I was honest with my current company. I told them 5 years from now I'd be considering moving back closer to family with sufficient experience and promotions on my resume to demonstrate my ability to acquire work that pays better than what engineers typically make in that region. I also told them it's unlikely I'd be at the company longer than 2-3 years without some very interesting work.
I had a similar level of honesty with an employer I was interviewing with several years ago and they turned me down (without indicating the reason, but clearly the honesty for that question either worked against me or had little or no impact on the decision).
In the latter case that's probably a good thing since you probably wouldn't want to work for a company that will judge you negatively for voicing an honest opinion (or prediction). Sounds like a toxic environment brewing from the get-go.
Still a bad question, in my opinion.
It's not bold, it's a perfectly reasonable question. In most parts of the US, it's a developer's market. Exploit that while you can.
FWIW, every time I've asked this question, the response is always for the interviewer (sometimes with a slight smile) to try to sell me on working there. Never have I gotten a response like you predicted, and I'd be very surprised if I ever do.
You're not a fungible assembly line worker; you're a highly skilled individual in great demand. Even if you don't really believe that, find a way to convince yourself of it temporarily before the interview: it will have positive results.
There's only one of me to go around, so I'm pretty particular about where I am.
Not that I'd ever ask the question myself, but I'd expect the best candidates to respond with indignation.
In my eyes, the question shows hostility towards the interviewee.
Regardless, being unable to hold your temper in the face of a pointless/stupid/vaguely insulting question is a really bad sign for a candidate. If you can't handle this, how are you going to handle it when someone bluntly calls one of your designs terrible?
I didn't mean to suggest the candidate should launch into a tirade or anything, just that the indignation would ideally be evident yet subtle.
>If you can't handle this, how are you going to handle it when someone bluntly calls one of your designs terrible?
The flip side of this is that candidates who find nothing wrong with the question are far more likely to not mete out such critiques. The last thing you want is your organization rotting from within because nobody's speaking their mind.
I don't think that subtle indignation is a healthy response. If you're so bothered by this question, I think you should say so. A direct, honest response is far more mature way to handle it than acting annoyed by the question. I could respect a candidate telling me directly that the question is insulting. It would be harder to respect a candidate who responds to the question with snark or sarcasm or an eye roll or any other indication of "subtle indignation".
> The flip side of this is that candidates who find nothing wrong with the question are far more likely to not mete out such critiques. The last thing you want is your organization rotting from within because nobody's speaking their mind.
I don't follow this connection at all. I don't think that being annoyed by this question is very related to giving blunt feedback.
Then the interview quickly turns into a robotic caricature straight out of an HR manual. Why make the whole situation awkward and probably tank the interview just to state the obvious.
Besides, the entire scenario largely depends on context. I'm sure most people would find it far more beneign if the question was posed by an HR person at BigCo, rather than by the founder of a smaller company.