What Motivates you? application question

LizD_2

I'm applying for a job and one of the questions is 'What motivates you and what evidence do you have of this?' . I could think of lots of things that motivate me, but I'm hard pushed to give examples. Any tips please?

cazziebo

If you say what motivates you, we could think of different examples that you could adapt to suit. It would also be useful to know what kind of role.

People are motivated by different things. With some it's financial, others it's recognition, for very few people it's just their own sense of contributing or making a difference.

LizD_2

Sorry, it's a sales assistant at a fashion chain.

Main motivation is to get a job to pay off debts, but not sure that would go down so well! I suppose things like making people happy and doing a job well would be motivations for me.

cazziebo

Ok - so you find working with the public rewarding in itself, and this role is going to give you the opportunity to understand what the customer needs, find how best <the store> can match these needs, identify if there is anything else you have on offer that might supplement the initial purchase (i.e. scarf, belt, jewellery, shoes). Result = happy customer. You might also get some satisfaction from working as part of a successful team and in retail you can see the direct link with what you do as a retail assistant with the overall performance of the branch.

So - do you have any experiences that might match that because that would give you the example?

It's also okay to say you need the money as a secondary motivator. You're more likely to turn up every day if you have bills to pay.

DaveTheMus

You could say you're motivated by personal and professional development, this can be demonstrated by the fact I have applied for this job at [company name], because I believe it is the perfect platform to enhance my excellent inter-personal skills and I feel [company name] is the type of organisation where I can fulfill my potential.

You could also say that learning new skills is something that motivates me greatly, the most recent example is when I achieved my first aid badge, a skill i feel will serve me well for the rest of my life.

If you don't have a first aid badge just replace it with something you have achieved under your own volition.....karate blue belt or advanced driving license.

getmore4less

Probably can't say this before a job.

One thing that motivates me is working with motivated, bright people that care and give 100% successfully, even better if it include your customers.

Nothing more demotivating than working with a bunch of under achievers, if they try hard they get a break if they improve.

In a retail environment one of the motivations must be happy customers.

Denning.

These kind of questions don't mean much. Its like dressing professionally and 'Why did you leave your last job?'. Provided you don't give a negative reason, or dress badly, they will tick the box and forget about it.

I_Can_Haz_Job?

I worked in fashion retail a long time ago - it's all about serving the customer, reflecting the brand in a positive way, yadda yadda. It's a case of telling them what they want to hear - without being overly fake. They'd love to hear things along the lines of 'The customer works hard for her wage and so I want to help her treat herself on her visit to our store' and 'I really value the quality and reputation of *insert brand here* and want to be an ambassador'. I worked for a company that rhymes with Fall Paints - very expensive and not that attractive clothing - they do like it if you research the brand and have a few tidbits of product history that you can fling at them eg, 'I thought the S/S 12 line was inspired!' and so on. Good luck x

LizD_2

Thanks for your replies, I've sent the application now, so we'll see what happens.

InsideInsurance

You've sent the application so my advice is a little bit late now but maybe for others how read.

There is a growth in what is commonly called "recruit for attitude" - or at least in the high volume roles that I have been involved in - as high staff turnover is a very expensive issue to have and often several of the drivers for it are evident from the interview.

Take a former client, they had about 8,000 call centre staff of which about 350 were team leaders. Average length of service of advisors was just under 2 years and average length of service for team leaders was around 6 years. So much higher turnover of staff in advisor roles

One question that was asked at interview was "where would you like to be in 2 years time?" Traditionally interviewers loved those that said "team leader", showed the person was motivated and wanted to excel. Problem is, if you recruit around 50% of your staff wanting to be team leaders in 2 years time then over 90% of them are going to be disappointed and demotivated because in two years time they wont have made it.

Whilst you need some turnover and you need some wanting to climb the pole you actually need the majority to be happy doing a fairly mundane job to a fairly good standard for a fairly long time.


It is much better to pitch yourself at what is desired for this role rather than pitching yourself as the potential next CEO

jobbingmusician

Does anyone else on here get all teary when women are 'done over' by Trinny and Susannah, or Gok Wan? That would be my motivation, if I were applying for a fashion retail job: 'I get such pleasure from helping people to choose clothes that really make them feel good, and seeing them walk out of the shop with their purchase, two inches taller because they feel so good'.