Where do you see yourself ...?

It’s always interesting to go to a job interview where they ask you that old time favourite question - “Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?” - or some variation on the theme. I work in IT. If the company is still around in a year’s time, I’m happy. If I’m still working there, I’m probably happier. If I’m in the same team or doing more or less the same things, I would probably be quite bored. In that first year, I would expect someone in the management chain to be replaced & half the team to change, through growth or else churn.
That’s one aspect of where I see myself. I see myself doing what I always do - whatever it takes to get the job done, with whomever I happen to be working with at the time, with whatever resources seem to be available, in whatever time has been allowed. If the team disintegrates in a flurry of personal issues, budgets get slashed, or some inappropriate schmuck ends up managing a project, it doesn’t affect what I do or how I do it. Fundamentally, my job has always been to keep the faecal matter off the rotating blades. I don’t see that ever changing.

Still, the question is asked. In a way, there has to be more to the asking than the fact that the question is always asked, has to be asked (because HR said so), & must be ‘interpreted’ thereafter. The person asking has to have an agenda, otherwise the asking doesn’t make sense. In many cases, I’ve got more experience than the one asking, so I could come across as a threat if I say “I’ll have your job”. Anyone too young is considered an arrogant punk for giving the same answer.

This question is supposed to be a way to discover someone’s career goals. The right answer means that a candidate is driven. Driven to what? Driven to undermine their team lead? Driven to look for work elsewhere when they get frustrated due to a lack of opportunity, not being noticed, or simply not being half as clever as they think they are? It doesn’t mean driven to make a project succeed. It doesn’t mean driven to be a team player.

An alternative to the “your job” response is to say something so naff, so completely wet, that you’re not taken seriously, like “I’d like to see this company grow to twice its size & value”. How? How will you contribute to that? Do you have any control? Input? What happens if it doesn’t happen? Will you leave in a huff because no-one listens to your brilliant ideas, or else management isn’t clever enough to implement them?

This all presumes that the interviewer gives a rat’s about the answer. If they’re just ticking a box that says “Question asked”, & another one that says “Didn’t respond with ‘on parole’”, then the job’s done. No animals were harmed in the making of the interview, but no progress was made in determining if the candidate is appropriate for the role.

In a way, one of the best answers is “In five years, I want to have beaten HR into submission so that they don’t force interviewers to ask such stupid questions.”

I’ve started wondering if I have career goals. I don’t think I do, anymore. I’ve done most of what I could nominally have been expected to do. If I do run my own company, that would be nice. I’d be happy enough to run someone else’s again if given the chance. But the doing it or not does not change me. I do not feel incomplete because I’m not doing it. I am not driven to do such things ‘at all costs’. I know people who’ve been like that. Good luck to them. I’ve often found such people impossible to work with, though.

People driven towards a goal are always looking at what’s coming up next, & how it can be used to progress them on their path. What about what’s happening now? If someone has their eyes on a point five years down the track, what about six months? What happens when they stumble? When the environment changes?

I know it sounds a little bit Zen, but I prefer to live in the moment. I like to be dealing with what’s happening now, & simply planning for eventualities in the near future, so that I can react with speed (agilely) when things change. It’s no good wandering about with only one plan for one eventuality. You need to have lots of plans ready for a wide variety of possibilities. Plans that could be developed further if they become more relevant - if circumstances tend to favour some plans over others. You need to be able to see the changing environment & react accordingly.

This is the basis of an agile methodology - whether you’re talking about IT projects or management decisions.

In five years time, I see myself not typing a blog like this - there will be a shift in technology that might allow me to speak clearly & record the words while transcribing. There might be a different technology for reading my brain waves & translating those into emotions & ideas. I don’t know what the future might bring, but I plan on being ready for it, rather than expecting it to fit into my plans.