"Where do you see yourself in 5 years?"
You know it's coming. You've probably prepared an answer. And there's a 70% chance that answer will hurt your chances instead of helping them.
This question seems simple, but it's a minefield. Answer wrong, and you signal you're a flight risk, lack ambition, or don't understand how careers actually work. Answer right, and you demonstrate self-awareness, alignment, and strategic thinking.
Let me show you how to do it right.
What the Question Really Asks
When I ask "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?", I'm not actually asking about your psychic predictions. I'm evaluating three things:
The Three Hidden Questions:
- Do you have realistic career goals? Or are you delusional about timelines, progression, and what it takes to advance?
- Are your goals aligned with what this role offers? If you want to be a machine learning researcher and we're hiring for a frontend role, that's a problem.
- Will you stay long enough to provide ROI? Hiring and ramping takes 6-12 months. If you're using this as a 1-year stepping stone, I'm not interested.
Understanding this reframes the question. You're not making promises or commitments. You're demonstrating alignment, thoughtfulness, and reasonable ambition.
The Anatomy of a Great Answer
A strong answer has three components:
1. Skills You Want to Develop
Start with growth. What do you want to learn? What capabilities do you want to build? This shows you're focused on improvement, not just title chasing.
"In 5 years, I want to have deep expertise in distributed systems at scale. I want to be the person who can architect systems handling millions of requests per second and mentor others on best practices."
Notice: specific domain (distributed systems), measurable outcome (scale), leadership component (mentoring). Not a title—a capability.
2. Problems You Want to Solve
Talk about the type of impact you want to have. What problems excite you? What scale do you want to operate at?
"I'm really interested in infrastructure problems—how to make development teams 10x more productive through better tooling and platforms. I'd love to be working on problems that enable hundreds of engineers."
This shows you think about impact beyond your individual output. Companies want people who understand leverage and multiplication.
3. Connection to This Role
Close by tying your goals to the opportunity in front of you. Why is this role the right next step toward that 5-year vision?
"That's why I'm excited about this role. Building [Company]'s real-time data pipeline gives me the chance to work on those exact problems at the scale I want to learn, with a team that's already doing cutting-edge work in this space."
Now you've connected ambition to opportunity. You're not just using them as a stepping stone—this role genuinely serves your goals.
The Complete Framework
Put it all together, and here's the template:
The SIA Framework:
"In 5 years, I see myself [skill/capability you want to develop] where I'm solving [type of problems at what scale]. I'm excited about this role because [how it enables that growth], and I can see a clear path from this position to those goals by [brief trajectory]."
Keep it to 60-90 seconds. Any longer and you're rambling.
Real Examples: Good vs Bad
Let me show you how this plays out with real answers I've heard:
Example 1: Backend Engineer Role
Bad Answer
"I want to be a senior engineer making over $200K, hopefully at a bigger company. Maybe I'll try management too. I'm pretty flexible."
Problems: Title-focused, money-focused, implies you'll leave, no real direction.
Good Answer
"In 5 years, I want to be a technical leader in backend systems—someone who can design APIs and microservices that scale to millions of users while maintaining 99.99% uptime. This role gives me the chance to work on high-throughput systems, and I can see growing from implementing features to owning entire services to eventually architecting cross-team solutions."
Example 2: Junior Developer Role
Bad Answer
"Honestly, I have no idea. Tech changes so fast, who knows what will be relevant in 5 years? I'm just focused on learning right now."
Problems: No direction, sounds aimless, doesn't demonstrate ambition or planning.
Good Answer
"I'm early in my career, so my main goal is to build strong fundamentals across the full stack. In 5 years, I'd love to be a solid mid-level engineer who can independently own features end-to-end and mentor junior developers. This role is perfect because I'll get hands-on experience with React, Node, and PostgreSQL while working alongside senior engineers I can learn from."
Example 3: Senior Engineer Role
Bad Answer
"I want to start my own company. I'm interviewing at a few places to save up money and learn the ropes, then I'll probably launch my startup in 2-3 years."
Problems: You're literally saying you'll leave. Instant rejection.
Good Answer
"I want to reach Staff level—not just for the title, but because I want to work on problems that span multiple teams and have org-wide impact. I'm particularly interested in developer productivity and platform engineering. At [Company], I could see starting by owning critical services, then gradually taking on cross-team technical leadership as I build trust and domain expertise."
