“What motivates you?” may sound like an intimidating existential question, but as an interview question, it’s much less philosophical and way more fun than you think.
You know how you get when you’re telling your best friends about what an amazing movie you saw? Or how you totally crushed that presentation that might get you a big promotion? Then your excitement is so contagious that they’re pumped too?
Well, here’s your chance to do the interview equivalent and show off a bright and sparkling aspect of your personality. Buckle up, follow our five steps to learn how to answer what motivates you, and unlock that energy.
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Why do interviewers ask what motivates you?
Skills and experience are great for impressing interviewers. But they’re not enough. You should also have the drive to use them—preferably in a way that benefits your prospective employer.
When an interviewer asks this question, they’re trying to figure out whether you’d care about what you’d be doing and bring the full weight of your abilities to this particular role at this particular company. In other words, they want to know if you’ll be an engaged, happy, and productive worker inspired to do your best in that environment.
“What they’re ultimately looking for is, does this person in some way align with the things we believe in here, with the values we have here, with the mission we have in the company?” says Rajiv Nathan, founder and CEO of Startup Hypeman.
“Because you could have someone with a really good resume, but if you ask them what motivates them and their answer has zero alignment with the company,” they’re going to worry neither you nor the company is going to get what they need.
Different ways this question could be asked
You won't always get asked exactly what motivates you. Some interviewers use other variations, but the core of the question remains the same. For instance, you might get asked:
- What motivates you the most?
- What motivates you to do a good job?
- What motivates you to do a great job at work?
- What motivates you at work?
- What motivates you to work?
- What motivates you to perform your job well?
- What motivates you in life?
- What motivates you other than a paycheck?
How to answer “What motivates you?” in four steps
Talking about your professional motivations is simpler than you might think. Being genuine and connecting your answer to the role you're pursuing is often enough to impress employers. Here's how to craft the perfect response:
1. Figure out what motivates you based on past experiences
“Think about what you’re passionate about,” says Jennifer Sukola, Muse career coach and human resources professional. “What is it that you find most gratifying in your work?” If you can pinpoint those things, she explains, you have the basis of your answer.
Take some time to mull over—and maybe even write out in a list—the aspects of previous jobs that excited and energized you most, the ones you always wanted to do more of or wished were your entire job.
Perhaps it was being an active member of a team and contributing to a big project. Or maybe it was speaking to customers and making them feel heard. Or it might have been seeing your sales numbers go up and your name climb the leaderboard. Maybe it wasn’t something related to your day-to-day responsibilities at all, but something about the mission of the company or who it served.
“It’s definitely worth doing some self-reflection on, even if it’s not for an interview,” says Tara Goodfellow, Muse career coach and owner of Athena Consultants, Inc.
Examples of motivations to talk about in a job interview
If you’re struggling to come up with what part of your jobs have motivated you in the past, this list might get you started. Just remember that your answer needs to be personal and specific. You might be motivated by:
- Being a helpful and dependable team member
- Coming up with an innovative product or solution
- Conceiving of a new product, project, or initiative and seeing it through to completion
- Contributing to a team or helping them achieve a goal
- Contributing to a company mission that you care about
- Creating work products that help others (coworkers, clients, customers, etc.)
- Creating work products with qualities that are important to you (for example, creative, streamlined, entertaining, easy-to-use)
- Developing expertise in a certain area
- Helping people solve problems
- Learning new skills and/or information
- Overcoming challenges
- Providing excellent customer service
- Providing resources
- Setting and achieving (or exceeding) goals
- Training or teaching others
2. Pick a motivation that is aligned with the position
It almost goes without saying that one person could be motivated by many things, depending on the context. In a job interview, you should pick one career-focused idea that’s relevant to the role and company you’re applying for. “If it’s a small startup and growing company and you are motivated by learning new things and being challenged, that’s a great answer because that’s going to be the environment you’re in,” Goodfellow says.
