Questions to Ask Tarot Cards About Career
Twenty career questions for a card reading, written for people weighing a move, a raise, or whether the problem is the job at all.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What should I know about my job as it stands today?
Why ask it
Start with the present rather than the exit. People who open a career reading with "should I leave" tend to read every card as permission, and a plain description of the current job is what stops that.
What part of my work am I best at, judged by results rather than by what I enjoy?
Why ask it
The two often diverge, and the gap is the useful finding. If the answer matches what you enjoy exactly, check it against what colleagues actually come to you for.
What am I doing at work that nobody is asking for?
Why ask it
Most people are carrying at least one invisible task they invented and now defend. The answer is usually something you are quietly proud of, which is why it survives so long.
Where is my time going that it should not?
Why ask it
If the answer is meetings, you have not narrowed enough. Pull again on one specific day of your week and you will get something you can actually cancel.
What is actually making me want to leave?
Why ask it
Watch for whether the answer points at the work, the money, the commute, or one person. Resignations blamed on the work turn out to be about a single relationship more often than people admit.
Is it the job, the manager, or the field?
Why ask it
This is the question that decides how big your next move needs to be. Answering "field" when it is really the manager costs years of retraining that a different team would have fixed.
What skill would change the most for me if I built it this year?
Why ask it
Look for something with an obvious first step, not a credential. If what you draw would take a degree, you have found an ambition rather than a skill, and it belongs in a different question.
Who should I be talking to that I have been avoiding?
Why ask it
Usually not a stranger. The person you are avoiding is normally someone you already know and owe a reply to, and the awkwardness is why the conversation keeps not happening.
What would I need to see to know it is time to go?
Why ask it
Setting the condition before you feel it protects you from deciding in a bad week. Write the answer down, date it, and treat it as a threshold rather than a mood.
What am I afraid would happen if I asked for more money?
Why ask it
The fear is rarely refusal. It is usually being seen as someone who cares about money, or being told what you are worth. Notice which of the two the reading lands on.
What would I do if the title did not matter?
Why ask it
A useful sorting question because the answer often describes work you are already doing on the side. If the answer is a different title, the title clearly does matter, and that is fine to know.
What have I outgrown here?
Why ask it
Expect the answer to name a specific responsibility rather than the whole role. Outgrowing part of a job is common and can often be traded away without leaving.
What would I lose by leaving that I am not counting?
Why ask it
The uncounted items are usually people, flexibility, and knowing where everything is. None of them appear on an offer letter, and all of them take a year or two to rebuild.
What is the smallest experiment that would test the move I am considering?
Why ask it
A reading that recommends a leap has not helped you. Push for something reversible: a conversation, a short project, a week of doing the other work in the evenings.
Which part of my reputation is out of date?
Why ask it
People get remembered for the job they held three roles ago. If nothing comes up, ask what you were known for when you joined, because that is often still what gets said about you.
What am I owed that I have never asked for?
Why ask it
Unused leave, a promised review, a title that was agreed and never processed. These accumulate quietly and are far easier to collect than to argue about after you resign.
Where am I being loyal to a version of this company that no longer exists?
Why ask it
Loyalty tends to attach to a specific era: a founder, a team, a period when the work was different. Naming the era makes it easier to see what you are actually staying for.
What does the next twelve months look like if I change nothing?
Why ask it
The honest answer is usually not disaster but repetition, which is harder to argue with. If the picture is tolerable, that is a real result and worth accepting rather than reading around.
What kind of work would still interest me in ten years?
Why ask it
Ten years filters out anything driven by a current annoyance. Answers about a type of problem hold up better here than answers about an industry or an employer.
What is the one piece of advice I would give someone in my exact position?
Why ask it
Ask it last, because by then you know your own situation better than you did an hour earlier. Most people give clearer advice to a hypothetical stranger than they will take themselves.
Using Cards on a Career Decision
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Keeping the reading honest
Read before the decision, not after you have made it
Once you have accepted an offer in your head, every reading becomes confirmation. The useful window is while both options still feel genuinely open, which is usually earlier than it feels.
Keep facts and cards in separate columns
Salary bands, notice periods, and who is hiring are research questions. Use the reading for what you want and what you are avoiding, then decide with both in front of you.
Date every reading
Career readings are worth revisiting because the situation moves. Three entries across six months show you whether your discontent is growing or was a bad quarter.
Do not read at your desk in a bad week
Thursday afternoon after a difficult meeting produces a resignation letter, not a reading. Wait for a neutral day, and if there are no neutral days, that is your answer already.
Common mistakes
Asking whether you will get the job
The answer changes nothing about your preparation and will either make you complacent or make the interview harder. Ask what you are underselling instead.
Reading for your manager or a colleague
Conclusions about what someone at work privately thinks of you are unverifiable and will show in how you behave toward them. Ask what you would do if they thought the worst.
Treating timing answers as firm
Hiring runs on budget cycles and other people's notice periods. Use timing readings to decide when to check in, not when to hand in notice.
Reading instead of asking
Several of these questions have a person who could just answer them: your manager, a recruiter, someone who left last year. A reading is a poor substitute for a twenty-minute call.
Two sittings that fit real situations
You are unhappy but not sure why
- 1Describe the job as it stands, with no reference to leaving.
- 2Ask what is actually making you want to leave.
- 3Ask whether it is the job, the manager, or the field.
- 4Ask what the next twelve months look like if nothing changes.
- 5End there and decide nothing for a week.
You have an offer or an opening in view
- 1Ask what you would lose by leaving that you are not counting.
- 2Ask what you have outgrown, and whether it is the whole role.
- 3Ask what you are owed here that you have never claimed.
- 4Ask for the smallest reversible test of the move.
- 5Close with the advice you would give someone in your position.