Monday, April 22, 2024

CNBC Make It Work helps you get ahead in your career.
By Ashton Jackson

A better way to answer ‘Where do you see yourself in 5 years?’

When I was interviewing for jobs a few years ago, there was one question I dreaded being asked the most: “Where do you see yourself in five years?”

I disliked the question for two reasons.

1. I didn’t really know where I saw myself in one year, let alone five.

2. I felt the pressure to try and relate whatever goals I had for myself to the future of the company I was interviewing with, making it difficult to be 100% authentic.

But according to Aneesh Raman, vice president and workforce expert at LinkedIn, this isn’t a question you should get worked up about. “Don’t worry about five years or 10 years from now,” he told my colleague Sophie Kiderlin. “The only constant for the coming decade will be change.”

Raman’s comments really hit home for me, a Gen Zer who graduated during the pandemic, moved more than 600 miles from home to kick-start her career and is now trying to prepare for the impending AI takeover. Change is pretty much my middle name.

That said, you’ll probably still get the question in a future job interview. So instead of thinking about what job title or role you want, Raman suggests focusing on what you want to do and what skills to develop — and using them in an impactful way.

“The thing that matters most is skills,” Raman said. “Employers are interested in all the skills you’ll bring to the organization,” so talk about something you hope to learn in the future, or a skill you already have and want to hone if you get the role.

Now that I’ve been in the workforce for a while, I have a better understanding of my goals and the skills I want to cultivate in the future. With Raman’s advice in mind, I’ll be better equipped to answer this once-dreaded question, and maybe even look forward to it.

Here’s why making a TikTok layoff video is ‘insanely risky,’ says ex-Google recruiter

Chances are, you’ve probably come across a TikTok of someone documenting their layoff experience. If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, you may want to hold off on making a tell-all video.

“I think that this is insanely risky for future job prospects,” says Nolan Church, a former Google recruiter and current CEO of salary data company FairComp.

One of the challenges with creating these kinds of posts is they won’t always show the most professional version of you.

“It is not going to be in the interest of your professional reputation for you to post a video of you sobbing or cursing them out or calling them out … even if those are appropriate reactions to the way that you’re being treated,” says career coach Phoebe Gavin. “Because if the goal is, ‘I want this thing to help me get a new job,’ then the thing has to show you in a very good light.”

Posting such a video can also put into question your motivation and make it hard for a future employer to trust you. Even though these kinds of TikToks often go viral, “you don’t hear about the ones where the post kind of goes nowhere, or the post gets backlash or the post prevents that person from having a speedy and successful career transition,” Gavin adds.

How Insomnia Cookies went from college side hustle to $200 million company

Two decades ago, Seth Berkowitz was a college student with a late-night craving for a warm cookie. Here’s how he built that impulse into Insomnia Cookies, an international chain with more than 260 locations that brought in $200 million in revenue last year, according to the company.

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CEO shares her No. 1 simple tactic for getting people to listen to her

If you want people to listen to you, you need to be clear and concise. Using “ums” and “uhs” in your next conversation or presentation won’t help you get your point across.

A trick that you may have learned in grade school can help mitigate that, says Talia Fox, CEO of Washington, D.C.-based executive coaching firm KUSI Global and a public speaking coach for more than 20 years.

To communicate effectively and keep herself on track during presentations, Fox leans on a five-point outline — the same kind you may have learned while writing essays in English class:

• One quick, attention-grabbing introduction.
• Three core talking points that move your purpose forward.
• One compelling statement to conclude your story.

The strategy’s usefulness goes beyond presentations, she says. Say you’re asking your boss for a promotion, for example. In just three sentences, you can give them a clear, convincing argument with concrete examples of your contributions:

• I’d like to be considered for a role in upper management.

• I’ve consistently identified and solved problems for our team, effectively demonstrated leadership skills throughout my time here and fostered relationships across the organization.

• I’m positive that I’ve gone above and beyond my current job requirements, and I’d love to continue boosting company productivity in a more challenging role.

Don’t forget to exude confidence when you speak, Fox adds. Use strong posture, eye contact and project your voice to further get your point across.