Anyone else hate the question "So where will you be in 5, 10, 20 years?"

[LegoGE1947]

… This!

I’ve actually answered the question with, “Well, we can’t all be astronauts when we grow up. If I had a 5-year plan, that would mean that I plan on quitting this job here. Still want to hire me? My plans didn’t include 6 kids, but they are here, and I have adapted just fine.”

It’s a loaded question. Only an idiot would base a hiring decision on a question like that. Come to think of it, I did get the job. I turned it down. I bet the manager was fired shortly afterwards.

I have learned not to plan that far ahead. Any time I plan into the future something beyond my control occurs so that my life takes a totally unexpected turn. Example, I was involved in a serious auto accident a couple months ago that totaled my car and sent me to the hospital with a broken rib, a dislocated shoulder, and a punctured lung. Also I had planned to work at a certain job until I retired but the powers that be foiled that plan. By closing the business down four years ago and moving it to another state. So much for having any plan beyond the next minute!

 

[jmcrae]

I have learned not to plan that far ahead. Any time I plan into the future something beyond my control occurs so that my life takes a totally unexpected turn. Example, I was involved in a serious auto accident a couple months ago that totaled my car and sent me to the hospital with a broken rib, a dislocated shoulder, and a punctured lung. Also I had planned to work at a certain job until I retired but the powers that be foiled that plan. By closing the business down four years ago and moving it to another state. So much for having any plan beyond the next minute!

This is very similar to my experience. I have yet to get started on the plan I had for my first year out of college, let alone my original five-year plan.

 

[LegoGE1947]

This is very similar to my experience. I have yet to get started on the plan I had for my first year out of college, let alone my original five-year plan.

I also never planned that I would marry a wife who turned out to be abused as a child, developed diabetes and a whole litany of other physical problems and that in 2008 and beyond I would be left with no health insurance, be the victim of joblessness and be an emotional wreck.

 

[3DOCTORS]

We could quote Mother Teresa to these interviewers: The way to make God laugh is to tell Him your plans for the future! It’s so true!

 

[LegoGE1947]

We could quote Mother Teresa to these interviewers: The way to make God laugh is to tell Him your plans for the future! It’s so true!

Only God knows the future. Anything we could come up with is mere speculation at best.