Where do you see yourself in five years?

Following my previous article, someone asked me "Where do you see yourself in five years?” This reminded me of my first interviews as a candidate when other recruiters have asked me exactly the same thing. It was one of the questions I hated the most and I have always tried to do my best in giving answers as general as possible.

Later I understood that the intention behind it was to see if I had a career plan and how the job I was applying for would fit in my plan.

Whoever started asking this question didn't realize that mentioning an exact time frame forces candidates either to give answers out of the blue or general answers that were well prepared prior to the interview. Not everybody has a 5 years plan but that doesn't mean that they don’t have a plan at all.

How can this phrase be avoided and still find out what one’s career plans are? There are many other questions that can be asked around this topic. I believe that questions like "What is the next step in your career?" or "How do you see yourself evolving professionally?" are much more efficient. This way the other person has the comfort of not having to think at an exact time frame.
There are lots of people saying that this question makes no sense, that it’s a stupid question to ask and it forces people to say what they think the recruiters want to hear.

However, most interviewers ask this question one way or another. If you find yourself in the situation of answering the famous “Where do you see yourself in five years?” always have in mind that the real question is “What is the next step in your career and how the job you are applying for will help you get there?”. The answer will then be easier. What we should always have in mind is that we must emphasize how the job that we are interviewing for is integrating in our career plan. This is also a good opportunity to ask back the recruiter or the manager about the career potential in the company. It’s always a good idea to show your interest in developing your career in the company.  

Surviving “Watch your back” companies

"Watch your back" companies are the companies in which the main focus of the employees is to protect their positions and built safety nets everywhere, with everyone. In this work environment, there is no such thing as trust, every discussion must be backed up by its written form and generally the main focus of every employee is to look good in front of the managers.

The objectives of the company become secondary and a huge amount of time and energy is wasted in avoiding or feeding conflicts. This is definitely not the ideal company to work for but what can be done if you end up in one?

One possibility would be to move on and try to find a company with a healthier work environment.

The other option is to stay and try to adapt while applying your own work principles.

In order to adapt you will start learning about your colleagues, the interests in the company, who is with who, who can be trusted and in what matter, with whom you need to speak in order to get things done and most importantly you need to position yourself somewhere in this battle camp. With perseverance, diplomacy and very good knowledge of your domain you can perform even in this environment. The general principle of doing your best regardless the situation can work here as well. But, the question is: Is it worth it all the supplementary stress and effort?

Who faces such a situation should first answer this question and then decide accordingly.

In theory, if you don't feel good at your workplace you should change it, but in fact these decisions are not that easy to make. Most of the people have responsibilities, family to provide for, monthly expenses and above all the fear of failure, fear of failing again in finding an environment good for them. So what can be done to survive and perform in a "watch your back company"?

Here are some ideas:

1. Avoid conflicts. Reply neutral and professional to all job related issues. You are paid to focus on your professional duties, not to show your strength.

2. Don’t spread the rumors. This can only bring you trouble. Even if it looks like an innocent chit-chat, sometimes people can try to use you in order to get what they want. Not playing their game will keep you on the safe side.

3. Focus on your professional objectives. This way you can learn and get results that will help you in the future.

4. Take responsibility for your actions. You will be in an environment where only a few do that and those are the people you need to work close with.

5.  Filter the information you receive. Most of the times people give us lots of subjective and unnecessary information that needs to be filtered as much as possible.

6. Watch your back. Be careful with whom you share your personal opinions, ideas, details regarding your projects. Words fly. When working with other for a project, make sure there is a written form of what was verbally agreed. This will save you from a lot of trouble.

I like to believe that companies like the ones I described above are the extreme cases and there are not too many of them. However, what I can tell for sure is that “backstabbing” colleagues are everywhere and they can do pretty much harm if not identified and handled accordingly.  

Random applications – do they work?

         The purpose of job ads is to attract candidates who have certain skills, experience and education. They describe the ideal candidate and because most of the times the companies can’t find such a candidate they make some compromises and interview also the candidates that meet the critical requirements. However, generally the candidates are taken into consideration for a certain position if they meet at least 80% of the requirements.

Regardless of the job requirements, position, company and country I would say, the mailboxes of the recruiters are constantly invaded by random applications.

          The random candidates are those people who apply to every single job ad that they see. People that apply for Sales Manager positions but they have never sold anything in their life, people that apply for technical positions even if they have no experience or studies in that field and so on. For some, the only criteria are regarding the region in which they live. However, most of them consider no criteria.

So there will be no misunderstanding, when I say random applications I don’t mean spontaneous applications. For me, the spontaneous applications are happening when a candidate sends his application expressing his interest in a position that is not open at that moment. This kind of applications is recommended by all HR specialists because this way the candidate shows his initiative and interest in a certain company. 

        If it would be to find an explanation for the behavior of the random applicants, I would say that probably these people think that someone will see their CV, discover the well hidden potential behind their irrational application and call them to offer the job of their life. Some might even think that the recruiters will save their CV and when there will be a position corresponding to their experience they will call them right away. 

WRONG! Recruiters never save random applications. They are annoyed by such candidates that they need to go through in order to find the ones that really match the job profile. This is a waste of time for everyone. I haven’t met yet a person that obtained a job through random applications.

       Just a bit of responsibility when applying for a job would make a great difference for both candidates and recruiters.  According to Holmes and Rahe stress scale, losing a job is one of the 10 most stressful situations in life. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmes_and_Rahe_stress_scale) Maybe this explains why some people act so irrational when looking for a job.

Candidates who stop answering the phone / Recruiters who never call back

Whoever has some recruitment experience was for sure at a certain point in contact with that type of candidates that suddenly stop answering the phone. You call them, you discuss about their experience, expectations, about future projects, they are coherent and seem normal. You get excited because you found someone with high chances to match the position you are recruiting for. You exchange several e-mails, spend time scheduling interviews, presenting and promoting him to the hiring manager as a candidate with high potential, you spend energy and you do your best so that the candidate will go smoothly through the recruitment process.  When you think nothing can happen, the candidate stops answering the phone. Considering the good communication you had before, you “presume his innocence” and leave him a message hoping that he was not involved in some sort of accident.

Then you wait and wait...and you rewind all the discussions looking for a sign that could have told you what is going to happen. Nothing... So after putting the candidate on the blacklist and telling all your colleagues about him, you decide to do the best thing you can: move on.

You are a candidate who did his homework: wrote a good CV, has a profile on several recruitment websites and professional online communities and applies only to the positions that match his experience and skills.  Sooner or later you start receiving calls from recruiters who tell you how interesting your CV is and what a great job opportunity they have. You schedule a phone interview for which you prepare in advance. You find out things about the company, you spend time and energy thinking how your experience and skills could help you to perform on that position. The interview goes smoothly and judging after the number of “Great!” and “Excellent!” you have heard during the discussion, the face to face interview is knocking at the door. Before you even get to ask what will happen next, the recruiter says that he will forward your profile to the hiring manager and in the mean while he will send you the full job description and more details about the company. Inevitably you get excited and maybe try to find out even more about the company.  

During the day and all next day you check your email looking especially for that mail. After the second day you realize that you will never going to receive it. You rewind all the discussions looking for a sign that could have told you what is going to happen. Nothing... So after putting the company or the recruitment agency on your blacklist and telling all your friends about what happened you decide to do the best thing you can: move on.

Respect is social value common for any society. Respect for parents, teachers, neighbors, relatives, people we know and especially people we don’t know. Respect is both given and received. Keeping your promises and taking responsibilities for your actions is also a sign of respect not only towards others but especially towards yourself.