Don’t trust posterity. The present is always merciless about the past

IT’S always puzzling that recruiters ask the question: “Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?”

Puzzling because the most realistic answer is the answer nobody ever gives: “I’m sorry. My degree is in accountancy/law/physics. Until I get around to a postgrad in prophecy, I can’t answer that one.”

Instead, the person going for the job warbles about their hopes, trying to negotiate the fine line between being properly ambitious without being repellently driven. It’s pointless and ridiculous and if anybody ever went back to find out how many of the interviewees ever found themselves where they had “seen” themselves five years earlier, the chances are that the predictive goals and the points reached are a country mile away from each other.