Where do you see yourself in five years?

// June 18th, 2010 // Career Development

Most companies ask this because it’s a way of finding out more about what drives a candidate, so they can be more expertly profiled for a manager or role. The closer the alignment between where we want them to be, and where they want to be, the higher they rate on the scale. It’s part of that old chestnut, ‘culture fit’. It’s company-serving information – it benefits the organisation.

I think there’s a better way. A way that includes changing the defaults.

• When someone answers that question, write down the answer in full. Explore it if it isn’t clear enough by discussing it with them.
• If they get the job, give it to their manager before they start, as a reminder.
• Brief the local L&D team that this is where they want to be in five years.
• Organise a skills assessment that can sit above their resume as a current state analysis.
• Find someone who’s at that point now and approach them about starting a mentoring relationship.
• Find people with similar goals and create networking opportunities for those people to meet and share ideas.
• Look at succession planning and see what schedule of upskilling and project/task exposure is needed to achieve the milestones involved in that goal.
• Include the goal in dialogue discussions and reviews
• Make it process. Make it part of their everyday experience. Send the message that you’re thinking about how you can give them what they want, besides just paying for their time.

If every employee feels like the business cares about their dreams, and is actively monitoring their progress, then there’s something to come to work for besides a paycheck. There’s a future they have a say in.