Asking Good Questions - Can I Profit?

May 24, 2021 5:44 AM

So people constantly are telling me *That's a really good question* and I know I have an inquisitive mind, always have. A bit later in life but still in the game, wondering what career can I invent for myself utilizing a gift of seeing a bit beyond and then positing inquiries about it? It always seems a bit like teaching but with a twist of *let's learn something new here*. TIA
posted by watercarrier to Society & Culture (13 answers total)

I think this is a really good skill for anyone in R&D or Product Management to have. Exactly how that would translate into a career would probably depend on your other domain knowledge. It's also really useful in technical writing/documentation. I would be willing to bet it's an important skill for consulting - helping people see the questions they should be asking about their own products and processes.
posted by mskyle at 5:53 AM on May 24, 2021 [7 favorites]

In addition to all the careers built around inquisitiveness and interview skills-- journalist, podcaster, detective/PI etc.--have you considered:

Meetings Facilitator

Pollster/Focus Group Conductor

Coach/Therapist

Career Counselor

Strategic Planning Consultant

Executive Recruiter

Historian/Biographer

Scientist

Curator

Insurance/Financial Fraud Investigator

Design (products, graphics, architecture, urban, etc.)

Market Analyst

posted by carmicha at 6:00 AM on May 24, 2021 [5 favorites]

I changed careers recently and trained to become a Transformational Coach. It's a fantastic fit for me, for exactly the reasons you mentioned above.

Two quotes in coaching come to mind for me here, which might spark interest for you:

"I am not here to answer your questions, I am here to question your answers."
and
"You are the expert of your life, I am the expert of the process [of coaching]."

For me, being a coach is great because it utilises my varied skillset (I'm a multi-passionate creative), and I get to learn about other domains through listening and questioning, but I don't need to tie myself to another trade. I can explore all these other worlds through my clients and the challenges they are trying to solve. It is wonderful.
posted by iamkimiam at 6:05 AM on May 24, 2021 [6 favorites]

iamkimiam's description of why transformational coaching is such a great fit correlates to why my career as a strategic planning consultant in my field of expertise worked so well for me. It also made me think of designing user interfaces and writing instruction manuals which, when done well, involve a lot of probing into how people interact with the world.
posted by carmicha at 6:36 AM on May 24, 2021 [3 favorites]

My father was a chemical engineer. As an old, grey head approaching retirement, he had a job he referred to as "turning areas of concern into problems."

Depending on your industry knowledge, I think you could be a valuable asset to a long term planning group.
posted by SemiSalt at 7:19 AM on May 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

That set of skills is great to have on a VP or president of a large company. We say that all the time to actually good questions in my line of work. Like, "why is product A a X% share at this customer, but a Y% share at this customer?" because if we can answer that question it's worth millions of dollars.
posted by bbqturtle at 8:47 AM on May 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

I did technical support in a university and other places, and was able to help users improve their processes, and, even more, help IT improve the processes that affected users ability to get stuff done.

I suspect Process Engineering would require going back to school, but that's a field. Or Efficiency Expert, or Reference Librarian. I think this trait enhances many career paths.
posted by theora55 at 8:56 AM on May 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

Sounds like a Professional Disruptor. Get some business cards made up and you'll be as good as any in the field.
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:52 AM on May 24, 2021

journalist or ux designer
posted by pinochiette at 11:56 AM on May 24, 2021

Human-centered design, aka design thinking, a flavor of UX design but less focus on the interaction design of it. Also, product management, as already mentioned. HCD, DT, prod mgmt are all predicated on "problem definition" rather than problem solving. How does one define problems? Asking tons of questions, abstraction laddering, problem framing, and on and on.
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 2:35 PM on May 24, 2021

It requires some additional training for sure but this is a great trait in a privacy engineer.
posted by potrzebie at 9:53 PM on May 24, 2021

I just read this article about the role of Principal Software Engineer. He spends most of his time saying what he doesn't do, but what he does most is ask questions (he says). Of course, additional education/training would need to be added to your talent, plus the hurdle of job interviews (but maybe networking through others?)
posted by forthright at 9:48 AM on May 25, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you everyone for the great replies and matter for thought. All are great ideas. Much, much appreciate it. Stay curious.
posted by watercarrier at 9:01 PM on May 25, 2021