These days, I primarily work alone, except for some very part-time college students. As the saying goes, in “the day,” I ran larger organizations. Part of the job was always interviewing people entering the organization. Having read the requisite articles on interview skills, I knew that suggested that, at some point, the interviewer should look intently into the interviewee’s eyes and pronounced these words: “And where do you see yourself as being in ten years?” You could mix this up and make it five if you wanted to corner them. Of course, this was a throwaway question. They had read precisely the same articles as you and knew the standard responses and what they meant on the psychometric BS Scales the organization used to probe the inner mental state of job candidates.
You heard gushing odes about how this entry-level job was the starting point of their rise to professional prominence. Sometimes there was well-buttered prose about how, under your brilliant leadership, they expected to enhance the organization’s goals and objectives. You never listened to the blatant trumpet blast of truth: ” Well, it is only a low-paying entry-level job. I expect to be out of here in a year, as soon as I get something for my resume.”
I avoided the “where will you be” question. and probed for what skills they might have that added value to the organization. Most of my work focused on community, traditional arts, crafts, and music. I constantly researched or developed programs that needed interview skills and a sensitivity to the arts. Looking for skills, interests, and abilities in those areas was not well served by a question asking directly about career goals. Listening to how a young person’s grandmother taught them to cook, embroider, or garden told me more.
Much like a wolf sniffing a trail, you had to tease out more subtle information. I had little need for organizational flacks interested in rising through organizational brilliance. Mainly I had horizontally organized workpaces with almost no hierarchy.
I did not have the time to ensure that you stayed within the lanes. Or that you followed the chain of command, or behaved. Psychometric-style questions in interviews would likely lead me to hire someone who would be a poor match for the organization and not have the needed skills for the job.
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Where do I see myself in 10 years? I don’t even want to think about it.
crazy octogenarians approaching their nineties and still singing, “Still crazy after all these years?”
I love that song. It will be true.