So let's talk about the best answer to the job interview question, "Where do you see yourself in five years?"

I got news for you.

Recruiters are going to ask you this at your next job interview.

But this question can be phrased in many ways.

And the world's smartest recruiters are right now inventing new and exciting ways to ask this age-old question.

But regardless of how it's phrased, we always give the same answer.

Now, you may be a relative new to job interviews or you might be a technical introvert or not really a people person and when they ask you, "Where do you see yourself in five years?" what flashes across your mind is,

"What? Technically, anything can happen in five years. You actually have more control over this than me.

Since you determine where I work. Just let me get my crystal ball here. It's in my pants."

Here's what's going on.

It's part of a recruiter's job to try to verify genuine interest.

You have to pass this test to be offered the job.

Think about it. A person can be thoroughly qualified to do a job, but if they consider taking that job to be a career dead end and have no interest in it, they're not going to be a model employee.

Maybe the role involves travel, shift work or relocation and you're not interested in any of that long term.

Well, it could be a problem because recruiters -- sometimes rather paradoxically -- are always looking for long-term employees and specifically long-term employees in this job, the one that you're interviewing for.

That's why it's very bad to answer:

"Where do you see yourself in five years" with "In your job," or "Not here," or "Doing something else," or "I don't know."

Recruiters most often want to hear that your long-term ambition is to be in this job, but not all the time.

Some recruiters want you to be ambitious and eager to go above and beyond to eventually be promoted.

Honestly, it's impossible to know what they want to hear since you don't know these people.

So that's why this question is a bit of a trap and why we need to be strategic in our answer.

Now, job interviews go so much better for you if you have rapport with the interviewer.

How do you get that?

Well, it starts with having two-way conversations with the interviewer rather than just letting them interrogate you.

One of the easiest ways to get a two-way conversation going is to answer the question and then immediately follow it up with a related question back to them.

Now, since you don't want to give a long specific answer to this question...

now is the perfect opportunity to do this and go for that two-way conversation.

So, in a job interview, when a recruiter asks, "Where do you see yourself in five years?"

the best answer is to say, "I expect to be advancing based on my job performance and likely taking on some new job responsibilities. Do you mind me asking where you see this company going in the future? What are your long-term plans for this department?"

Remember, they don't want an actual prediction from you.

Just an indication that you're going to stay and care about doing a good job.

Remember, you're highly employable and you're awesome.