list, starting with a confident one. Cold open questions produce silence and then three questions from the same student.
- One question each until everyone who wants to has asked. Then take second questions if there is time.
- Repeat a mumbled question so both the room and the speaker have it.
- Keep two questions in reserve yourself for a lull, and use them without comment.
- Watch the clock and stop five minutes early, so the speaker is not cut off mid-answer.
- If a question is too personal or too pointed, step in and reframe it rather than letting it sit.
Afterwards
- Have the class write one thank-you note between them the same week, naming something specific the speaker said.
- Ask students to write down the one thing they would look into further. That is where the value of the visit actually lands.
- Note which questions produced the best answers and reuse them with the next visitor.
- If the speaker offered shadowing, work experience or an email address, follow it up within two weeks while the offer is warm.
What not to ask
Anything on their website
Founding dates, headcount and what the company sells are all lookups. Using the visit on them wastes the one thing a visitor brings, which is their own experience.
How much do you earn, aimed at them personally
Ask what the field pays starting out instead. Same information, and nobody has to decline in front of a class.
Questions about their family or private life
Keep to the work and to their route into it. If they volunteer something personal, that is their choice to make.
Yes or no questions
Do you like your job gets one word. Ask what part of it they would keep if they could only keep one, and you get an answer worth hearing.