Where Do You See Yourself in Five Years?
Unless you are a fortune-teller, it’s hard to answer this question.
This is the most frequently asked question in a job interview. Hiring managers attempt to find the ambitions and plans of their candidates in their career, to find the most appropriate employee. Imagine that I answer: “I want to be your CEO,” will I be admitted? The answer still shows my ambition, doesn’t it? No, the interviewer will kick you out immediately.
What are the purpose and expectation of persons who ask this question? If they want to know whether the respondent is ambitious, just start with simple questions: “What do you expect in this job?” or “What is your aspiration?”. Piece of cake. Why do they have to put a period in the question? Do they really expect the respondent to be precisely where they would be after that period? Do they want to know about the plan or the goal? Dozens of sub-questions have raised from that basic and simple question.
I don’t like this question. Not at all. Why? It is too unpredictable. Everything you plan today for the next five or ten years may change within months without notice.
You run a startup, it reaches certain goals you set previously for the first few years, and someone comes and asks where you see yourself in five years. With the utmost…
