How to answer “What motivates you?”
Say money and they wonder if you'll leave for the next raise. Say passion and it sounds rehearsed. The answer that works names one thing that really drives you, proves it with a moment from your last job, and shows this role has more of it.
What the interviewer is really asking
Will you keep going when the work gets dull? Every job has slow weeks. They want to know what gets you through them.
Does this job have what you need? If you're driven by building new things and the role is mostly maintaining old ones, you'll be gone in a year. A good answer shows the fit.
Do you know yourself? A specific, honest answer tells them you've thought about how you work. A vague one tells them you haven't.
The structure: Name it, prove it, connect it
- Name it. One thing that drives you, said plainly: fixing a problem at its root, seeing a customer's problem go away, getting better at a craft, building something people use. One, not three.
- Prove it. A moment from your last job or from school where that drive made you do something. What you noticed, what you did and what happened.
- Connect it. Why this role gives you more of it. Use something from the job description or the interview so it's clearly about this job and not any job.
Aim for 45 to 75 seconds out loud, roughly 120 to 180 words. It's shorter than a full STAR story, because the example only has to prove the motivation.
An example answer
A customer support specialist applying for a support quality role. Everything in brackets is a fact from your own work.
What drives me is fixing the cause of a problem, not just closing the ticket.
At [company], I noticed [a question customers kept asking] came up about [how often] a week.
Instead of answering it again, I worked with [the team that owned it] to [what you changed, like a help article or a fix],
and those tickets dropped by [an amount you can back up].
That's the part of the job I enjoy most, and it's a big part of this role:
[the responsibility from the job description that matches].
That's why this one stood out to me.
Why it works
- It names one motivation in the first sentence, so the interviewer doesn't have to dig for it.
- The example proves the motivation with something they did, not with adjectives about themselves.
- It ends on this job, which answers what they're really asking: will you be happy here?
- It never says "passionate". The story does that work.
Write your own answer
Paste in your role and a few real facts, and the free answer generator builds this answer around them. It won't invent your numbers: anything only you know comes back in brackets.
Write my answer, freeAdjusting it to where you are
Recent graduate. Use a class project, an internship or a part-time job. Whatever you chose to spend extra time on is good evidence of what drives you.
Career changer. Your motivation is often the reason for the change. Say what pulled you toward the new field and the moment you noticed it.
Manager. Talk about what drives you as a lead: watching someone on your team grow into a bigger role, or getting a stuck project moving. Use one person or one project as the example.
Common mistakes
- Money as the whole answer. Pay matters to everyone, and they know it. Leading with it makes them wonder whether you'll leave for a slightly bigger offer.
- "I'm passionate about..." It's the most common answer, and on its own it proves nothing. Show it with what you did.
- A list of five motivators. Learning, challenges, teamwork, results and helping people covers everyone, so it describes no one. Pick one.
- A motivation the job can't give you. If you love variety and the role is the same task every day, they'll hear that you won't last. Pick something true that this job has.
- Something only from outside work. A hobby is fine for color, but they're hiring you for the job. Tie it back to work.
- Inventing it. Follow-up questions will find a story that didn't happen. Use something that did.
The question you didn't practice
Practicing the common questions helps. The hard part is the one you didn't see coming, asked live while someone waits for you to think. InterviewWhisperer is a Mac app that hears the interviewer and puts an answer like the one above on your screen while you talk, built from your resume and the job description. Your first 30 minutes of live answers are free, no card.
Questions people ask
Can I say money motivates me? You can mention it, just not as the whole answer. "I want to be paid fairly, but what keeps me going day to day is..." is honest, and it moves on to what they need to hear.
Is "what drives you" the same question? Yes. "What drives you", "what gets you out of bed in the morning" and "what do you enjoy most about your work" all take the same answer.
What are good things to say motivate you? Solving hard problems, seeing customers or users helped, learning a new skill fast, hitting a goal you set, building something from scratch, or helping a teammate get better. The best one is whichever is true for you and shows up in this job.
What if I don't know what motivates me? Look at what you volunteered for, what you stayed late on without being asked, or which part of your last job you'd keep if you could keep only one. That's your answer.
How long should my answer be? About 45 to 75 seconds. A sentence naming it, a short example, and a sentence tying it to the role.
More interview questions
- How to answer “Tell me about yourself”
- How to answer “What is your greatest weakness?”
- How to answer “Why do you want to work here?”
- How to answer “Tell me about a time you failed”
- How to answer “Tell me about a conflict with a coworker”
- How to answer “Why should we hire you?”
- How to answer “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
- How to answer “What is your greatest strength?”
- How to answer “Why are you leaving your current job?”
- How to answer “What are your salary expectations?”
- How to answer “How do you handle pressure?”
- How to answer “Tell me about a time you showed leadership”
- How to answer “Do you have any questions for us?”
- How to answer “How do you explain a gap in your resume?”
- All interview questions