Best questions for employee survey about career development opportunities

Here are some of the best questions for an employee survey about career development opportunities, and also tips on how to create them. If you want to build a survey fast, you can generate one with Specific and see it in action in seconds.

Best open-ended questions for employee career development surveys

Open-ended questions are unbeatable for capturing authentic insights and surfacing issues you never anticipated. They're perfect when you want to hear employees' honest experiences or dig into their unique perspectives, rather than limiting responses to a few pre-set choices. In a space as personal as career development, open-ended questions help you discover the "why" behind your workforce's needs and ambitions.

Considering that only 46% of employees feel supported in their career growth in their current organizations, it's even more important to dig deeper into what support they want and need [1]. Here are 10 open-ended questions we love for a career development survey:

1. What professional skills do you wish you could develop further at our company?

2. Describe the biggest challenge you've faced in pursuing your career goals here.

3. Can you share a time when you felt your career growth was supported?

4. What would motivate you to take on new responsibilities or roles?

5. How do you prefer to learn new skills (e.g., workshops, mentorship, online courses)?

6. What career paths interest you within the organization, and why?

7. When you think about your future here, what opportunities would help you stay engaged?

8. Is there anything preventing you from accessing the development resources you need?

9. How can leadership better support your growth and progression?

10. If you could design your ideal career development program, what would it look like?

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for employee career development surveys

Single-select multiple-choice questions work best when you need simple, quantifiable data (for example, to see what percentage of employees want leadership training vs. technical upskilling), or as a light touch to prompt deeper conversation. They're easier for respondents—sometimes picking an option beats thinking up a phrase. They're also great as conversation starters before digging in with follow-ups.

Here are three strong examples tailored for employee career development opportunities:

Question: Which of the following areas would you most like to develop?

• Technical skills

• Leadership/management skills

• Project management

• Communication/presentation skills

• Other

Question: How satisfied are you with your current career growth opportunities here?

• Very satisfied

• Somewhat satisfied

• Neutral

• Somewhat dissatisfied

• Very dissatisfied

Question: How often would you like access to formal training or workshops?

• Monthly

• Quarterly

• Twice a year

• Rarely/never

When to followup with "why?" It's smart to follow up any multiple-choice answer with "why?"—especially for topics like satisfaction, motivation, or barriers—so you get the story behind the selection. For example, someone who says they're "Somewhat dissatisfied" with growth opportunities might reveal the root cause or suggest a solution you hadn’t considered.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always include "Other" when your options can't cover the diversity of employee experience or aspirations—career paths and interests rarely fit neatly into boxes. A follow-up lets you capture unexpected insights straight from your team, driving better decisions.

NPS-style question for employee career development

NPS (Net Promoter Score) is well-known for tracking loyalty—usually for customers, but it’s powerful internally, too. It answers, "How likely are you to recommend our company as a place for career growth?" Because only 94% of employees say they’d stay longer if career development is prioritized, using a single NPS question reveals at a glance how likely you are to retain talent and make improvements [2].

When you need a fast, standardized pulse, an NPS survey for employees about career development gives you a clear metric—and with follow-up, actionable feedback as well. It's the gold standard for measuring overall sentiment and benchmarking your progress over time.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-up questions are where the magic happens—especially in employee surveys about career development. Asking a follow-up turns a shallow answer into an actionable insight, reveals intent, and clarifies ambiguity. If you want to see this in practice, check out our feature on automated AI follow-up questions.

Specific’s conversational surveys use AI to analyze every answer and pose smart, context-sensitive follow-ups—no scripts required. It's how you go from "I’m not satisfied" to "I'm not satisfied because there’s no clear path to promotion, and I’d love a mentorship program." These AI-driven follow-ups make survey-taking effortless for employees and collecting insights effortless for you. Instead of chasing vague responses via email, everything happens in real time—and at scale.

• Employee: “I feel there aren’t enough development opportunities.”

• AI follow-up: “What specific type of opportunity would you most like to see added?”

How many followups to ask? Stick to 2–3 follow-ups maximum—enough to get context but not so many that it feels like an interrogation. Let respondents skip ahead once their answer’s clear. With Specific, you can set these rules with a click.

This makes it a conversational survey: Instead of a rigid form, you’re actually having a dialogue. This conversational survey format makes participation smoother and feedback richer.

AI survey response analysis is a game-changer. Even if you collect tons of qualitative data, it’s simple to summarize and spot trends with AI. See more about AI-powered survey response analysis.

Automated follow-ups are a new concept—try generating a survey with Specific to see what a difference they make in collecting honest, actionable feedback.

How to prompt ChatGPT (or any GPT) for great employee career development survey questions

AI is great for brainstorming survey questions, but your prompt matters. Begin with something like:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Employee survey about Career Development Opportunities.

But to get sharper results, give more context. Add specifics about your company, development priorities, or employee concerns—AI always works best when you give it background and your real goal.

We're a mid-sized tech company aiming to retain talent and identify new career pathways. Suggest 10 open-ended questions for an employee survey about career development opportunities, focusing on barriers, motivations, and preferred learning styles.

Afterwards, you can ask the AI to help organize the material:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Once you see the categories—like “Mentorship,” “Training needs,” “Promotion barriers”—pick the area you want to dig into:

Generate 10 questions for the category ‘Mentorship’.

What is a conversational survey, and why does it matter?

A conversational survey (like those made in Specific) feels like having a smart chat, not checking boxes on a static form. The AI listens, responds naturally, and adapts its questions based on employee answers—just like an expert interviewer. Traditional surveys are rigid, impersonal, and often result in shallow or incomplete responses. With a conversational format, employees share more, offer genuine feedback, and feel heard.

Why use AI for employee surveys? AI offers efficient survey creation, smart follow-up probing, faster analysis, and a better, more empathetic experience for your staff. Looking for an AI survey example? Our AI survey builder lets you start from proven question sets—or generate fresh ones from scratch.

Specific delivers best-in-class user experience for conversational surveys, making every touchpoint smooth for both creators and employees. If you’re curious about the step-by-step process, check out our guide to creating employee career development surveys.

See this career development opportunities survey example now

Design your employee career development survey in minutes and start collecting deeper, more actionable feedback—with conversational AI that actually follows up and learns what your team truly wants next.