Where do you see yourself after 5 years???

Its that time of the year again. The CAT results are out. The interview lists have been drawn up. And the qualified candidates would have probably got a registered post from the respective institutes. The contents of the post would be (a) A letter intimating the date, time & venue of the GD/PI; (b) a 6-10 page form to be filled in and brought alongwith other required documents to be submitted at the same time.

Your elation at receiving the interview call then slowly diasappears as you read the form. The first page with all the personal details would be the easiest to fill out. But then start arriving, the really weird questions.

• Where do you see yourself after 5 years? (Honest answer, I dont know)
• Where do you see yourself after 10 years? (Again, I dont know)
• Where do you see yourself after 20 years? (OK, I exaggerated a bit here)
• Why do you want to pursue management as a career? (For the money, Honey, but see if anyone can give this answer)
• Narrate an incident when you had to show leadership skills? (???)
• Narrate an incident when you had a disagreement with people around you? And how did you handle the situation? (???)
• Narrate an experience which changed your perspective of life? (Seriously!!! Almost all of us have had pretty normal kind of lives. Where the hell does this life-changing, earth-shattering experience come from)

And it can go on and on. People with work-ex could still cook up something to write in here. But even then its not easy. Most people (yours truly included) manage to put in something and just try to get around and go through it. My suggestion, just write in whatever comes to mind and do it honestly. Browsing the net and creating artificial situations doesnt help. The only point of these questions as I see is that they they are trying to test your creativity and writing skills.

Why am I writing about this now? Anyone who successfully clears this process immediately becomes a consultant in this matter for the future generations to come. So results are out, interview calls have come and telephone calls, pings, scraps, mails seeking guidance have started coming. So just felt like writing about those experiences.

And for the question about where I see myself after five years, its been four years down the line and I am still to figure it out :)