“If I perform this job well, what are my potential career paths from here?”
The following is an excerpt from the Nation Best-Selling book: iQUIT – HOW THE WORLD OF WORK IS CHANGING FOREVER AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU – Available today on Amazon.com
As we discussed throughout this book, all people want to live their lives with purpose, and they want their work to help support it. We also discussed that one of three positive motivating factors with work is your “potential”—or what you want to become and achieve throughout your career. And by asking this question, you are trying to help determine if your potential can be supported and met while working in this role, and if so desired, the potential to move up and on into bigger and better roles within that organization in the future.
Some jobs may initially sound exciting and even highly lucrative, but as we know for most people, your job is not your career. Your goal should always be to pursue your purpose (why) and help support their mission (how and what), and therefore, you don’t want to have to move from organization to organization so often that people start looking at your résumé and wondering if you are a job hopper and not loyal enough for them to want to hire you.
This question also relates to the first question, so not only should you know who you would be reporting to but if they are willing to actively support and help promote your career progression there as well. This can be important, especially if you have a weak manager who might see you as a threat to their own job and therefore might hold you back. I recently spoke about this issue with one of my top employment recruiters, who told me that he is frequently told by his weaker managers to “not find anybody more qualified than I am to fill my positions.” These are the types of managers you want to avoid.
Finally, when asking this question, you want to paint a picture in your own mind of what these paths could look like, what they would entail, and if those paths and the people you would be reporting to in the future are well aligned with you and your purpose in working.
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS:
Question #1: Who would I be reporting to and how would you describe their management style?
Question #2: Why is this position now open?
Question #3: What was the growth rate of the business last year?
Question #4: What would people tell me are the top three benefits and top three challenges in this job?
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