Where do you see yourself five years from now？

A big problem in the corporate world is employees using firms as rungs up the corporate latter. Especially in today’s economy, the last thing a company wants is to allocate salary, benefits and human capital into acquiring a new manager only to have them jump ship to a competitor a year or two later. Sometimes this isn’t even the employees fault. One cannot reasonably expect a person to stunt their own professional life for the sake of a few headaches. Nonetheless, companies will try and gauge the likelihood of that happening by asking an indirect question such as “Where do you see yourself five years from now?” Responses to this question can be good indicators of how stable and loyal the potential employee is likely to be. A response like “I want to lead a large team at a marketing firm somewhere” is indicative of a mercenary attitude to the corporate world. In contrast, someone who says something like “At the moment I plan on growing my roots here in this company and rising from within to be the best marketer I can for XYZ Firm” demonstrates far more loyalty.