Whenever I am interviewing someone for hire at our company, I like to ask this question.  I find that this question, moreso than many others, really does give some illumination as to whether the developer has given any consideration to long-term goals.  Does he or she see software development as a life-long career or just something to pass the time and make some money?  Does he want to be a project manager, bass guitarist, or something else entirely after a couple of years?  Has he or she even thought about what they want to be doing 5 years from now?

Dirty little secret #234: for the last year or so, I've had no idea whatsoever as to how I would answer that question if I had been on the other side of the interview table.  However, today I have finally found that answer!  One major aid in achieving a goal is taking the step of writing it down; another large aid is sharing it with others, hence why I am sharing it in this blog!  :)

I would like to be a Free Electron.  I should clarify that I would like to be a Free Electron without most of the "gotchas " involved in Rand's post here (for example, I believe strongly in being an open communicator and having good project visiblity on my team...not some heroics where we "surprise" someone with what we've done after a couple of weeks).  Also, while I'm not sure I agree that a "Free Electron" needs to primarily be in research and not development, I do believe someone like these would need to feel challenged.  I don't mean the challenge that comes from ridiculously short schedules and equally ridiculous "hero"-style overtime; I mean the challenge of accomplishing things that other people believe are nearly or completely impossible...of completely shattering previous expectations of what can be done.  That's the kind of software engineer I would like to be.