How to Answer What Are You Passionate About? Interview Question

  
What are you passionate about?

With this question, the interviewer is trying to work out what motivates you as an individual and whether or not you actively pursue activities that help to get you motivated. It usually will not matter if you answer this question in a way that seems to relate directly to your work, or one which seems to be completely unrelated to it. The end result of you pursuing your passions is always the same. It will make you happier, and a happy worker is a productive worker, and a productive worker has a happy boss. However, you should still exercise caution in ensuring you don’t answer with something that could negatively impact on your job. For example, if you are passionate about breaking the world record for the number of sick days taken in one calendar year, I would recommend you keep it to yourself.

When structuring your response to this question, be sure to include examples of how you are actively engaging in your passions.

Example Answers

For example, "My passion outside of work for the last 7 years has been stock car racing. In my spare time I enjoy maintaining and repairing my race car. I also enter races whenever I can and have had some success in doing so."

This answer shows the interviewer that you have your own way to unwind that will increase the likelihood that your morale will be relatively high. It may also make you sound more interesting and engaging, which in turn, will help create a positive image of you.

Another example, "My passion is finding the solutions to problems that come my way. I have found that working in engineering, as I have for the last 16 years, is the perfect outlet to pursue this passion and I can honestly say I enjoy doing what I do."

This answer is obviously work related and would have a similar effect on the interviewer. As you seem genuinely interested in your job, especially if you can say you have been enjoying it for an extended period of time, you are much more likely to maintain a high level of morale.

Good luck.