By Sheng Wang
Asking questions can be a powerful tool in exploring a person’s deepest beliefs, values, dreams, and fears. This principle has been used by Socrates and psychoanalysts, as well as by Gregory Stock, author of the best-selling The Book of Questions. With that in mind, here’s a list of unusual and entertaining questions to help you gain some fresh insights into your working life.
If you won the lottery next week, would you still keep your job?
Which job-related skills have helped you in daily life? Which skills from your daily life have helped you in your work?
What visual metaphor would you use to describe your career? (e.g. a rushing river, a painting in progress, a bonsai tree that needs to be carefully tended and pruned.)
If you were to make a TV drama based on your workplace, what would a typical episode look like?
If it were up to you, what would be the mandatory age of retirement? Should there be a mandatory age at all?
Name three things you’ve done at work that you would never admit to your supervisor.
If it were feasible to pursue two careers at once (or in the case of working parents, three careers at once), what would you choose as a second career? Would this career be similar to your current one or something completely different?
If you could trade 10 years of your life for a phenomenally successful career, would you do it?
Which job(s) would you happily do for free?
If you could go back in time, and change one decision you made about your education or career, what would it be?
Have you ever compromised your personal values for work?
What was your biggest work-related worry a year ago? Five years ago? Is it still relevant now?
When coworkers become friends, does it increase or decrease their productivity?
Which three songs would you choose to represent your working life?
If antidiscrimination and affirmative action laws did not exist, would you consider age, sex, race, sexual orientation, nationality, appearance, or other “forbidden” criteria when hiring staff?
Name one thing that you’re doing today which you couldn’t have imagined five years ago.
Do you think women’s average earnings will equal that of men within the next 20 years? Why or why not?
If you could subliminally plant three suggestions in your supervisor’s mind, what would they be?
If you only had 10 years left to live, but would remain healthy during that time, how would you change your life?
