Jeff Wilson 3 hours ago

I was a VP at one of the top 10 mortgage banks in the country. I supported multiple business units IT efforts. As part of my job, I interviewed hundreds of applicants for technical positions.
The way I would phrase this question would be more like "I want my staff to be thinking strategically about their careers, so I'm not only interested in what you're applying to do here, but what your longer-term goals are. Knowing this will help me structure work assignments and training that will keep you moving towards those goals."
I would then actually follow up on these conversations to help foster and mentor my staff, so this was not just me blowing smoke at them.
As a result, my staff had some of the highest productivity and lowest turnover in the company. Later, when a higher-level political battle led me to leave the company, my staff actually held a demonstration outside my HR exit interview, which had to be halted so they could give me a good send-off.
I may be an outlier, but my strongly held belief is that if you treat people fairly and well, listen to their concerns, give them sane direction, and support them both in their work and in their goals, they will give all that back to you.