What steps have you taken in the past five years to further your professional development?
The interviewer is asking this question to get an idea of how you pursue your goals. The interviewer wants to know that you are actively working towards meeting your own expectations.
Talk about the steps that you have taken to work towards your career goals within the past five years. If you have taken additional continuing education courses, or if you attend seminars, or may you have taken a leadership course to assist you in meeting your goals. Anything that you have actively done to work towards bettering your knowledge should be discussed now.
"Over the past five years, I have done volunteer work that involved testing samples from local ponds. This helps me to get practice in aquatics that I would not normally work with in my everyday job. I also have taken two leadership training courses offered by my current company that prepares employees to transition into leadership roles in the future by practicing problem resolution skills and learning different personality traits and how to best approach different employees so that the communication is most effective."
