What leads to career success?

Nowadays, almost every CEO or recruitment company asks candidates in a job interview where they see themselves in five years’ time. This seemingly irrelevant question is in fact one of the most important ones, and the answer often leads either to a career success in the company or only to a favourable position for competitors. The purpose of recruitment is to find out about a candidate’s competences, motivation and commitment to work. Asking about a person’s own expectations after 5 years with a particular company shows exactly what they plan to do, how they will achieve it and what is in it for them.

When a candidate is asked where he or she sees him or herself in five years, it is not only the personal qualities of the person that a manager or recruiter is interested in. Such an enquiry is deliberately projected into the applicant’s job planning for the next five years. For this reason, it is important for every person attending a job interview to be precise and clear about what he or she wants to do for the company in the next 1825 days. This does not at all mean that the employer needs to provide a detailed plan for each day or week.

It is important to emphasise how the candidate’s competences and professional experience can serve the company over the next few years. After all, every entrepreneur cares about the fate of his or her company in the near future, so if a candidate can demonstrate during the interview that he or she will make a significant contribution to the development and improvement of the business over a period of five years, it naturally increases the chances that the employer will believe in him or her and eventually hire him.

Why do recruiters and managers ask this question?

The point of such a question is to check whether the applicant’s career success goals are aligned with the plan and strategy of the company he/she wants to work for. Any company wants to hire an employee who is motivated, proactive and fits in with the rest of the staff. Five years is actually quite a long time, so the goals set by the applicant can also be an indication of loyalty, persistence, progressiveness and confidence in his or her career success pursuit. If the person’s answer is in line with the company’s concerns, the candidate can expect a positive outcome to the interview.

Similar questions

As part of the recruitment process, a person may also be asked other questions. However, all of them help the manager or labour market expert to ascertain and better understand why the candidate wants to be hired here, why he/she has decided to apply, what he/she is willing to do, how motivated he/she is and so on. So, such questions might include:

• What are your longer term career goals?
• How would you describe your ideal job at the moment?
• What do you hope to learn in your job?
• How would you describe success?
• What is most important to you in your career?

How do I answer this question correctly?

A candidate cannot fill in the blanks and his answer to this question must reflect his interest in the job from the very first words. The link between the person’s current competences and his/her later career is also a very important aspect. If a person is a banker now, it is unlikely that he will be an IT professional in five years’ time. Of course, life happens and some people do make successful career changes, but the job interview should not be a place of doubt and deliberation for the applicant. As has already been mentioned a little, the applicant’s answer must also reflect his loyalty. The employer is looking for staff who will be with the company for more than one month and more than two. Frequent staff turnover has probably never worked to anyone’s advantage, so part of the applicant’s answer should highlight this.