Dear Companies: Stop asking where candidates will be in five years; start asking them who they want to be in five years

It’s time that we stop asking applicants what their five-year plan is. 

What started out as a way for companies to "measure an applicant’s motivation and future goals" has turned in to a question that corners candidates in an unnecessary way. 

If we’ve learned anything from the COVID-19 Pandemic as it relates to this issue, it’s clear that nobody can predict the future, let alone where they’re going to be in five years.

Instead of asking applicants where they want to be, or where they see themselves, or what job they want to hold in five years, we should be asking them “who do you want to be in five years?”. 

By making the question about personal progress rather than just career progress, it showcases that as a company we care about an individual, their mental health, and the progress they are going to make as a person with and without our company. This emphasis on the individual is what’s needed from companies in 2022 in order to fight off The Great Resignation. 

Five years ago, I was a journalist on my way up to Omaha to work as a digital editor for The Lincoln Journal Star. The summer before I had interned at the Tulsa World in their sports department, and before that, had internship stints at The Kansas City Star, in Baltimore and in Springfield, Missouri. 

If you would’ve asked me at that point, as a 23-year-old with “Democracy Dies in Darkness” tattooed on his left forearm, where I saw myself in five years, my answer would be hilarious looking back on it now. I would have told the interviewer that I expect to be a sports editor, a digital editor, or a beat writer for one of the major news outlets on either the East or West Coast of the United States.  

I would’ve told them that I’d be comfortable working 60-70 or 80-hour weeks because that’s what I loved. There’s no way that I was going to “settle down”. 

There was not a single scenario in my head in which I would’ve ever left journalism. 

They would’ve eaten it up. And guess what? They did. 

Fast forward 365 days after my 23rd birthday and I’m contemplating everything. I’m struggling with my mental and physical health, dealing with migraines as a 24-year-old when I had never had a headache in the first 23 years of my life, and was completely exhausted of the lifestyle that journalism brings.

It got to the point where I wasn’t even looking for jobs in the journalism industry. Instead, I was looking for any way out. This included going back to school, becoming an Uber driver, working as a bartender, joining the family business as a baker, and much more. 

I just knew I didn’t want to be the person I was as a journalist. I knew I needed change. And fast. 

What I certainly couldn’t have told you at that time is where I saw myself in five years. I never could’ve predicted that I was going to become a marketing strategist, a director of strategic marketing, a leader of a #SupportLocal group in Lincoln, or an account strategist where I am today. I could not have told you that I would have clients all over the world, work with incredibly talented colleagues, or lead a team of passionate business development representatives and marketers. 

I certainly couldn’t have told you that a global Pandemic was going to change everything, for everyone. Or that my girlfriend Megan and I would buy our first lovely home in Omaha, Nebraska. Or that we’d lose our pupper Duddits to start this past year. 

However, what I could’ve told you is that I wanted to improve upon my patience, to improve on my work-life balance, to fall in love with taking care of my physical health again, to feel passion for my work but to not let work define me. 

These answers would have painted a company a much better picture of who and where I was going to be in five years. It would’ve allowed them to see how I want to progress as an individual — an employee, a friend, a son, a partner. And most importantly of all, it would’ve opened the door for the company to actively play a role in this growth, rather than inhibit it. 

And at the end of the day, that’s what applicants want.

They (we) don’t want you to pretend that we’re family, because frankly, we’re not. 

But we do need you to see us as humans who want to grow and evolve overtime with your company, rather than as Employee No. 6, 65, or 653. 

So the next time you’re sitting down with a candidate, leave the questions about what job title they want in five years at the door. 

Instead, ask them what type of person they want to be in five years.