Know your motivation video

Know your motivation video

'Why do you want to do this job/research experience?' is often one of the first questions asked within an application or an interview. It can also be one of the hardest to answer. Understanding what motivates you to do something and what you enjoy helps not only answer this question but also evaluate what sort of career you may want to begin with.

Start with the Careers Snapshot - Reflecting on Motivation video opposite which will help you to adapt your reflections to consider what parts of experiences you enjoy. After that, explore the rest of this page, which gives you some practical tools to help you define what you want. 

A simple way to figure what you like is to reflect on things you’ve done before (e.g. a university or school project, a work or volunteering experience). Even if you didn’t enjoy the experience, try to break it down in parts and consider what gave you a feeling of satisfaction or pride. Identifying these specific elements (e.g. solving a problem, working in a small team) can help you build a list of things you can use to evaluate future opportunities. 

Understanding your motivation, what you enjoy and what you don't is not something that generative AI can do for you. To find out more about using generative AI within your career planning, visit our Generative AI webpage.

Use the practical tools in the drop down content below along with the downloadable Values and needs worksheet  to reflect and focus on what motivates you. Similar to self reflection, there is no right way to do this so we have provided you with different ideas so you can find one the one that works best for you. You can find more ideas on how to do this in the Attributes and Aspirations short course.

Knowing you motivation