Where do you see yourself in five years?
The way you respond determines a lot
about whether your interviewer sees you
as a match with the company's mission and goals.
So I went to the Indeed career coaches,
and I'm here to share their four key tips on how
to craft a compelling and strategic statement that
aligns you with the company now and years in the future.
Be sure to stick around to the end
where I'll give an extra added tip on how to best highlight
your value in an interview.
All right.
Let's get to the good stuff.
My first tip is to present yourself
as someone whose goals are naturally aligned
with those of the business.
So a lot of people say start with a job description.
But in this case, I'd recommend taking
a company-first approach.
So what that means is to go ahead and do
some research on the company.
Where has it been in the past?
Where is it going?
How has it been growing?
What's the trajectory like?
How are they meeting their goals?
And then, once you understand that larger picture,
you can better see the context of--
how is this role helping this company
to meet their objectives?
Then when it comes to answering this question in an interview,
you can go ahead and share something
that's not just personal to you and your life and growth,
but also explain how your goals are
going to be helping a company meet theirs.
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Tip two is to share specific goals for growth.
This may seem obvious, but people who want to grow
are the people that drive a company forward.
Share areas where you are hoping to learn or advance
in your career and then anything that you've
done in order to actually make that a reality, even if it's
something as simple as reading a book, or watching videos,
attending a live webinar, or maybe something more
substantive like getting a certification
or doing additional training.
By showing the goal and then the action
that you've taken to help achieve it,
you're proving yourself to be someone who not only has goals
but who's willing to adopt a growth mindset
and bring that goal into reality.
Tip number three, be genuine about your career ambitions,
but be tactful.
Whenever possible, keep in mind not only
your goals when answering this question
but how those goals can serve the company's success.
So it might be really easy to say something
like, gosh, I really wish that I would be promoted
to a leadership role five years from now,
or I want to be running a team five years from now.
Those are both really great things,
and I just think there's a little bit more
of a diplomatic way to say them.
So you could instead frame that as, I
hope that my track record will have proven
an increased drive toward business goals
by x number percent and that that
will have demonstrated me to be a capable leader
for this company.
Or, if you want to lead a team, you could say,
I hope that I will have proven great communication
skills throughout my time and that I
will have been able to organize a group of people
who can help meet this business goal through our work together.
By framing it in that way, you're
showing that you're already thinking
about how your work can drive the company forward
and that your goals really can serve
as additional momentum for the trajectory of the company.
If leadership is something that you're interested in, awesome.
We have a whole video all about how
to be a great leader in the workplace
that you might find really useful.
Tip number four is to focus on your proven value.
All right, this may seem a little counter-intuitive
because where do you see yourself in five years
is a very future-looking question.
And to be clear, I'm not suggesting
not to mention the future at all,
but I am suggesting that you start out your response
with something that's more grounded in the growth you've
shown in your past and your former background
for even applying to this role.
And I do that for two reasons.
The first, is because it's another opportunity
to talk about the qualifications that set you up
for success in this role, which is something we always
look for in interviews.
Any time we can sort of slip in the fact
that we have these qualifications and experiences
that really align with the needs of the role,
we want to do that.
So it's just another opportunity to mention those credentials.
But then secondly, by demonstrating,
hey, here's where I started in the past
and here's how far I have gotten,
you sort of demonstrate that you're already
on a growth trajectory.
You're pretty much saying, hey, I'm a sure bet.
I've been growing like this in the past.
I set these goals, I achieved them,
and now, with these next goals, my past momentum fully
supports me getting there too.
Obviously, when it comes to growth and all
of those business goals, companies don't really
want to take a gamble.
They want to know that the person that they are bringing
on is going to already be in the habit of setting and fulfilling
those goals.
So you're just saying, I've been doing this for a while,
so you can count on me.
I promised you one tip at the beginning that will really
boost your value when you're in an interview room,
and I'm going to share it with you
now, which is that, if given the opportunity,
state that you would like to become a subject matter expert
and to lend that expertise to others in the company
as it grows.
The reason why I suggest this is a very simple guiding
principle, which is that, scarcity is valuable.
The more honed in, the more irreplaceable you
can be to a company, if you have really particular set
of skills, that's going to be seen as a long-term asset
that they want to hold on to.
If you can state that you really aim to--
as a result of their investment in your career--
become an asset that can offer specific expertise that maybe
other people can't, that's something that's
extremely compelling and then shows
also a level of personal ambition
on your part that simultaneously drives
the goals of the business.
So here's what a example of that kind of statement
might sound like.
I'll reference it here.
"My co-worker Evan asked for my help
running a few reports to gather survey data.
As I guided him through the steps to run the reports,
I also showed him how to filter data and run projections.
By showing my skills in data reporting with Evan,
he became more confident in his work
and is now a stronger contributor to his team."
So again, if you can compound the value
that you offer by showing that it can not only
be just a great performance on your part
but leveling up the performances of those around you,
that's a really big impact to offer a large organization.
Let's do a quick recap of the five tips
I've offered to help you successfully
answer where you see yourself in the next five
years of your career.
First is to present yourself as someone
who is strategically aligned with the company both now
and in the future.
Second is to share specific but realistic goals for growth.
Third is to be authentic but tactful about your ambitions.
Fourth is to focus on your proven value.
And fifth is to perhaps mention an interest in being a subject
matter expert and/or someone who improves
the performances of other employees through training.
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Thank you again for watching.
I hope this was useful, and I'll see you next time.