Common Traps to Avoid
Career-Killing Mistakes:
- "I want your job": Sounds threatening. Even if true, don't say it.
- "I'll be running my own startup": Translation: I'm going to leave and maybe compete with you.
- "I don't know": Signals lack of career direction or self-awareness.
- "Exactly where I am now": No ambition, no growth mindset. Red flag.
- "Rich and retired on a beach": Cute, but implies you're not serious about the work.
- Too specific about titles: "I want to be a Senior Principal Distinguished Fellow" sounds rigid and title-obsessed.
- Mentioning competitors: "I'd love to work at Google eventually" while interviewing at Meta. Why would they hire you?
Tailoring for Different Career Stages
Your answer should evolve as you progress. Here's what good looks like at each level:
New Grad / Junior Engineer
Focus on learning, fundamentals, and becoming independent. Don't claim you'll be a Staff Engineer—it's unrealistic. Show ambition tempered with awareness.
"I want to develop from someone who needs a lot of guidance to someone who can own features independently and help onboard other new engineers. This role gives me the mentorship and growth opportunities to get there."
Mid-Level Engineer
Talk about technical depth, cross-team collaboration, and starting to have broader influence. This is where you start demonstrating leadership trajectory.
"I want to be a go-to expert in [domain] who can tackle the hardest technical problems and guide architectural decisions. I also want to mentor junior engineers and contribute to the team's technical culture."
Senior Engineer
You're considering IC track (Staff+) vs management. Be clear about which path you're on, and why this role serves that path.
"I'm on the IC track and want to reach Staff level by solving ambiguous, high-impact problems that span multiple teams. I'm drawn to [specific technical area] and want to become a recognized expert who shapes technical direction org-wide."
The Management Fork in the Road
At some point, you'll face the IC vs management decision. How you answer depends on the role:
If the role is IC track:
Don't mention management unless they ask. Focus on technical leadership, influence, and impact. If they ask directly about management:
"I'm really energized by technical work and want to stay on the IC track. I love the idea of leading through technical expertise and influence rather than through org chart authority."
If you're open to management:
Only mention this if the company has clear IC-to-management paths and you're at Senior+ level:
"I'm exploring both IC and management tracks. I love technical work, but I'm also drawn to helping engineers grow and building high-performing teams. I'd want to stay hands-on for at least another year to deepen my technical skills before considering a transition."
What If You Honestly Don't Know?
That's normal, especially early in your career. But "I don't know" isn't an acceptable answer. Instead, talk about what you're optimizing for:
"I'm still figuring out exactly where I want to specialize, which is why I'm drawn to this full-stack role. In 5 years, I want to have explored enough to know whether I'm more passionate about frontend, backend, or infrastructure work, and then go deep in that area. What I do know is I want to be solving complex technical problems with real user impact."
This shows self-awareness and intentionality about exploration, not aimlessness.
Industry-Specific Nuances
Different types of companies want to hear different things:
Startups
Emphasize impact, wearing multiple hats, and tolerance for ambiguity. They want people who can grow with the company.
"I want to be someone who can take a product from idea to production independently and thrive in the chaos of rapid growth."
FAANG / Big Tech
Focus on scale, technical depth, and leveling up through the well-defined career ladder. They want long-term thinking.
"I want to work on infrastructure that serves billions of users and progress to L6/E6 by solving increasingly complex distributed systems challenges."
Mid-Stage Companies
Balance of scale and impact. Talk about growing with the company and taking on more ownership.
"I want to grow from owning features to owning entire systems as the company scales, and eventually mentor the next wave of engineers we hire."
Your Answer Checklist
Before you walk into the interview, verify your answer has these elements:
- Focuses on skills/capabilities, not titles
- Shows alignment with the role and company
- Demonstrates ambition without being unrealistic
- Signals you'll stay long enough to provide value
- Takes 60-90 seconds (not 5 minutes)
- Sounds natural and authentic, not rehearsed
The Truth About 5-Year Plans
Here's the secret: nobody actually knows where they'll be in 5 years. The industry changes. Companies change. You change. That's not the point.
The point is demonstrating that you think about your career strategically, you have direction, and that direction is compatible with this opportunity.
Your actual 5-year trajectory will be nothing like what you say in this interview. And that's fine. We know that. We're not holding you to it.
We just want to see that you're intentional, ambitious, and aligned. Show us that, and you'll nail this question every time.