Sitting in one office of a major corporation and answering just questions about yourself can be tensing let alone technical questions like what motivates you?
This question can be tricky and you might just end up rambling without saying anything that matters to the organisation. So, your response must be connected to the job in question and honest too. Make use of scenarios or examples so as they interviewers could use their imaginations and have a vivid picture of your response.
Motivation is the drive to succeed at something. This is why the question of motivation is very important to hiring managers, because they want to know what drives you as a person.
Below are ways to answer the motivation question.
First, we all know money often determines whether a prospective employee will take a job or not. However, you don’t have to make your response sound like money is all you want.
Show the hiring managers that you’re not just coming to work for the paycheck but to also contribute to their organization’s growth.
Instead of making it all about money, talk about how having a good career; challenging tasks; meeting deadlines; targets or goals; being in the company of good colleagues; leading a team to success as well as completing a difficult project, and seeing it through to the end can motivate you.
You can also talk about self assessment and improvement as your motivation; and how having a coach or motivating others, learning new things and solving problems could be your sources of motivation.
Here’s an example:
‘As a digital marketer, I usually derive motivation from my involvement in creative projects, teamwork and seeing my effort come to fruition. One of the things I loved about my last job was witnessing the results of our team’s campaigns, and having the opportunity to lead campaigns was one of the reasons I was so excited to apply for this role.”
The things mentioned above are the guidelines to answering questions about motivation. The aforementioned motivating factors are what an hiring manager delights upon and looks out for, because they align with factors that contribute to the growth and success of an organisation.
