Before we look at the preferred answer

Before we look at the preferred answer, let’s take a look at what the question behind the question might be. What is the interviewer really aiming at? What is the real concern or fear behind the question?

In my experience, when the interviewer asks this question, he or she is really asking two things:
1. Are you going to stay at the company for a while so that the time it takes to orient and train you yields a return on our investment, or are you here just for a short stay?
2. If I hire you, are you going to try to take my job?

Saying you’re staying just long enough to get some money and skip town violates fear 1. Saying that you want to be vice president of human
resources in 5 years may mean that you will have to step on the toes, or, worse, replace your interviewer on the way up the corporate ladder. This answer violates fear 2. C is the preferred answer to this question. It is open ended and nonthreatening. It is also generic enough that you can say it without feeling that you are lying. Though you don’t say you’d be committed to the company, you do say you’re committed to your
profession. You also express enough ambition (“growing and learning”) to sound like you’re hard working and success oriented but not interested in rocking anybody’s boat.

Taken from : Fearless Interviewing - How To Win The Job