A person who helps others think through career transitions. Someone with a feel for the story behind your work, or experience guiding people into management. Career advice over coffee starts with choosing whose perspective you want, then bringing a decision you can explore together.
You might be happy in your field and ready for more responsibility. You might have a job interview next week, or a growing curiosity about work that looks very different from yours. Each is a reason to sit down with someone whose experience speaks to that moment.
SEYA calls that person a Source, someone worth meeting for their perspective, knowledge, taste, craft, stories, experience, or personality. Career is one of the subjects you could bring to a session, a bookable conversation. The ideas below can help you choose a focus; the individual Source’s session describes what they offer.
Among the people joining SEYA’s beta, Lakshmi Narayanee brings career and life transitions, Danielle Hughes brings career narrative and personal branding, Gab Saper brings interview and job-negotiation coaching, and Ruthie Berber brings career trajectory and people management. Those interests open several different conversations about what comes next in your working life.
These subjects come from people joining SEYA’s beta. They describe possible conversations; individual session details and availability will be confirmed during the beta.
Career coaching when the question is still taking shape
Your work is familiar, you are good at it, and you keep wondering what else there might be. You may still be finding words for what you want to change.
A career coach can be an interesting person to meet at that point. Look for someone who describes how they work with decisions like yours. Their questions might help you separate the parts of your work you enjoy from the conditions around it. Consider the pace, the manager, the responsibility, or the amount of room you have to make something your own.
Bring a recent working week into the conversation. Which task held your attention? Which meeting left you frustrated? What would you like to spend more of next week doing? Those details give the person across the table something to explore with you.
A question to bring
“I enjoy the work when I can concentrate, but most of my week goes into coordinating other people. How would you help me think about what to change?”
Lakshmi’s subjects include getting unstuck and navigating career and life transitions. That is a useful starting point if your question is still taking shape. Read the session’s focus and think about the part of your situation you would most like to discuss.
A career pivot, seen from the other side
Changing fields raises questions about what you want to carry forward and what you want to do differently. A conversation about transitions can give you room to consider both, with someone who is willing to examine the decision alongside you.
If you are considering a pivot, describe what attracts you to the new direction. You might want more time making things, a different kind of responsibility, or a working week with room for something you have put aside. Ask what you could investigate before deciding.
Talk about the ordinary days you hope to have. Which parts of your current experience would still matter? What would you need to learn through practice? You are trying to picture the work closely enough to choose a useful next experiment.
A question to bring
“Here is the change I keep considering. What would you want to understand about my working life before deciding what to explore next?”
Before the coffee, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook can provide background on duties, typical entry education, pay and job outlook. Use the conversation for the personal detail behind those broad descriptions.
Explaining the experience you already have
Danielle’s work in copywriting, personal branding and career narrative offers a way into this question. You can talk about how you describe your work, which examples make it understandable, and where someone reading your LinkedIn profile or introduction might want more detail.
Bring one role description and a short account of a project you actually worked on. Perhaps you coordinated a launch, taught a colleague a difficult process, or spotted a problem that kept recurring. Explain what happened, what you did, and what changed.
The New York State Department of Labor’s career exploration resources describe transferable skills as abilities that can carry from one career to another. At the table, the useful question is which of your experiences illustrates those abilities in the new setting.
A question to bring
“This is the part of my work I think matters for this role. What would you need to hear to understand how it translates?”
Bring a version of your résumé with personal contact details removed, and share examples you have permission to discuss. A coffee shop suits a conversation about your experience; sensitive company information belongs elsewhere.
Interviews and the story of your work
An upcoming interview gives a conversation a clear focus. Gab’s interview coaching and Julie Campbell’s subjects around interviewing and speaking offer different ways into preparation. You could explore the story you want to tell, the examples that support it, or how you deliver it aloud.
Choose one answer to explore. It could be why you want to change roles, how you handled a disagreement, or what you learned from a project that went differently from the plan. Ask the Source whether practice and feedback fit their session before you arrive.
A question to bring
“When I explain this project, what do you understand about the decisions I made? What would you ask me next?”
There is also room to talk about the questions you will ask the interviewer. You might explore how to ask about priorities, the support a new hire receives, or what the role looks like during a difficult month.
Preparing for a job negotiation
An offer or a change in responsibility can leave you deciding how to open a conversation about terms. Gab’s job-negotiation coaching is a subject to explore if you want to think through what matters to you and how to express it.
Bring the priorities you are comfortable discussing. You might want to talk about scope, schedule, development opportunities or compensation. A focused conversation can examine how you would make the request, what you want to understand from the response, and where you have room to consider alternatives.
A question to bring
“I want to discuss these parts of the role. How could I make the request clearly and keep the conversation open?”
Advancing where you are
Career conversations can be about staying. Ruthie’s subjects include people management, career trajectory coaching and coaching women into management. You could explore what draws you to greater responsibility and what that change would ask of you.
You could explore what changes at the next level, how to describe a contribution, or how to begin a discussion with your manager. Someone who has managed people might also talk candidly about the parts of leadership they found rewarding and the responsibilities they had to grow into.
A question to bring
“I want to discuss more responsibility with my manager. Here is the work I have been doing. What would make that conversation more specific?”
UC Davis’ individual development planning guidance connects goals with the knowledge and skills needed to pursue them. For your coffee, choose one possible next step and ask what it would require. Your employer’s own criteria and decisions will shape the path from there.
Choose a person, then narrow the subject
Start with the experience that makes you curious about someone. Read what they have done, how they describe their perspective, and the subject of their session. Career narrative, transition decisions and people management each give the conversation a different focus.
Then choose one main question. A proposed 30-minute conversation about a particular move is easier to prepare for than a request to cover your entire career. Agree the duration and focus, bring the material that supports that question, and leave room for the person’s own stories.
Our guide to choosing coffee chat questions can help you turn that subject into a conversation. Afterwards, write down what you want to try, what you want to check, and which question you would bring to another person.
Questions people ask
What career topics could I discuss with a SEYA Source?
Possible subjects include career direction, changing fields, explaining your experience, interview preparation, job negotiation, and growing in your current role. Choose a Source whose published session and background fit the subject you want to explore, and confirm any preparation together.
How do I choose a Source for a career conversation?
Start with the question you have. Career transitions, personal branding, interviews, negotiation and management each call for a different focus. Read the person’s background and published session, then choose the approach that fits what you want to explore.
Can one conversation help with a career change?
One conversation can give you a person’s perspective on a specific question, an example to consider, or a possible next step to investigate. Allow time afterwards to compare what you heard with your circumstances and other information.
What should I bring to a career conversation over coffee?
Bring your main question and a small amount of relevant material, such as a role description or an example from your work. Ask in advance if you would like feedback on a résumé or practice answering an interview question.
Bring the question you keep returning to
Your next career conversation might begin with a particular person’s story and the thought, “I would like to ask them about that.” A coffee gives you a setting to explore it together.
SEYA curates purposeful face-to-face conversations with remarkable people in the city’s most vibrant coffee shops. Discover someone remarkable, see the subjects you could explore together, and meet over coffee in a trusted local place.
Explore SEYA with your next career question in mind.