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5 Year Career Goals
cytorak
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I graduated with a BS and MBA, majoring in Management. I didn't know what I really wanted to do out of college, so I took a retail management gig. I hate it so much, I can taste it in my balls.
While I go interviews for something else, I always hit a stumbling block with the "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" question.
I'm going to be completely honest: a job is a job. As long as I don't want to kill myself at the end of the day and I make more than $0.05 an hour, I really don't care what I am doing. I don't have goals of being a CEO or whatever. I just want a job where I go in, do my stuff, and go home.
I've tried answering with a generic "I want to work at a place that values hard work and a good attitude/I can make a positive impact/Be treated as a valuable part of the team, etc." That usually gets answered with, "How would you translate what you just said into specific job functions?" O_o
What can I answer that doesn't sound like BS but satisfies the question?
Any help would be muchly appreciated.
While I go interviews for something else, I always hit a stumbling block with the "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" question.
I'm going to be completely honest: a job is a job. As long as I don't want to kill myself at the end of the day and I make more than $0.05 an hour, I really don't care what I am doing. I don't have goals of being a CEO or whatever. I just want a job where I go in, do my stuff, and go home.
I've tried answering with a generic "I want to work at a place that values hard work and a good attitude/I can make a positive impact/Be treated as a valuable part of the team, etc." That usually gets answered with, "How would you translate what you just said into specific job functions?" O_o
What can I answer that doesn't sound like BS but satisfies the question?
Any help would be muchly appreciated.
cytorak on
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I agree a job is a job but I still have ideals and whatnot I want out of a job (those 40 hours). Translate those ideals and then make 'goals' out of them -- how can you get yourself into a position to make it happen?
"I want to work at a place that values hard work and a good attitude"
How would you make this happen, or what position do you need to get to to make this happen? POOF you have a goal.
whether you try to achieve those goals or not is irrelevant.
Wii Code: 1040-1320-0724-3613 :!!:
May I suggest starting with what you want to end up with. A nice house? New car every 5 years? Permanent vacation on retiring? Figure out the value of these things, and then determine what you'll need to make in a year in order to do them. Find a job that pays that much, then figure out how to get to it. That's your starting position.
Plans evolve and change, no problem there, but you need something to work with, to get momentum in your job before you can really choose your direction.
If you are renting, a good five year plan is to own your own place, and have your first vehicle fully paid off. In your job, you should be able to do what ever your supervisor is doing now.
Five year plan:
Year 1. Learn your job.
Year 2. Learn your job so well other people can ask you questions, and you could train them from ground up if you had to. Take on other duties to become rounded in company affairs.
Year 3. Become involved in supervising newbies, and taking on additional administration duties
Year 4. Aquire a completely different role, using some of your previous experience supported by new training and peers.
Year 5. Learn your new role.
Wash, rinse, repeat. It's like the mad lib of employment.
Edit:
Man am I sleepy today.
Just sort of got this:
Which means your HR guy wants to know what action you plan to do, not what values you have.
'I want to work at a place that values hard work.' is code for 'I feel under-appreciated at my old job'. There is no specific job function in this statement. It's like:
"I would like recognition and promotion opportunities."
"What would you like to be promoted too?"
"I have no idea."
Yeah. Thanks for coming out. Come back when you have a clue of what you want to be and can bring other people there with you.
"I want to make a positive impact."
"Doing what exactly?"
"I dunno, being all like, positive and stuff."
"In what way?"
"Well, if we were at a party, you could come up to me and say 'Hey Buddy, you're a real positive guy." And I'd say, 'Yeah thanx mang, I worked real hard at that.'"
So again, what specific roles are positive and impacting? Do you have an environmental strategy in mind? Are you going to actively build morale, build employee engagement etc. You need to have a basic strategy for accomplishing these real, tangible things. "I'm going to have meetings with each employee every x weeks, to determine what they are looking for in their life, what they want to accomplish, and how we can help them get to those goals." If you govern wage slaves, the action is still the same, it's just that the employee goals are simpler.
"Be treated as a valuable member of the team." is again code for "I'm not being treated very well." Your interviewer is going to take one of two roads on this:
A. I'm not being treated very well because they suck.
B. I'm not being treated very well because I suck.
So they are going to switch up the questioning and determine whether or not you are your own problem. There a little concept we float around onboarding. A person makes their own place. They way they interact with others and expect to be treated shapes how well they do, and largely how well they are treated in their position. If they are being treated badly, what is that person doing or not doing that makes where they are acceptable? Why haven't they figured out whats wrong with the picture and either fixed it or moved on?
That being said, some situations are bad. Sometimes you only find this out after the fact. There are a few 'they suck' situations. But its like people who complain about people. If you're a person who gets a long well with everybody, but there's that one guy you can't stand, it could be that guy. If you don't get along with anybody but only manage to find one person you like, it's you.
Much in the same way, if you complain about every job you've had, it's not these jobs, its your lack of judgment when choosing them, or something in your demeanor when you get there. If you complain about other people constantly, it's not them, but rather your own traits that are triggering certain expectations and responses in others. Be aware that you are going to be judged by this measure.
So in the nutshell here, you need to list out specific sets of actions for your values. Tangible plans to bring about what your desire in your workplace and your career. As you can see, people are catching on to the fact that you have no real life goals or strategy, and that kind of mentality is not very desirable in the educated and professional workplace.
Well, any answer is going to sound like BS a bit; the whole point is NOT to be honest and to convey you're a harworking corporate drone. If you got an MBA and you're doing management, i think the answer that sends the right message is "i want to be in a position of greater authority making decisions with some autonomy" or something that demonstrates you have initiative and drive.
Feel free to totally lie and bullshit these questions. The entire interview process (especially for MBAs) is all about bullshit; they don't want to hear the truth (aside from, like, actual facts; where you went to school, what degrees you got, job experience, etc), and they're not actually interested in your answers. They're just asking "how much ass are you willing to kiss?" in a really roundabout way, and you need to learn how to say "a shitton" back.
I laugh because it's true. There are certain keywords looked for during specific answers, but we know everyone is just full of it. It's not a question of whether you are or are not bullshitting the interviewer, thats a given, it's a matter of determining it's quality and flavour.