Interview question - Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?

SarEl

The only time I have ever been asked this question, my answer was "In your position"! I got the job - and I had three years to spare on getting to his position

marmitequeen

The_Unready wrote: »

* I've also been a regular interviewer for numerous, diverse positions over the last 15 years. I've never knowingly asked a question like the one that's currently under discussion.

The Unready

Good for you. I was just trying to help. I've found it to be a great question, and one that is easy to prepare for. For me though, it's about potential. The people you appoint have got to be happy as well as you wanting them.

I included the detailed info so you'd realise I was writing from a specific perspective, but you obviously saw that as a challenge. Really not what was intended. But that's your call. Maybe try the question. It's a goodun'!

gingerandrubarb

jamesdd wrote: »

How do you answer this question? Especially when you are in the position of applying for a job that you only want to tide you over for a while? but long term you want to carry on your dream path career which is not related to the job you are applying for?

Hi,
I used to work in recruitment and what most companies want to hear taking it mind it's only 5 years not 10, is this

' I hope to be fully settled in ____ position working to the best of my ability and taking on additional responsibilities as they come along. I know that i will become an integral colleague within our working team and working towards becoming a manager/assistant etc...... :T

The_Unready

marmitequeen wrote: »

Maybe try the question. It's a goodun'!

You can obviously interview the way you want to, but let's not kid ourselves that this question is a "goodun".

Further responses on this thread since my earlier reply:

"Most of the time the employer wants to hear you give some sort of commitment that they would like you to be still be working at that company in 5 years time."

"what most companies want to hear taking it mind it's only 5 year's not 10, is this:

I hope to be fully settled in ____ position working to the best of my ability and taking on additional responsibilities as they come along. I know that i will become an integral colleague within our working team and working towards becoming a manager/assistant etc..."

This continued debate shows that candidates can, and do, make up their own answers to the question based on what they think the interviewer wants to hear. They are able to compile that answer well in advance of the interview and there's absolutely no need for it to reflect their true thoughts.

So, I repeat, this question cannot provide the interviewer with any independently verifiable information on the candidate and gives no insight into their skills/strengths, nor does it provide any clue as to whether or not the candidate can do the job they're actually being interviewed for.

As such, it is a complete waste of time and, based on the likelihood that you're only going to have a limited period of time to conduct each interview, the discussion that follows it will actually prevent you from more thoroughly examining the aspects of a candidate's application that are actually relevant to the job.

The Unready

marmitequeen

The_Unready wrote: »

You can obviously interview the way you want to, thanks.

So, I repeat, this question cannot provide the interviewer with any independently verifiable information on the candidate and gives no insight into their skills/strengths, nor does it provide any clue as to whether or not the candidate can do the job they're actually being interviewed for.

As such, it is a complete waste of time and, based on the likelihood that you're only going to have a limited period of time to conduct each interview, the discussion that follows it will actually prevent you from more thoroughly examining the aspects of a candidate's application that are actually relevant to the job. We find a bit of drive and passion to progress is relevant. Clearly we're looking for different things and are never going to agree on this one.

The Unready

Thanks for responding, but as we are never going to agree I'd prefer not to be subject to such aggression on this forum. I post my experiences in order to try to be helpful. Obviously context is all. This question works well for me in my context. You don't like it. That's allowed.

FATBALLZ

I tend to agree this is a BS question. I've been asked it before, ironically for student jobs, eg supermarkets where I was there for the money and no other reason and wanted to quit as soon as I graduated. Not so much in the relatively high paid and career roles I've interviewed for, where it might actually make some sense. If you can truthfully give a great answer to this.. "I want to take x certifications and move up into a role doing y within your company" then cool, but if not, just make something up along those lines. It's not like they're going to come back in 5 years time and sack you because you didn't do what you said you were going to.

The_Unready

marmitequeen wrote: »

Thanks for responding, but as we are never going to agree I'd prefer not to be subject to such aggression on this forum. I post my experiences in order to try to be helpful. Obviously context is all. This question works well for me in my context. You don't like it. That's allowed.

Indeed, thank you for responding too. We obviously won't agree, so I'll leave this one now.

However, I do take issue with your assertion that I've been aggressive to you on this thread:

"I'd prefer not to be subject to such aggression on this forum".

A quick Internet search for short definitions of "aggression" include:

noun: violent action that is hostile and usually unprovoked
noun: deliberately unfriendly behaviour
noun: the act of initiating hostilities
noun: a feeling of hostility that arouses thoughts of attack

I'm not sure which of my posts fit these descriptions, so I'd appreciate it if you could point out exactly which ones do so that I don't offend any other like-minded people as you in the future.

Thanks.

The Unready

getmore4less

When I was recruiting for a lot of junior positions we were specificaly looking for people that would progress to different areas and for people that could settle into the particular roll longer term.

We had both technical and managerial option that people could move into

So some form of this type of question was important to identify which catagory the candidate fitted into. Any guessing of what we wanted to hear often showed up with further questions or by the candidates asking plenty of questions about progression options in the company.


Most of the time the good candiadates would lead by asking about things like career paths and training which would prempt the need to even ask this type of question

bristol_pilot

My personal test of whether an interview question is a lazy/rubbish/unprofessional/pretentious/irrelvant/BS question or not is whether I could imagine the question being asked on 'Blind Date'. For example, I have actually been asked 'If you could have dinner with one famous person, living or dead, who would it be and why?' I'm afraid, 'where do you see yourself in x years time' falls into this category. All the candidate can potentially take from this is to recognise that they are faced with an unprofessional interviewer and therefore the interview is an exercise in finding out what the interviewer wants to hear and repeating it back to them. Some variation on the theme of still hoping to be with the company and developing new skills would be a good answer. 'I want your job' is a bit risky - the interviewer could be insecure as well as unprofessional.

bendix

It's the kind of question a lazy interviewer asks - they've read it in the Big Bumper Book of Interview Questions.

Next time I get asked it, I'm going to say I want to be making millions running an international sex slave trade, keeping two steps ahead of Interpol.