Interviewers have a vested interest in your career path. If your aims in life are to quit your job and become a rodeo clown for a South Korean albino monkey circus, possibilities are you are not going to stick around to really bring much value to the agency. On the other hand, if you need to become CEO of the company, there is a great chance you are going to work hard and be productive.

Tips to Answer:

You don’t really need to claim you plan on being CEO of the company. Management can feel conveniently threatened if you’re gunning for your jobs, and if you are new to the professional world, your answer is going to seem like a joke (becoming a CEO takes decades). Rather, simply talk about realistic expectations and make it sound like you plan on being around for a while.

Bad Answer

“At the moment, I am happy sticking with this job and seeing where it takes me. I do not have any particular plans, but I do know that I’d like to go somewhere and I figure we will see where the job takes me.”

Good Answer

“My target is to progressively earn more responsibilities over time. I expect to someday be capable to manage my own team and lead projects on my own, but my short term aims are to quickly earn new responsibilities as I use my skills to prove I deserve the challenge.”

If you’ve a particular career goal, you can go ahead and name it. If you do not, you can use an answer like the one above. One thing to note, although, is that if your hiring manager is presently in the role that you hope to pursue, it is possibly not a good idea to say that you’d like to be in their job within 5 years.

Interview Tips

• Indicate dedication with the company.
• Use realistic aims.