Great question today for the “Emergent Tech Professional” category I’ve decided to add to my email blog (if you don’t like being in that category, unsubscribe!):
“Opinions: is it smart to say that you eventually want to own your own business as say, a 10 year goal, if the question gets brought up in an interview?”
–Isabelle Love
My answer: No. It’s smart to say “I want to be capable of being a dynamic business leader, wherever that takes me.”
Thought Process
- I totally agree the “best” employers wouldn’t be turned off by that. But there’s so much misinformation and garbage in the interviewing world, it’s not worth it to take that kind of risk.
- I’ve worked at companies where someone who would never work with the person was able to get a “no” in for someone expressing their ambition to one day run their own company, even though nobody on the team they would work on thought poorly of it. “Why would we hire someone who openly declares they don’t want to work for us?” was enough.
- The purpose of that interview question isn’t a detailed plan! So keep it more general and focused on the now. You’ll wisely articulate how you’re putting one foot in front of the other and know that doing great work now adds up.
