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Andrii
Andrii

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Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

I know it is quite a popular question on the interview, but do you think about this in everyday life or only during interview preparation?

Have you set goals for the next several years?

Are such thoughts/questions becoming less relevant over time, e.g. after 10, 15, 20 years of work?

P.S. as for me, I think about it quite often, and I plan my future as I still have opportunities for growth.

Top comments (10)

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aza profile image
Aza

5 years: Learning and satisfied with the work I do.
10 years: Learning and satisfied with the work i do.
15 years...well..you got the pattern.....
I don't really care about growing up by career ladder. I want to grow constantly as a professional in my expertise and quality of work i can give back to company.

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ogrotten profile image
ogrotten • Edited

I have to rethink my answer to this question.

First, and IIRC only, time I was asked this question, I wasn't expecting it. They first asked me about 1 year, to which the answer was "at least 1 level up."

"What about 5 years?"

In that moment in time, I was on the cusp of separating from my first wife (one of the reasons I was interviewing there in the first place), had a 18mo old, and thru the prev 5 years had been thru 4 different jobs. My answer was "I have no idea where I'll be in 5 years."

"Maybe at a different opportunity?" the interviewer says.

"Maaan I have no idea. 5 years ago, did you have a vision of being in anywhere near the position to be having this conversation?"

Nevermind the somewhat adversarial nature of that response back in 1995, I've been recently doing the "placement" portion of Lambda School, and they didn't like that response either. The small handful of students that were in the conference when I said that agreed with the sentiment... which makes me think that maybe it's a poor answer because it forces the asker to look in the mirror.

I dunno . . . I think I'll focus on accomplishments rather than "where".

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emil_priver profile image
Emil Privér • Edited

I have always wanted to work at Spotify as I like what they do, but also because Spotify is Swedish ☺️ I think that I in 5 year’s will I maybe work at Spotify and focus more on backend stuffs 🙌

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andsmile profile image
Andrii

Are you making now any steps in that direction?

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emil_priver profile image
Emil Privér

I have a big interest for tech and programming and I code almost every day and try new stuffs. At the place where I work now am I focusing on writing backend code. I think I am making big steps everyday ☺️

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patarapolw profile image
Pacharapol Withayasakpunt • Edited

It is difficult to guess what I haven't started, but probably

  • Several web apps (not just static blogs). Deep, but not necessarily beautiful. Though, I will try to make it as accessible as possible.
  • Blogging will continue, but I will make different kinds of media as well (probably video first).
  • Entrepreneurship, although being a valued employee is nice as well. I am not even currently a dev by trade...
    • Why money? Because I do care about sustainability. Beyond that would probably be R&D.

In ten years, I guess the trends and popular tech stacks should have drastically changed.

  • I don't really care about being into coding that much, but more on making visible value, and I will do it any way I can.
  • Probably I would leave a lot of legacy code, and I'll make it relatively maintainable.
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mdhesari profile image
Mohammad Fazel

Build at least 50 successful projects and besides that one could become a startup or some kind of a fintech.

Also I would love to meet Ellon Musk sometime.

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andsmile profile image
Andrii

Nice plans👍

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dmahely profile image
Doaa Mahely

No idea.

I think about this question often but I’m not aware of all the possibilities available to me. Who knows if I’ll find a career path I’ve never heard of and want to pursue next week?

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andsmile profile image
Andrii

Sure, we don’t know all possibilities, but even with limited knowledge we should go in some concrete direction. And it doesn’t mean that we can’t change this direction in future.