Hiring-Manager Round

What excites you at work?

By Interview Clozo · Published 27 October 2026 · Last verified 26 October 2026 · 10 min read

A good answer to "What excites you at work?" names one real kind of work that gives you energy, backs it with a specific thing you did, and connects it to the role. A hiring manager checks whether what drives you matches this job. The difference between a mid-level answer and a Staff one (the senior individual-contributor level) lies in the last two sentences: what that energy would build on this team, and what it would cost you.

In this article

Before you start
Why interviewers ask this
What excites you at work from first principles
The Staff-level answer
The rubric
Three variants of this question
Common mistakes
Follow-up questions
Sources

Before you start

This page sits inside the hiring manager interview questions guide, which covers the whole round.

Why interviewers ask this

The cost of a bad answer is a wrong hire in either direction, so a hiring manager asks what excites you to learn whether the daily work will keep you engaged. A candidate energised by work the role barely contains will be unhappy in it.

Many employers, including United States federal agencies, use a structured interview, which the United States Office of Personnel Management describes as a method designed to measure job-related competencies by asking about past behaviour or proposed behaviour in hypothetical situations.

A weak answer is a slogan such as "I love challenges." A strong answer is specific enough that the interviewer can picture the work. A Staff-level answer also shows self-knowledge: it says what the work costs you and where you would need support.

What excites you at work from first principles

Motivation fit: Motivation fit is the match between what energises a candidate and what a given role actually contains day to day, which an interviewer judges from the answers to open questions such as this one, so a strong fit means the daily work gives the candidate more of what they enjoy than it takes away.
Intrinsic motivation: Intrinsic motivation is the drive to do work because the work itself is satisfying, as opposed to doing it for an outside reward such as pay, a title or someone's approval, and it is the kind of drive that can keep a person working on something hard for a long time.
Evidence line: An evidence line is the sentence or two in an answer that describes something you really did, so that a claim about what excites you can be checked against a fact, which turns a vague preference into something an interviewer can picture and test with follow-up questions.

In plain words

Think of a friend who says they love cooking. You believe it more when they mention the stew they spent Sunday perfecting than when they say "food is great." The stew is the proof. The analogy breaks in one place: an interviewer also needs the proof to match the job, not only to be true.

In one precise sentence: your answer should state a kind of work you are drawn to, prove it with one real example, and show that this role gives you more of it.

The self-determination theory overview notes that people are often moved by external factors such as rewards and evaluations, but just as often by interest and curiosity, and that these inner motivations can sustain long effort. An answer about the work itself gives the interviewer evidence of that second kind.

Step 1: Pick one real kind of work, not a trait

Choose a kind of work, such as untangling an unclear problem, teaching a newer teammate or making a slow process fast. A trait such as "I'm passionate" or "I like challenges" fails because anyone can claim it and nobody can check it.

Input: your last few jobs or projects. Output: one sentence that starts "What energises me is ...". Pick one, not three; a list sounds like you want every job. If the same question comes back as a career-direction question, such as whether you see yourself as a lead developer or a manager, the same kind of work is your anchor. You now have the claim. Next you make it believable.

Step 2: Prove it with one evidence line

An evidence line turns the claim into a fact: add one example from your own work where you did that kind of work, and say what happened. Keep it to two or three sentences: the situation, what you did and the result.

Step 2 proves it with one evidence line. Input: the claim from Step 1. Output: an evidence line. A result can be small and still count, for example "the team stopped missing the weekly deadline" or "two new hires ramped up faster." Be ready to explain exactly what your own contributions were, because the interviewer may probe the example. The interviewer now knows the preference is real. What they still do not know is whether this role gives you more of it, and that is Step 3.

Step 3: Tie the energy to this role and name the cost

Close by linking your energy to the specific job, then state honestly what the preference costs. A tie sounds like "From the job description, this team is scaling a young platform, which is the kind of work I described." Research the role first so the tie is true.

The cost is what lifts the answer: "I can over-invest in fixing root causes, so I now agree a time limit with my manager." That sentence shows you know your own pattern and manage it. Input: the role and your claim. Output: one sentence of tie and one of cost. The trap is a tie that is generic enough to fit any company. If it would work unchanged at another employer, rewrite it.

A strong answer moves from a real preference to proof to the role, in that order.CC BY 4.0 — source: What excites you at work?

Step-by-step description

Name one real kind of work.
Add one evidence line.
Link it to this job and name the cost.

Step 1 picks one real kind of work.
Step 2 proves it with one evidence line.
Step 3 ties the energy to this role and names the cost.

Knowing it is half the job. Saying it is the other half.

Interview Clozo is an AI interview copilot for real interview rounds: it hears the question and puts a strong answer on your screen, and you say it in your own words. See the features or how it works.

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The Staff-level answer

The answer below is an illustrative example for an engineering manager role, not a script to read aloud. Use your own work in its place.