What Are Your Goals? Interview Question

  
How to Answer "What Are Your Goals?" Interview Question

If you’ve been presented with this question during an interview, you should make sure that your answer relates well to the positions for which you have applied. If the company makes and sells biscuits, and the role you are applying for is within the production line then you probably should avoid mentioning an unrelated goal of making your own clothing line. A goal relating to acheiving targets set, or being a great team-player might be appropriate.

Example Answers

Perhaps even striving for something else within the industry such as becoming a successful salesperson, “I would like to learn the business from the bottom-up, then perhaps in a few years move into sales to assist the company from that end. Learning the manufacturing process first will be really useful.”

You could mention goals which refer to non-career related tasks such as family or voluntary work, but only if you are confident you can relate this back to the position. For example if you mention that you want to start a family this might suggest that you will be taking time off from work to look after any children. “I want to be indispensible with a successful career so that I can raise a family.”

So it’s not just about what you say, it also how you say it. For example if you step in with, “I want to be doing your job in a couple of years” you could be either undermining the interviewer’s position by making out that it’s easy to step into their shoes, or making them feel uneasy by suggesting you’ll steal their job. A more positive way of stating this is, “I plan to work hard to become a productive and successful employee, then once you get a promotion I can be on that side of the table asking the questions to prospective candidates.”

The only way to truely be successful in an interview is to really understand what the role will entail, and what your own goals and expectations of yourself in that career would be. For this question it would be wise to prepare by making a list of your possible goals, then reviewing these against the job description to see how they can fit together. If you can include your intention of how the goal will be achieved that would be an even stronger answer.

Some examples of answers are listed below for you:

Competitive:

“I see myself as being the best salesperson in the company. I’ll get there by listening intently to the advice of experienced and successful employees and constantly striving to improve myself.”

Learn and grow within the company:

“This job seems to be so varied it would be an excellent opportunity to try my hand at a number of different aspects and then maybe focus on one element to become specialist in that area.”

To be a manager:

“Once I have had a few years of experience behind me I’d like to work towards supervisory or management roles.”