How to Answer “Where Do You See Yourself in Five Years?”
“Where do you see yourself in five years?”
Why interviewers ask it
The interviewer wants to know whether your goals fit what the job can offer, whether you’ll stay long enough to be worth training, and whether you’ve thought about your career at all.
What they want to hear
- Goals that fit the role and the company
- Realistic ambition
- Commitment to getting good at this job first
How to structure your answer: Master, grow, contribute
- 1Get very good at this jobWhat you want to master in the first year or two.
- 2Grow from thereThe kind of responsibility you want next: skills, scope or leading people.
- 3Tie it backWhy this company is a good place to do that.
Example answers
Made-up examples to show the shape of a good answer. Yours should use your own experience and numbers.
In the first couple of years I want to become a really solid emergency nurse: confident in triage, resus and the full range of presentations. After that I’d like to move towards education, precepting grads the way I was precepted, and possibly a clinical nurse educator role. Your department runs its own education programme, which is one of the reasons I applied here rather than elsewhere.
I’d like to be the engineer people go to for our payments systems: someone who’s designed a few major pieces and knows where the risks are. I’m interested in the staff engineer path rather than management, so in five years I’d hope to be leading technical design across a couple of teams. The way your engineering ladder separates technical and management tracks is part of what appeals to me.
Mistakes to avoid
- Naming a completely different career.
- Saying you want the interviewer’s job.
- “I don’t know.” Have a direction even if the details change.
Other ways it’s asked
- “What are your long-term career goals?”
- “What’s your career plan?”
- “What would you like to be doing in a few years?”
Practise it out loudAnswers that read well often run long when spoken. Practise in a mock interview and get feedback on content, pace and filler words.
See mock interviews