From the Ask Tom mailbag:
Question:
For me it depends. “Where do you want to be in five years” is probably bordering on useless, but it might be helpful combined with some other questions to find out how the candidate has met their personal career goals in the past.
Response:
Here is the problem with asking a question that does not provide useful data. The problem is the candidate’s response.
- I want to be president of the company.
- I want to be a contributing member of the team, in the exact role you are hiring for.
- I want to have your job.
- I want to retire.
Here’s the thing. I don’t know what any of these responses mean. And they don’t have anything to do with the accountabilities or the skill set of the role. So, I have to figure out what these responses mean. As the interviewer, I now have to make an interpretation. As the interviewer, as soon as I start to interpret, as soon as I begin to play amateur psychologist, I am in trouble.
Let’s see. What does it mean that the candidate wants to be president of our company in five years?
I DON’T KNOW. But the candidate said it, so I have to put it somewhere in my head, and it’s not even a data point. It’s an unverifiable statement with an interpretation. I, now, have this junk rattling around in my brain that doesn’t make any sense.
And I have other junk rattling around in there as well.
- First impressions
- Stereotypes
- The way the candidate dressed
- That the candidate was nervous
- That their resume had a time gap in it
- That the candidate only worked six months in their last job
And these are elements that I cannot help but think about. As the interviewer, I cannot help that I carry stereotypes in my head. We all do. That’s why I have to have 50-80 written questions and ask two drill down questions for every written question, so I have 150 other data points to balance off my stereotype.
As the interviewer, I have enough junk in my head, so why would I ask an idiotic question to add to it?
Additionally that question leads to a false response.
If the interviewee says – still working in the job you hired me for…them they are seen a lacking ambition, drive or whatever quirky character type the interviewer falsely believes the person needs. If the interviewee responds – I will be in your job; then the interviewer see the person as too aggressive or whatever quirky character type.
This questions is NOT fair to the interviewee.
Really good stuff, consider that question wiped out. So how do you ask a question where you want to know if this person has drive? ambition? can focus on a long-term goal? Usually, that question shows me (depending on how quickly they answer it), if this has been something they have thought about. If they hesitate, then I know they are making up the answer. If they rattle something off, I DO NOT CARE WHAT IT WAS, simply that they think like that and that was the purpose of the question for me. Do I still drop the question? Or can you give me a question that will assist me in knowing if they think on a long-term basis?
Greg, I think the more effective approach is just to look at their resume as see where they were five years ago. An actual track record can tell you something. A nebulous response to an even more nebulous question just weeds out people with good interview skills from those without good interview skills (and I don’t believe there’s any correlation between interview skills and job skills).