Exactly How to Respond to “Where Do You See Yourself in 5 Years?”
Exactly How to Respond to “Where Do You See Yourself in 5 Years?”
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Dos for answering “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
Connect the job to your career goalsThink about your medium- and long-term career goals—maybe the type of job you want, the kind of company or team you’d like to work for, or the sort of work environment you’d like to be in. Or perhaps your goal is about how you’ll be seen by the people you work with—for example, as a great manager or as an expert on saving at-risk accounts.
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Dos for answering “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
Then, figure out how this position will help you reach your goals. Is this role a common step on the way to your dream job?For example, maybe you want to be an account executive down the line and you’re interviewing for a sales development representative role. Or maybe you’re hoping to gain experience with a certain
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Dos for answering “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
task or grow a skill that will help you in your career. For instance, you might want to work on a website redesign or learn how to manage databases.
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Dos for answering “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
Know that it’s OK you don’t have it all figured out yetYou might have no idea where you want to be in five years, particularly if you’re an entry-level candidate—and that’s totally fine. (Check out this worksheet or this article to help you along. ) “Most folks just don't know the scope of potential opportunities until they get some true experience,” Goodfellow says.
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Dos for answering “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
In this case, do some research about the career paths and professional opportunities that might follow from the position you’re interviewing for and learn a bit about related departments. See what might interest you and then be ready to explain *why* you’re interested, Goodfellow says. For example, maybe you’re interviewing for
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Dos for answering “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
va sales role and you’d like to get experience selling to different types of clients to get a sense of which industry or niche you might want to pursue or maybe you’d like to learn more about marketing and how marketing and sales interact and collaborate.Just “showing in your answer that you understand the role helps,” Goodfellow says, so
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Dos for answering “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
even if you don’t know where exactly your career is headed, make sure you’re clear on what opportunities this job will provide you and show that you’re excited to explore them.
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Dos for answering “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
Be honestUltimately, while you want to connect your answer to the role, “You have to answer with what feels right to you.” Goodfellow says. So be honest—but tactful.Even if you think this is going to be a short-term gig for you, you don’t need to say that. Instead, focus on your potential, Eonnet says. Talk about the “value you will have created in a few
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Dos for answering “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
years’ time. No need to mention a specific company name or exact position,” she says—e.g., “In five years, I will have managed a few multi-channel marketing campaigns and I will have become an expert on social media data reporting.”
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Dos for answering “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
Be realisticMake sure you’re talking about goals you can accomplish in the next five years. If you’re an entry-level candidate, telling a department head that you’ll have their job in five years doesn’t make you seem ambitious, it makes you seem naive (and arrogant). Talk about moving up one or two levels max in your career or
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Dos for answering “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
about learning skills and gaining experiences you’ll be exposed to in this position.
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Dos for answering “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
Follow this formulaSo how do you put this together as an answer? Eonnet suggests following this formula:– Start your answer with one or two key goals and consider connecting them with some of the qualities you want to convey to the interviewer. For example, “I’m someone who loves learning about new tech and trends, so in the next five
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Dos for answering “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
years, I see myself as having established strong knowledge on what’s new and emerging in digital marketing.”– Next dive into how and why you will have done these things. Interviewers want to see that you’ve thought through your plan. So continuing with the example you might say: “By working as an analyst, I will have gained experience in analyzing
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Dos for answering “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
the results of a range of marketing tactics, and I’ll have stayed on top of new developments by becoming active in one or more professional marketing groups. I will have also used my analysis and knowledge to contribute to the conception of marketing campaigns and gained some experience running campaigns myself. This will give me a good foundation in marketing
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Dos for answering “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
practices and help me leverage new trends effectively to create marketing campaigns that never feel stale.”– Finish with your ambitions beyond the next five years (if you’d like).“From there, I’m hoping to decide if I’d like to become a marketing specialist or continue as a generalist, but regardless, I’m hoping to eventually move into a
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Dos for answering “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
marketing manager or strategist position where I’m making bigger-picture choices regarding campaigns and branding.”
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Don’ts for answering “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
Imply haven’t thought about your goals (or tell a joke)No matter how true it feels. You should also steer clear of other joke answers like “retired on a beach” or “as a rich widow.” Even if you don’t know exactly what’s in store for you down the line, use your answer to show that you have a plan to figure it out.
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Don’ts for answering “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
Imply that you’re leaving this job the first chance you getNot every company is expecting you to still be working for them in five years, but unless they state otherwise, it’s best to assume that they do, Eonnet says. Goodfellow (who was formerly a recruiter) adds, “It’s very expensive to train, and expensive to recruit, so I do
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Don’ts for answering “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
want to hear you intend to stick around.” You don’t need to explicitly state, “I’ll still be working for you,” if it’s not true, but avoid saying anything that would be impossible if you still worked for the company. So if you’re interviewing for a software development job at a startup, don’t say that you’re hoping to have landed your dream job at Google by then.
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Don’ts for answering “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
Be too generic“I remember being asked this question early in my career and wanted to blurt out, ‘I have no idea! I just need a job to pay my bills,’” Goodfellow says. She didn’t, but she ended up saying something “semi-honest and equally vague about wanting to do my best, learn more about the role and company, and apply my
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Don’ts for answering “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
strengths to help the company achieve its goals.” She doesn’t recommend being this bland. Use this question as an opportunity to highlight why you’re a good fit. Maybe you’re excited to get hands-on experience producing professional videos after producing a number of successful student films with little to no budget, for example.