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Test Candidates

The motivation and drives questionnaire

What matters to you at work, placed in order. No clock, no right answer, and nothing to prepare.

Last updated 20 September 2026

The drives questionnaire asks what motivates you at work. Like the personality questionnaire, it describes you rather than testing you.

What the drives questionnaire looks like

Statements about things that can matter at work, which you place in order of how much they matter to you. Recognition, security, variety, independence, progression and the like.

There is no clock and no right order

Nothing is timed and no arrangement scores better than another. An employer looking at this is asking whether what motivates you is something the role actually offers.

Why the ordering feels hard

Because everything on the list is worth having. Being asked to rank things you genuinely value is uncomfortable in a way that choosing between right and wrong answers is not.

The useful question to ask yourself is not "is this good?" but "if I had to give one of these up, which would I miss least?" The ordering that comes out of that is the honest one.

Answer for the work you want, not the job you are applying for

It is tempting to order it as you imagine this employer wants. Resist it for the same reason as the personality questionnaire: a role that matches an invented version of you is a role you will not enjoy.

If what motivates you is not what the role offers, both of you are better off knowing now.

What the employer sees

An ordered picture of what drives you, alongside the rest of your assessment. It is context for a conversation rather than a pass mark.