Job interviews: Crack the code

The trick question employers use to test job candidates — and how you can ace it

“Where do you see yourself in five years?” is a standard question at job interviews but one that can make or break potential candidates. Trick questions like this one are the norm in interview practices and even the most seasoned interviewees can be left flummoxed by what the best answer is. Here is how you can avoid clichés and make sure you get the answer right.

What are employers looking for?

According to Business Insider, interviewees should strike a balance between arrogance and enthusiasm and emphasise their willingness to work on personal and professional development to further enhance their career progression.

Threatening another person’s career or expressing desire to take over their role isn’t the best strategy. Many use this question to gauge how an interviewee responds. Does he or she say they want to be the company’s CEO or president? There’s nothing wrong with being ambitious, but such predictable answers are red flags as they imply that you do not have a realistic sense of how soon you can rise through the ranks. Employers are seeking insight into your career plan, how well you understand the responsibilities of the position you are applying for and how well you can define success.

Many interviewers have one point on their agenda: assurance. Trick questions are designed to provide your interviewer with a sense of your work ethic, personality, whether the job is a good fit for you and how active you are in your job hunt.

Interviewees should keep in mind that while this trick question is directed towards the future, the position they are hoping to get is a current one. Hence, answers should focus on how the interviewee can help the company prosper and what they can bring to the table in order to contribute to the organisation’s bottom-line. Employers are keen to identify what motivates job candidates and what it will take to keep them going.

Tips for the perfect answer

Your answer should be well thought out and realistic, focusing on a long-term career strategy instead of a short-term strategy that focuses on payment and higher positions. Take time to prepare a response that does not sound like a memorised script. It should describe your long-term career plan through a story that tells the interviewer why you are the ideal candidate for the job.

Do your research. Search the company website and the professional profiles of current employees to find out how long members of staff have taken to progress. This will help you formulate an answer that closely matches the company’s vision of career progression.

Focus on skills you’d like to acquire or ones you’d like to be using and qualifications or responsibilities you’d like to have.

Don’t sound rigid. For example, do not say, “I need to be promoted within three years and I’ll be really disappointed if I’m not working with high-profile clients in five years’ time.” Instead, try, “I’d like to have more responsibility in the next three to five years, and ideally I’d be working on some of this company’s high-profile accounts.”

Employers are not interested in your personal plans (“I see myself being married with at least two children”). This will make you appear unprofessional.

The magic words

According to experts at Simply Hired, an employment website for job listings, one of the perfect answers to this question would be, “I want to be making a marked difference to your company, helping to secure and add to its current reputation as a leader within the field and contributing to the company’s overall growth and success.”

Moez Allidina is an OD Trainer at Maktab Learning Solutions and works as a lecturer in Management. 

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, April 19^th, 2015.