Candidates often provide unrealistic career plans when asked about their goals in 5 years during job interviews. Precisely predicting career trajectories so far in advance is impossible given constantly changing industries and environments. Instead of focusing on specific roles or titles, it is better to consider questions like what strengths and skills you have, areas for improvement, and the depth of your network to guide ongoing learning and take advantage of new opportunities as they arise. Flexible career planning focused on continual learning and networking is more practical than rigid 5-year forecasts in today's uncertain business world.

1. Death of Career Plans?
Where do you see yourself in 5 years from now? There would hardly be
anybody who has not faced this question in job interviews.
It is usually employers attempt to guess candidates perception of his longevity
& fit in the organization & most of the candidates offer sugar coated
readymade answers like…well, I will start with xyx position in this
organization and in 5 year from now I will be heading abc function in this fine
organization.
What’s wrong with the answer? Except that it assumes the world is going to
evolve the same way as it did yesterday. It is never a good idea to predict
potential external factors and their effect on your career so long in the future.
So are we saying that career planning is a waste of time? Answer may probably
be yes, unless you are working in an industry which is fairly predictable. But
increasingly industries are not predictable anymore because of complex global
environment they operate in. And in such highly uncertain setting career
planning is both waste of time & potentially dangerous because of false sense of
confidence they instil & consequent failure to see the emerging opportunity.
In such uncertain environment you can’t predict want you might want in future
but you can definitely say what’s may be important & valuable to you. .
1. What kind of person you are?
2. What are your strengths, skills and means?
3. What are your area of improvement & limitation?
4. How deep is your social & professional network?
Having considered answers to these question one can start incorporating
learning’s into the action plan for desired future career.