Career Interview Question: What Are You Looking For in Career Development?
Employers have a vested interest in your career path. If your goals in life are to quit your job and become a rodeo clown for a South Korean albino monkey circus, chances are you are not going to stick around to really bring much value to the organization. On the other hand, if you want to become CEO of the company, there is a good chance you are going to work hard and be productive.
How to Answer:
You do not really want to claim you plan on being CEO of the company. Management can feel easily threatened if you are gunning for your jobs, and if you are new to the professional world, your answer is going to seem like a joke (becoming a CEO takes decades). Instead, simply talk about realistic expectations and make it sound like you plan on being around for a while.
Bad Answer
“At the moment, I’m happy sticking with this job and seeing where it takes me. I don’t have any specific plans, but I do know that I’d like to go somewhere and I figure we’ll see where the job takes me.”
Good Answer
“My goal is to progressively earn more responsibilities over time. I hope to someday be able to manage my own team and lead projects on my own, but my short term goals are to quickly earn new responsibilities as I use my skills to prove I deserve the challenge.”
If you have a specific career goal, you can go ahead and name it. If you don’t, you can use an answer like the one above. One thing to note, however, is that if your hiring manager is currently in the role that you hope to pursue, it is probably not a good idea to say that you’d like to be in their job within 5 years.
Take Away Interview Tips
- Show dedication with the company.
- Use realistic goals.