What are your career aspirations?

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The question | What they are looking for | How to answer | See also

The question

Where would you like to be one/three/five years from now?

When you look back in ten years time what will you see?

What they are looking for

This is not a friendly question to warm you up. The interviewer here is looking for signs that you have a particular career path in mind (or not).

If you do not have a clear plan or intent for your career they may take this as a sign that you are not good at planning and have little vision. It may also indicate that you could lack drive and hence work less than those who are more driven.

If you do have plans they will assess them for how realistic they are, including whether you have set your sights too high (indicating you may be disappointed) or too low (showing you lack direction or ambition).

How to answer

It is important that you answer this question carefully to show that you are organized and have intelligent career plans but without appearing to be putting the organization's needs as subservient to your own.

In five years time I aim to be a lead designer. I know that's ambitious and to get there I will need to deliver outstanding results.