Dear Lee – I Can Only Sign for a Year

I'm looking for work, but I can only commit for one year. How forthcoming should I be during the application process? I don't want to shoot myself in the foot.

Sincerely,

Full Disclosure?

Obviously, if the interviewer asks about your long-term plans, you must be honest.

But if s/he doesn't …?

Just before completing my Bachelor's degree, I decided that, rather than immediately continuing on to do a Master's degree, I would take a break (ha!) and work for a year (double ha!). At my first (and only) job interview, I was honest about my plan to return to school the following year. I got the job. Six years later, I'm still here, and still haven't gotten my Master's degree.

The lesson: Who knows where life is going to take you? And a year is a long time.

My reasons for not moving on were many: a new and exciting project came along that I wanted to be a part of; I was given the OK to take a leave of absence to travel, which I did; and I started to realize that maybe a Master's degree wasn't for me.

So why are you only available for one year? Are you thinking about going back to school? Are you finally going to take that trip around the world and you've already got your ticket? Are you getting married and moving to your new spouse's hometown of Timbukto?

I personally feel that honesty is always the best policy, especially if your employer would be investing a lot of time and money in training you. But if your plans are not concrete, you could opt to keep the information to yourself.