I've done numerous readings for people who have never had a reading and don't know what to ask or how to ask it. In those situations a 5-card linear "Past-Present-Future" reading is what I routinely turn to. I was pretty sure this had been discussed before, but I'm not finding it. Anyway, it's a fairly easy to use spread, deceptively simple considering the complexity of the readings I've gotten sometimes.
You shuffle the deck, lay out the top 5 cards in a row;
.....1.....2.....3.....4.....5
1) Past (usually within the last 3 to 6 months)
2) Recent Past (the last 1 to 3 months)
3) Present (what's going on/of concern currently)
4) Near Future (next 1 to 3 months)
5) Future (3 to 6 months out)
Usually, when I use this, the Present position will give you a pretty good idea of what the subject of the reading will be about. Then I go to the 1st card and read it as a single narrative; "this happened in the past, which led to this recent thing and here's where you are now - here's some advice/what you need to work on and where you may end up."
I have sometimes had readings that span a longer chunk of time, say going back as much as a year. Usually when that happens, it's looking at those past influences and rarely goes much beyond the 6 months into the future. I find it to be a very good general purpose spread.
[eta] I have also found that if the person does have a specific question and they or you feel you need to look at a longer piece of time, you can just add positions to either end of the layout.