If you ask anyone right out of college what some of their interview questions were, they would give a list:
1. What is your greatest accomplishment?
2. What do you value from your manager?
3. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
….
WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN FIVE YEARS?
I don’t know if I can truly describe how much I dislike that question. Are they expecting a legitimate, mature, responsible answer? Or do they actually care about where we want to be in five years? It would be like asking “What’s the weather going to be like 5 years from today?”
Cloudy with a chance of sunshine, with a chance of snow, with a chance of a heat wave, with a 100% chance of go-fuck-yourself.
I understand up the purpose of interview questions. They want to test how well you think on your feet. They want to make sure you aren’t socially inadequate. Do they actually care about your great accomplishment? Probably not? Can they prove that you are making up an accomplishment? Nope, definitely not.
I think a more appropriate question would be “Where DON’T you want to see yourself in 5 years?”
I have more than enough logical responses to that one! Hmmm let’s see…..
1. Prison
2. Some crazy person institution
3. On the front cover of a porn DVD
4. Homeless and/or unemployed
5. Living by myself with like 12 cats
6. Really unfortunate looking
7. ….
You get the picture. There are a lot of places I know I don’t want to be in 5 years. But a lot could change in 5 years, I don’t know where I’ll be.
Five years ago I was 18, just about to enter my freshman year of college, nervous about meeting new people, and excited to finally leave home. Most of the things that I’ve done over the past 5 years, I couldn’t haven’t pictured myself doing 5 years ago.
Going to Europe? Nope.
Becoming a spin instructor? Definitely not, I hated exercise.
Moving to a new city? Hell no, I had every intention of being a townie.
(A townie is someone who never leaves or always comes back to their place of birth. In my case, 90% of my family lives there and most people have heard of my last name.)
My point is, people that have thought out answers to the “where do you see yourself in five years?” question are either being unrealistic, have serious OCD or refuse to take risks.
Next time I have an interview and someone asks that question I’m going to respond “I have no idea. I’ll see where the wind takes me.”
Lets see if I ever get another job……
travelingtrainwreck 