Question - Where do you see yourself five years from now?
Answer -
Reassure your interviewer that you’re looking to make a long-term commitment…that this position entails exactly what you’re
looking to do and what you do extremely well. As for your future, you believe that if you perform each job at hand with
excellence, future opportunities will take care of themselves.
Example: “I am definitely interested in making a long-term commitment to my next position. Judging by what you’ve told me
about this position, it’s exactly what I’m looking for and what I am very well qualified to do. In terms of my future career
path, I’m confident that if I do my work with excellence, opportunities will inevitable open up for me. It’s always been that
way in my career, and I’m confident I’ll have similar opportunities here.”
Describe your ideal company, location and job.
The only right answer is to describe what this company is offering, being sure to make your answer believable with specific
reasons, stated with sincerity, why each quality represented by this opportunity is attractive to you.
Remember that if you’re coming from a company that’s the leader in its field or from a glamorous or much admired company,
industry, city or position, your interviewer and his company may well have an “Avis” complex. That is, they may feel a bit
defensive about being “second best” to the place you’re coming from, worried that you may consider them bush league.
This anxiety could well be there even though you’ve done nothing to inspire it. You must go out of your way to assuage such
anxiety, even if it’s not expressed, by putting their virtues high on the list of exactly what you’re looking for, providing
credible reason for wanting these qualities.
If you do not express genuine enthusiasm for the firm, its culture, location, industry, etc., you may fail to answer this
“Avis” complex objection and, as a result, leave the interviewer suspecting that a hot shot like you, coming from a Fortune
500 company in New York, just wouldn’t be happy at an unknown manufacturer based in Topeka, Kansas.