5 Years?

"Where do you see yourself five years from now?" Many of us have asked that question to numerous applicants or have been asked that ourselves when interviewing for a job. I no longer consider this a viable question for several reasons all of which are based on first-hand experiences.

First of all, it is a completely closed ended and subjective question that just requires a slightly longer answer than most closed ended questions require. An interviewee has four options to chose with their answer. They can share their ideal or "dream job", make up a wild tale that they themselves do not even believe in, tell the interviewer what they think that the interviewer wants to hear, or an actual thought out and planned professional progression. Some of the least contributing information in an interview has come from the responses to this question. Secondly, an applicant may just be focused on getting the job or just getting employed anywhere and has not yet been able to plan that far ahead. Their focus is not 5 years into the future and asking them this question will cause a bump in the interview.

That said, the biggest reason I do not like this question is based on a recent event that I experienced. We were recording a promotional video for the association that I am a part of, and I went off on a rant about how this association had completely and permanently changed my professional being. During the rant I made the comment that just a few short years ago, I did not even know something like this organization existed. I expanded on that thought by referring to the "5-year question". I stated that if at any point before 2010 someone would have asked me where I thought I would be in 5 years, regardless of what my answer was, it would have been a lie! That is because there was an element out there, that I was completely unaware of, that was going to change everything. It was going to bring qualities out of me that I did not know were even there. Qualities that would lift me both professionally and personally.

The point is that we are all always just one introduction, handshake, or in my case an association luncheon, away from coming into contact with something that changes our lives. Our professional path can change from one moment to the next and it can do so in such dramatic form. Don't ask "the 5-year question". No one really knows where they are going to be in five years, even if they think that they do. This and the high potential of unneccesary interview damage, make the question not worth asking.