From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:
You think the question is idiotic. But I find it useful. “Where do you want to be in five years?” might tell me how far the person thinks into the future. It might give me an idea about their Time Span. I can find out about their long range planning.

Response:
Idiotic still. In the interview, I am looking for specific data points. Let’s look at the three you described AND let’s also stipulate they are important, necessary in the role.

• How far does the candidate think into the future
• What is the Time Span capability of the candidate?
• What are the long range planning skills of the candidate?

If these are the data points, what are the best questions I can ask to help me make a hiring decision.

Now, I’m not a psychologist, so I am not going to ask ANY question that requires me to make an interpretation. I will only ask direct questions that give me verifiable facts. And there is only one time frame that can give me those facts, and that is the past.

• Tell me about a time when, you had to plan a large project?
• Was this the largest, longest project you ever worked on?
• How long was the project?
• Tell me about the planning process you used on this project?
• Was this a written plan, or did you keep it in your head?
• How did you communicate the plan to the team members?
• How did you involve customers and vendors into the design of the plan
• What went wrong with the plan?
• What corrective action did you take to get the plan back on track?

These are much better questions, which get me REAL facts, verifiable facts that I don’t have to interpret. You see, I am not very good at all this psychology stuff, but if I play to my strengths, as a manager, I can make a better hiring decision.