Here are some of the best questions for a junior student survey about career expectations, plus practical tips on designing your survey. You can easily create your own AI-powered survey with Specific in seconds, designed to capture real insights from students.

Best open-ended questions for junior student survey about career expectations

Open-ended questions invite students to share honest, detailed thoughts. They’re perfect when you care about the story behind the data—not just the numbers. You gain a deeper understanding of junior students’ real career hopes, challenges, and influences. This is especially crucial, since recent stats show that 39% of 15-year-olds feel uncertain about their career paths, a figure that’s rising year after year. [1]

1. What kind of job do you hope to have in the future?

2. Why are you interested in that career or field?

3. How do you think your education will help you reach your career goals?

4. Who or what has influenced your ideas about what job to have?

5. What do you think are the most important skills for your future career?

6. Are there any challenges you think you might face in reaching your career goals?

7. What would make you feel better prepared for your future career?

8. If you could learn anything to get ready for your dream job, what would it be?

9. Do you know anyone who is working in a job you’d like to have? How did they get there?

10. How do you feel about going to college or university as part of your career plan?

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for junior student survey about career expectations

Single-select multiple-choice questions are best when you want clear, countable data, or want to spark a conversation with simple choices. These questions make it easier for junior students to engage, even if they feel unsure—sometimes, ticking a box prompts a longer discussion you can explore in a follow-up. For example, research shows that approximately 60% of teenagers consider a college degree “very important” for success, but others value real-world experience or new technology skills just as highly. [2]

Question: How confident are you about your future career path?

• Very confident

• Somewhat confident

• Not sure

• Not at all confident

Question: What do you think will help you most in achieving your career goals?

• Earning a college or university degree

• Learning real-world skills on the job

• Learning new technology or AI skills

• Advice from family, teachers, or mentors

• Other

Question: Which industry or field are you most interested in?

• Technology (IT, AI, engineering, etc.)

• Healthcare

• Creative arts (music, design, writing, etc.)

• Business/entrepreneurship

• Education

• Other

When to follow up with "why?" When you want to understand the reasons behind a student’s choice, always ask “why” as a follow-up. For example, if a junior student selects “Learning new technology or AI skills” as most helpful, a good follow-up could be: “Why do you feel technology skills are important for your future?” This usually uncovers motivations you might never have predicted.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Giving an “Other” option lets students express goals or interests that you might have missed. Following up on these responses with an open-ended question can reveal surprising trends or unique needs you didn’t expect.

NPS-style questions for junior student career expectations surveys

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a handy tool not just for brands and products, but also for gauging satisfaction and confidence in junior students’ career outlook. In this survey context, you can use an NPS-type question such as: “On a scale from 0–10, how likely are you to recommend your school’s career guidance resources to a friend?” This quickly reveals overall sentiment, and follow-up conversations can clarify what’s working—and what isn’t. Try generating an instant NPS career expectations survey for junior students and adjust the language for your needs.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-up questions are where the richest stories come out. If you only ask initial questions, you often end up with incomplete or unclear responses. That’s the power behind Specific’s automatic followup feature—the AI reads and responds in real time, like an expert interviewer, to uncover what students really mean. Automatic AI follow-up questions instantly clarify, probe, and encourage detail, all in the flow of the conversation.

• Junior student: “I want to work in tech.”

• AI follow-up: “What is it about technology that interests you most?”

If you stop after answer one, you know nothing about the student’s motivations or challenges. The follow-up gets you a real insight.

How many followups to ask? We’ve found that 2–3 follow-ups are usually enough to get useful detail without making the conversation feel too long. With Specific, you can easily set your desired follow-up intensity and allow students to skip to the next question once their answer is clear.

This makes it a conversational survey: Instead of feeling like a cold form, asking follow-up questions feels natural—like a back-and-forth chat. This boosts engagement and honesty, which is crucial with junior students.

AI analysis, summarization, and response categorization: Even when answers are sprawling and unstructured, you can quickly analyze your responses using AI. Specific uses powerful AI analysis tools to make sense of every reply, summarize themes, and spot patterns at a glance.

Automated follow-ups are new—but honestly, you won’t want to go back. Try generating a survey and experiencing just how naturally students open up when the AI probes a little further.

How to use prompts for generating great junior student survey questions

If you’re using ChatGPT or another GPT-powered tool for creating career expectation surveys, start with a precise request—then add plenty of context for the best results. Start with a simple prompt:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for junior student survey about career expectations.

But AI works best when you’re detailed. Add information about your audience, goals, and specific interest:

We're planning a survey for junior students to help teachers understand their career interests early on, especially in tech and creative fields. Please suggest 10 open-ended questions that get students talking about why they pick certain careers, what skills they value most, and how school or family shapes their thinking.

A next step is to analyze your draft questions by category for better structure:

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

Once you see your categories (like “influences,” “skills,” “challenges”), you can drill deeper:

Generate 10 questions for the categories of influences and challenges in career expectation surveys for junior students.

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

Conversational surveys are a leap forward from old-school survey forms. With AI, surveys become a two-way, natural conversation–not just boxes to check. Instead of blasting through a list, students get questions that adapt and respond in real-time. This makes the whole process friendlier and more relevant for them, and much more informative for you. Check out easy guide on designing a junior student conversational survey for strategies and examples.

Why use AI for junior student surveys? Because you get richer responses, higher participation, and deeper context. Whether it’s an AI survey example, a custom AI survey, or using an AI survey generator, you accelerate everything: building, deploying, and analyzing surveys. Plus, you harness features like smart follow-ups and GPT-powered response analysis that simply don’t exist in classic survey tools.

With Specific, the entire user experience is designed for true conversational surveys—making every step smooth, effective, and genuinely engaging for both creators and students.

See this career expectations survey example now

Capture better insights into junior students’ career dreams and needs by starting your own conversational survey with AI-powered follow-ups now. It’s easy, smart, and built for the real challenges of today’s educators and researchers.