Interview Tip Tuesday: Long-Term Goals

I don't know about you, but in every interview I've ever been to, I've been asked, "Where do you see yourself in five years?" or, at least, a variation of that question. Like you, I was mostly clueless as to what the interviewers were really saying: Make my job easy. Make me want to hire you. What are you going to do for me in the future, and how are you going to get there?


Lucky for me, I landed in a company with a whole library of questions like this and how to answer them. Not so lucky for you, I'm guessing you didn't.


Here are some actual answers I've received when asking candidates about their long-term goals:
"I'm going to be a fashion photographer in Milan. I just need a job until I can get there."
"I think that maybe someday I'll own my own clothing line. But I really like being a receptionist, so I could do that forever."
"I can see myself being an actress."
"I would like to be a part of the green movement, and achieving world peace. People don't really get how important that is."
"I will probably only stay with this job for a year or so. In five years, I'd like to be running a department somewhere."


I laugh at these, but when I was 19, I told an interviewer that my lifelong goal was to be a famous novelist, and that I would stop working a "day job" as soon as I achieved that. When I was 22, in my final interview for my then-dream job, I was caught off guard by the President's question of how I would develop this role over my career with the company and told him, via live video chat with all the VP's staring at me, that the job was perfect as-is and I didn't see the need to grow into other areas. (You can bet I banged my head on my steering wheel after the interview for that savvy answer.)



So, what's the right answer to this question?
First, focus on what's achievable, like, "I want to be the best manufacturing engineer you have on staff." Put a time frame on it--"within five years," for example. Follow that up with how you plan to achieve that, and what you are already doing to reach your objectives. "I just completed my Six Sigma Black Belt certification, and I've been training employees in my current company to practice Lean manufacturing techniques."



Good luck in your interviews this week!