Sukola says the job description itself can help you “make a list of things before the interview of what you’d be doing and what’s gratifying out of those.” Pick out the aspects of the job that make your eyes open wide and get you excited just thinking about them. “Then you can tie it back to what motivates you,” she says.
For example, suppose you’re looking at a job description for a business intelligence analyst role. You don’t mind pulling data and crunching numbers. However, what really catches your eye is that the job would require talking to colleagues across the company to understand their needs, helping them translate those into data requests.
When you’re constructing your answer, you can connect your motivation—in this case, it’s helping colleagues tap into the power of data—to the role you’re interviewing for. For instance, you could say something like, “That’s one of the things that excites me about this job. I could channel that motivation to play a part in cross-functional collaboration that will make everyone feel they can understand and make use of the data we’re collecting without being daunted by it.”
3. Be genuine and give an honest answer
Don’t get so carried away tailoring a perfect response based on the role and the company that you lose what actually motivates you in the process. “If it doesn’t feel like an honest statement to you, it won’t for the listener,” Nathan says. As you ponder and plan your answer, be wary of one that you think sounds good but isn’t authentic. “If it doesn’t really speak to you, it’s going to be received as very phony.”
The danger isn’t just that your nicely packaged but misleading answer will cost you the job. Perhaps even worse, if your response does somehow pass muster, you might actually get the job—only to be miserable later because the day-to-day work and incentives don’t resonate with you.
“It’s really helpful to think, ‘OK, is this going to get me energized and engaged at least 80% of the week to jump up and go to work?’” Goodfellow says. Asking yourself if this job will keep you motivated most of the time, Nathan says, is “a good way to screen yourself—like, is this even the role that makes sense for you as a candidate?”
4. Illustrate your response with a story
The key to an effective answer that won’t sound like every other candidate’s is to be specific and illustrate your response with an example. Stories are memorable and persuasive, so use one to your advantage.
“The example doesn’t have to be, ‘I increased the revenue 20% or saved the company $2 million,’” Goodfellow says. “I think a lot of people avoid giving examples because of that. It’s like, ‘Well, I haven’t really done anything that amazing.’ But that’s not the case.”
If you haven’t fought off villains wearing a cape and saved the world from certain destruction, that’s OK. Your story doesn’t have to be fit for a superhero blockbuster. It just has to demonstrate that you’d be a great hire for this role.
Go back to one of those experiences you reflected on that gave you a boost of energy and made you feel excited to be doing your job, and tell that story briefly as part of your answer.
“What motivates you?” sample answers
Now that you have a better understanding of the reasons interviewers are asking this question and the general strategy for answering it, you can compose a brief but memorable response. Here are a few examples of what that could look like:
Example #1: For someone motivated by new experiences
I’m driven primarily by my desire to learn new things—big or small—and take on new responsibilities so that I’m constantly growing as an employee and contributing more to my team and organization.
I spent several summers working as a camp counselor and felt most fulfilled when I volunteered to lead planning for a talent show, jumped in to help with scheduling logistics, and learned how to run pickups efficiently.
All of that experience helped immensely when I took a step up to become the lead counselor last year focused on operations, and that’s what excites me so much about the opportunity to take on this managerial role for the after-school program.
Example #2: For someone motivated by thoroughness
I believe that even the smallest details can make a big difference, especially to a busy executive. Luckily, I genuinely love to exhaustively review, check, confirm, and anticipate to ensure nothing slips through the cracks. In a past job, I was in charge of travel arrangements. It became a kind of running joke that I’d always think seven steps ahead and very nearly predict the future.
For example, calling the hotel to check which rooms were quietest, arranging for tea with honey and lozenges to be waiting if someone was losing their voice before a speaking engagement. Also, making sure there were extra copies of speeches printed in large font tucked in bags and waiting at the venue. It always energized me to know I’d thought of everything, and that same motivation would allow me to support the C-suite here as an executive assistant.
Example #3: For someone who is motivated by achieving goals and competing with others
I thrive on hitting and exceeding goals and on friendly competition. I’m the kind of person who looks for spinning classes with leaderboards and joins three different step challenges simultaneously. In my last sales job, we had a screen that showed real-time updates and listed team members based on progress toward quarterly goals.
