The question to ask before accepting any role

During a job interview the person across the table described the role and then asked me: "Do you think you can do this?"

I said it was not the right question to ask. Two questions mattered:

1. Would I enjoy doing what was being asked of me?

2. Did he trust me enough to want me on his team?

If the answer to both was yes, we had something to talk about.

I have shared this with many people I have mentored. The reaction is usually the same: how does one develop the confidence to say something like that? My answer is that confidence alone is not what it takes. Clarity is.

"Will this pay well?" "Is it a step up in title?" For me, these are secondary. They tell you what the role gives you on the surface. They do not tell you whether the work will mean anything to you two years in. Title and money are easy to measure, which is exactly why they become the default. But a title does not keep you in the problem when the work gets hard. Neither does a salary.

The question that cuts through is simple: will I value and enjoy doing this?

Not whether it will be comfortable. Enjoyment and comfort are not the same thing. Three months in, when the novelty has worn off, will you find the work worth doing? Will you go further into the problem, rather than away from it? If the honest answer is no, nothing else compensates.

The trust question is the other half. Good work done in an environment where your judgment is not backed rarely stays good for long. The interviewer is not just offering you a role. You are also deciding whether to work for them.

In 1995, my manager asked which business I wanted to move to. Two options had been identified. I declined both, and asked to join the telecom division, a field I had no background in. When he asked why, my answer was that I found it interesting, it was a business expected to grow and change lives, and I wanted to be a part of it.

That decision shaped the next three decades.

The people I have seen grow fastest were not always the most qualified for the role. They were the ones who wanted to be in it. That desire to stay in the problem, when the work gets hard, is what compounds over a career. It cannot be faked for long.

Ask both questions before you say yes to any role.