The hidden method for a career check-up
As a reporter, “each day is different,” I wrote at the very start of my career. I was drawn to the excitement. In fact, once while covering an Olympic track and field event, a runner grabbed my camera!
At least, that’s what my second-grade self imagined would happen in her “exiting” life as a journalist. (Luckily for my future editors, my spelling improved.)
We come into our jobs with certain expectations. Over time, the reasons for doing these jobs may shift as we gain experiences and insights. We may not even notice that our “why” has changed until we’re asked about it.
There’s a mechanism for uncovering our motivations in the time between our job interview and exit interview — the stay interview.
Companies including Google, IBM and Starbucks “use stay interviews to understand what drives employees, identify factors influencing engagement and retention and build stronger relationships,” Next Avenue states.
While most of the resources on stay interviews are focused on helping companies retain employees, they can also benefit people using the career river approach.
We’re so used to focusing on what we need to do to climb to the next rung of our careers that we don’t always stop to think about whether we want to step up to that role, or whether reality matches up to our initial expectations. This leaves us vulnerable to plugging away for too long at work that does not fulfill us.
In some cases it’s like the frog in the boiling pot of water that gets cooked slowly as the temperature climbs, rather than jumping out at the first signs of trouble.
Last week we heard about taking a career break to redefine our relationship to work. That’s a pretty drastic overhaul. The stay interview is more of a check-up to ensure everything is running smoothly and to check for any trouble spots ahead.
You can ask your manager to conduct a stay interview, or do it yourself. Pick a regular milestone for stay interviews — it could be the anniversary of your start date, with your performance review, really anytime that makes sense for you as long as it becomes a regular feature of your work calendar. You may be surprised what you turn up in just a few questions about where you’d like to go and why.
5 stay interview questions
Here are a few suggested stay interview questions based on this guide from the Society for Human Resource Management:
What do you look forward to when you come to work each day?
What are you learning in your role, and what would you like to learn?
What talents are not being used in your current role?
Why do you stay in this role, and why is that important to you?
What would make your job more satisfying?
I’ve asked myself some version of the stay interview questions many times since my second-grade self imagined an exciting career having Olympians steal my equipment. Turns out, I’ve only spent 4 percent of my career as a reporter. I found it more fulfilling and exciting to support other journalists, first as an editor and then as a community engagement consultant and collaborations project manager.
You’ll notice the stay interview is different from a performance review. It’s focused not on what you should do for your company but on what your role is doing for you. You can compare your stay interview responses to the skills you identified by mapping your career river. Is your work supporting your growth in new directions, is it drawing on the skills you’re most excited to use?
If not, it may be time to explore a new direction.
Happy navigating,
Bridget
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