Five Years Later

“What do you see yourself doing five years from now?” I remember being asked this question when I was a fresh MBA. When I was applying for a role to head Human Resources for an advertising agency a few years back the question popped up again. I suspect it is not the last time I have been asked that question.Why is this question asked? There could be many different reasons. It helps the hiring manager look for broad career plans and directions that the candidate has in mind. For instance, if you have made plans to pursue another degree or professional certification in the next five years it may help the manager to let you know the organization’s view on employees’ continuing education. Some even go so far as to say they encourage it and even support the employee financially. Some offer sabbaticals. Some organizations are indifferent or even against it. It helps to know if your employer will be supportive of your plans.This question helps the potential employer to know about your approach towards your career. Is this career move a planned step that logically builds up towards a broader plan? Is this assignment merely a critical experience that you want to notch up early in career for the sheer variety or one time opportunity that the role presents eg: to learn about a Merger & Acquisition or a greenfield project or lead a turnaround etc. If this is early in your career, the employer wants to know whether this role is just something that will fund your ultimate passion to be an artist or is this something you want as a long term option.What if you have not thought of a plan for the next five years and you want to take life as it comes? Even then this question is a great example of sharing with the interviewing manager what career options you have chosen from in the LAST five years – yes even that is a good way to leverage the opportunity to show what made you choose a certain kind of career path, what did you learn from it and what you learnt to avoid like the plague.While answering, avoid being frivolous or being a smart alec. You never know if the hiring manager has a sense of humor that matches yours. Even if it does, that’s not a chance that you can take if it is a job you are serious about. So when you say something like, “Chilling out on an island I buy.” Some people may find that answer cool. Many don’t find that witty. I have heard mixed reactions to some candidate saying, “I want to be in CEO of this corporation in five years.” If you are joining the organization at a level where after five years you could be a functional head at best then saying that you want to be a CEO could sound more like ambition that is not backed by a plan. And if you truly believe that you can be the Chief in five years, be prepared to detail out how you plan to make that happen. This question is just a great trigger for you to ask yourself what is it that you want to achieve in five. There is nothing sacrosanct about the time frame. What do you want to do in the next three years? Do you want to build depth of knowledge in a function and be a specialist? Do you want to build breadth of knowledge in the function and be a generalist? Do you plan to take a cross functional project to test waters? Do you want to spend short stints in other functions eg moving from Sales to Marketing to Supply Chain etc? Do you want to build people management skills or would you rather work on the green field project that the company is planning to start? Do you wish to get international exposure or would you rather work on a new idea that will redefine the industry?Every question during the interview is an opportunity for you to tell the interviewer how you have what it takes to succeed. For the interviewer it is an opportunity to gauge the fit between the job specs, the org culture and the individual.  The question can be the trigger to set expectations between the organization and the potential hire. If you tell them what you are looking for, make sure you get clarity on how taking up the opportunity in that organization will meet your aspirations at least in the next three to five years. Probe to see where employees with your experience sets are and what kind of career opportunities they will follow. Your answer to that question can give someone a peek into how clearly do you plan and how systematically do you go about achieving it. Any which way you look at it, it is a vital question to answer for yourself anyway even if not for someone else.