Not only did I not rest until I’d reached at least 100% of my goal, but I also always got an extra burst of motivation if I wasn’t in one of the top spots. One quarter, I started out lower on the list than usual, but it only made me work harder than I ever had.
I was scheduling extra calls and meetings and spending long hours understanding prospective clients’ needs to tailor my pitches. I ended up 108% to goal and second on the team. The friendly competition you described fostering on the sales team here would motivate me to succeed in the same way.
Example #4: For someone who’s motivated by helping people
love talking to people. And I find it incredibly gratifying to make sure they feel heard and their problems are resolved. When I was working in retail, I thrived out on the floor. I remember one woman who came in looking for a dress for her son’s college graduation. He was the first in the family to attend college and the occasion meant a lot to her.
I spent almost an hour with her on and off, listening, helping find options, and checking in. She came back three days before the event, worked up because the zipper had broken. We’d sold out of her size, but I calmed her down and reassured her we’d find a solution.
I arranged for a dress to be sent from another store just in time. She later dropped off a thank you note and a photo of her with her son at the graduation, both beaming. Every customer has a story and I’m motivated to make sure each and every one ends well. That’s why I was drawn to the customer service specialist role.
Example #5: For someone who's motivated by developing new skills
I’ve always loved learning new things, since I was a kid. I find it extremely motivating to know that I can excel at anything I dedicate myself to learning and practicing. That’s one of the things that excites me about this job. I see that I’d be involved in cross-functional collaboration, which will expose me to different forms of content creation, especially video and podcasts—for which I’ve recently started a certification.
Example #6: For someone who's motivated by making a difference
What motivates me to work is making a difference and changing people's lives somehow. That’s why I volunteered at a women’s shelter for two years after finishing college. I witnessed firsthand how a little help and support can turn someone's life around for the better. I'm very driven by the opportunity to use my privilege to keep helping people thrive.
Example #7: For someone who's motivated by getting great results
My biggest motivation is seeing the results of my work. The more I see projects turning out great, receiving compliments from clients, and achieving important KPIs, the more excited I am to work on the next ones. In my current job, we needed to increase sales by 7% in the first trimester, and I challenged myself to lead my team to achieve at least 8%. After much hard work, we reached 8.5%. In the second trimester, I aimed for 10%, and that drive is what keeps me going.
Example #8: For freshers with limited or no work experience
If you don't have work experience yet, you can still come up with a good answer. Think back to high school or college, if you went, and what kept you motivated in your classes, group projects, or extracurriculars. For example, did you aim for good grades? Did you enjoy working with others? Or maybe you really liked making presentations and turning ideas into action? You could say something like:
During college, I was always motivated by teamwork. While I'm great at working independently, I thrive even more when collaborating with others. The challenge of leading a team, brainstorming ideas, and delegating tasks to achieve the intended results is what excites me every day. That’s probably one of the reasons why I received some of my highest grades in group projects.
Mistakes to avoid when answering “What motivates you?”
Now that you know what to do, let's take a look at what not to do when answering this question. These are some of the most common mistakes candidates make during interviews, and you should avoid them if you want to get hired:
- Being inauthentic: Interviewers can usually tell when you're not being honest with your answer, as they evaluate dozens of candidates daily. Avoid saying something you think they want to hear, like an altruistic or selfless response such as “helping others,” and instead, be authentic.
- Being unprofessional: It's OK to be yourself, as long as your response and demeanor is professional and appropriate for a job interview. Avoid joking or making sarcastic comments like “I'm motivated by a paycheck.” While we all know that money is a key motivator for most people, employers typically prefer candidates who have motivations beyond just financial gain.
At the end of the day, it’s all about preparation. You likely have good answers to this and many other interview questions—you just need to review your experiences, accomplishments, and interests carefully, find something relevant, and practice your response.
Amanda Cardoso contributed to the latest version of this article.