It’s the cliche job interview question of all time – where do you see yourself in 5 years? I am willing to bet that most of those reading this have been asked this question. As you may have guessed, I have been asked it several times over the 20+ years of my professional career. Where some people may be asking it to expect an answer that you will be working for their particular company then, others are asking to gain insight into your long-term thought process, the latter approach not being all that bad or evil.

After a year like 2009, I am doing much more thinking and planning about the future than I ever had before. I am not limiting it to business as I am also thinking of my growing family, and our needs and wants into the future. Where many things do purely happen, and you may never know what opportunities may come about, purely leaving everything to chance is not the way to go. Even if your plans don’t materialize how you originally planned, you now have a marker to compare and measure against.

When you get down to it, thinking about the future is really about your vision. Where do you see things going and happening, and how will you be a part of it? You may not be able to see things 5 years in advance, but you sure as heck should be able to have a fairly good idea as to how the rest of the year will go!

The video below is from mobile device giant Nokia, and is a projection of where they see the markets they play in, as well as themselves, in 2015. If you don’t see the video below, watch it here at YouTube.

If you watched it, you will see that you don’t have to be an uber genius to make projections of your own, as Nokia’s predictions seem respectable with where the world is now with mobile technology. As this video is from Nokia, I am required to say that I have a continuous professional relation with them.

Perhaps the question should just be where do you see yourself? I welcome your thoughts on how you think of the future.

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