I was recently asked, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” during an interview for a job I didn’t really want. I like to interview here and there even when I am not looking to change jobs because I like to keep my skills sharp.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Click To Tweet

This is a question interviewers ask all the time. It almost feels like a cop out when they are running out questions to ask but have 15 more minutes to fill.

five years

Where do you see yourself in five years?

So what was my answer to this interview?

I was honest, I told him I didn’t know where I saw myself in five years. Five years ago I could never have imaged myself were I am now so am I excited to find our where I will be in five years.

But no, I don’t know where that will be.

His response to my answer was insulting.

He told me my future was darkness and that employers are not looking for employees without goals.

Excuse me sir, I am the queen of goals and am one of the only people I know that actively strives to set, works for and complete goals. My goals help push me to where I want to be in a year, or in five years. Even with all of these goals, I still don’t know where I see myself in five years.

I do, however, know that my future is not darkness. It’s surrounded by light. I honestly feel like I have the skill sets to do whatever I want to do. I told this to my interviewer and I could see him eat his words a little.

No sir, I am not a lost soul with a future of darkness, I am an accomplished employee who has the resources to continue what I am doing for a corporation or to go off on my own and freelance. I can do whatever I want.

In five years I hope to be…

I hope to be a parent. I hope to have PRed in a few road races. I hope to continue to have a thriving relationship with my husband. I hope to be more well travelled than I am today. I hope to have my health.

In five years I hope to wake up in the morning, get in a good work out, drink my morning coffee in my sun-filled kitchen and to open up my laptop to work and love the job that I am doing.

There is nothing but light in my future and in five years, I will look back at all the goals I’ve accomplished and the ones I am still striving to complete and be nothing but happy with where my life has brought me. Even if I couldn’t picture where I saw myself in five years.

In five years I hope to be... Click To Tweet

P.S.: I walked into the interview with no desire for the job. If this were a job I was truly interested in, I probably would have toned my response down a little but I still would have been completely honest. Needless to say, I did not get an offer.