Can I ask career advice questions?

Question

In light of several recent occurrences of people asking for their questions to be deleted after they received answers, I'd like to propose the following addition to our FAQ:

Can I ask career advice questions?

Yes, within reason. Most career advice questions are specific to the poster's situation and run the risk of being closed. Try to generalize your situation into a good subjective question.

Please be aware that we will not delete your career advice question after you receive answers if you change your mind about having asked it. Think carefully before you post a question full of personal or otherwise sensitive information. If you don't want something to be publicly revealed, consider not posting it on StackExchange.

Edit: The FAQ has been updated with the text above.

Answer 1

We've changed the wording of the FAQ to make the guidance about career advice clearer, as many have interpreted the old wording to mean we accept any career advice question:

Can I ask career advice questions?

No, unless your question is specifically about software development and requires the unique insights of a programmer. Most career advice questions run the risk of being closed: try to make yours a good subjective question.

Please make sure your question has the proper scope. If your question can also be applied to other jobs then it's not really something that uniquely applies to software development.

Please also be aware that we will not delete your career advice question after you receive answers if you change your mind about having asked it. Think carefully before you post a question full of personal or otherwise sensitive information. If you don't want something to be publicly revealed, consider not posting it on Stack Exchange.

Answer 2

I agree with this. We need to update the FAQ as soon as possible.

Answer 3

Good change, although I suspect no more than 5% of potential posters will read the FAQ first. Still, if a reference to the FAQ as policy gets some people to read the FAQ, it will have done some indirect good.