Career motivation questions

Many candidates struggle to articulate their motivation for pursuing a particular career. However, this can be an incredibly important element of applications and interviews, so you should give your motivations some serious thought when preparing. 

Examples of career motivation questions

Q. What influenced your decision to pursue this particular career?

This is the question that most commonly arises, so I have covered it in detail throughout this section.

Q. Which other professions have you considered and why did you not want to pursue them instead?

This type of question is designed to test whether you have properly explored your options, which will be seen as a sensible approach when it comes to potentially defining the rest of your working life. It’s absolutely fine to mention other industries (e.g. aspiring commercial lawyers could mention that they have considered a career as a barrister), as long as you’re able to explain why you have a preference for the role to which you’re currently applying.

Q. What is your understanding of the role for which you are applying?

This isn’t a question that people necessarily give much thought to. However, how can you credibly claim that you want to carry out a role if you’re unable to explain what the role will involve! Make sure you are able to deliver a solid answer to this question, as it’s designed to assess whether you have truly thought about the career, and test whether your motivations are credible. 

Q. Where do you see yourself in 10 years’ time? 

This question is designed to test whether you have thought about the career in the long-term. You don’t need to say you’re 100% sure you’ll want to remain in the career for a decade or more (if anything, this may come across a naïve), but stating that you hope you will enjoy the career, excel in your role, and progressed up the ranks to a certain position by then is a fair way of approaching your answer.

Structuring your answer

When discussing your career motivation, explain the path that has led you to deciding to pursue a career in the relevant industry and tell the story of how your interest has developed. This can help you to articulate your motivations, whilst also making your answer seem more genuine and credible. After all, nobody will believe you if you simply say that you’ve wanted to be a lawyer/banker/consultant/accountant/actuary since the age of 5! On the next page, we suggest a potential structure to help you along the way.

1. What sparked your initial interest?

Perhaps start by explaining what sparked your initial interest in the career (either the specific role, or the industry more generally). For instance, when and why did your interest in your chosen career first materialise? Was it a conversation you had whilst at school? A particular school or university module? An insight you gained from a career fair? A particular stint of work experience? 

2. How did you explore this interest?

Next, explain what action you took to explore this interest. For example, did you decide to study your degree subject on this basis, attend employer events or apply for work experience?

3. Explain what you learned and why this appealed

You can then start to explain how your research and exploration confirmed that this was the right career for you, by noting the aspects of the career that resonate with your skills, interests and ambitions. Perhaps it’s the intellectual fulfilment, nature of the work, client-facing elements and focus on teamwork? Or is it your interest in the broader commercial impacts of professional services advice on clients’ businesses?

4. Relate your answers back to yourself

The key to all the above is relating your answers back to yourself. For example, why does the prospect of an intellectual challenge appeal? How have your experiences helped to influence/inform your decision? What have you done to learn more about the career? 

Drawing out your motivations

Below are some of the aspects that you may want to keep in mind when considering your personal reasons for pursuing your chosen career. However, this list is by no means exhaustive – these are just a handful of examples to guide you – so it’s imperative that you think about your own personal motivations so that you can then relate your answers back to yourself. I cannot stress this enough. Relating motivations back to your personal experiences, ambitions and interests is a key feature that distinguishes distinctive, credible answer from generic and unconvincing  answers.

The career aligns with your interests

If you feel that the work conducted by the firm/division to which you are applying aligns with your personal interests, this could be a motivation that you articulate on an application form or during an interview. If this is the case, then explain what initially made you want to work in a commercial domain and how you then pursued this interest and discovered that commercial law/banking/audit/consultancy (etc.) was the career for you. 

Potential considerations

• Have you particularly enjoyed studying school subjects or university modules (e.g. Economics, Business, Finance, or commercially-oriented Law modules such as Contract) that relate to your chosen career? 
• Have you undertaken relevant work experiences that you found especially interesting? If so, why? 
• Have you enjoyed certain elements of your studies or extracurricular activities that you believe will form an integral part of your chosen career, for instance researching, problem solving, working in a team, or presenting? 

You might also be interested in, for example, working predominantly in teams, working in an industry that is facing constant change and disruption, or carrying out a client-facing role with the opportunity to build professional relationships.

Discussing other careers that you have considered can help to validate your answers. If you have undertaken internships at other types of professional services firms, mention the elements of these careers that appealed less and explain the elements of your chosen career that appeal to a greater degree. For instance, if you decide you want to be a commercial lawyer but have previously undertaken an investment banking internship, explain what you liked less about investment banking (perhaps the focus on numbers?) and then explain the elements of a career in commercial law that appeal to a greater extent (perhaps the focus on language?).

The nature of the work appeals

You could also explain why you feel that the nature of the work will appeal and perhaps elaborate on how this suggests your career will be fulfilling in the longer-term. 

Potential considerations

• Are you likely to carry out unique, interesting work that provides a constant intellectual challenge? If so, does this suggest you will rarely find yourself clock-watching or feeling intellectually unfulfilled? Or does the pressurised, dynamic nature of the work suggest a career will remain interesting, varied and stimulating?
• Do you particularly enjoy the challenge of identifying and mitigating risks? Are you attracted to the prospect of problem solving on a daily basis, carrying out in-depth research, or contributing to the commercial decisions of large corporate clients?
• Are you interested in regularly working for high profile-clients on headline-grabbing deals? If so, is this because you’re particularly interested in the broader commercial impacts of professional services advice on clients’ businesses?

If a career appeals for any of these reasons, make sure you then explain why this is the case. Support your statements by providing personal examples to illustrate that certain aspects of the career genuinely appeal. Tie it back to your personal experiences, ambitions and interests! 

Potential considerations

• Have you particularly enjoyed working in a similar working environment (e.g. spending long hours undertaking challenging work) in the past when engaging in group projects or work experience? 
• Have you enjoyed participating in workshops designed to simulate the type of work in which the firm engages? 
• If you have not accumulated such experiences, have you experienced the opposite type of working environment, with no stress, few working hours and little intellectual engagement? If so, did this make you realise that you would prefer to work in a more pressurised or dynamic environment? 

I had taken on a variety of jobs throughout my education, including a paper round, a job pushing trolleys in a supermarket and a job lifting wooden planks up staircases on a building site. I compared these experiences to my chosen career, explaining that although my previous jobs typically involved favourable working hours and little stress, I had not felt intellectually engaged and felt that I had lacked the opportunity to significantly develop my personal skills and capabilities. This meant that I lacked a sense of personal fulfilment and achievement, which is why I wanted instead to pursue an intellectually challenging career and work in a dynamic and pressurised working environment.

The international element appeals

If you are interviewing at an international firm, explain why the international element of the career appeals. How can you demonstrate your desire to work on international transactions? Have you chosen to study abroad, attended international study programmes, travelled extensively or elected to learn multiple languages? 

If not, do you simply feel that the opportunity to engage in complex, cross-border transactions will provide the greatest possible intellectual challenge? Or does the prospect of working with other employees and clients from a variety of countries and cultures indicate your career will remain interesting and varied? To substantiate such a claim, you could relay any positive past experiences you may have had when working in a team with people from a variety of different backgrounds.