Measuring the Motivation of Job Candidates from the Language They Use

Mike Campion

02-06-2025

A job candidate’s level of motivation is one of the most important characteristics to evaluate when hiring. Will the candidate work hard to perform at a high level on the job if hired? The problem is that candidates know this is being evaluated as well, and they will try to manage the impressions they make, likely even exaggerating their level of motivation in interviews and application materials. There is extensive evidence that job candidates will try to manage their impressions in the hiring process, including outright faking.

Existing measures of candidate motivation are self-assessed personality questionnaires or the judgment of recruiters or hiring managers based on applications and interviews. Instead, it may be better to measure candidate motivation based on the words they use, rather than their descriptions of their motivation. Do the candidate’s words reflect motivational thought and actions? For example, words like accomplish, adapt, cause, change, dedicate, resolve, develop, engage, execute, fulfill, help and hundreds of others reflect behaviors, activities, thoughts, outcomes, traits and other indicators of motivation.

Our research measured motivation based on the language used by job candidates rather than relying on their descriptions of their motivation. We used Natural Language Processing (NLP), which is a computerized machine learning technology for analyzing human language, to detect and score over 600 words and phrases reflecting motivation in narrative application information (e.g., descriptions of past jobs, essays, interview responses). Measuring motivation in this way is not only less fakable by candidates, it does not require collecting additional information from candidates or administering more assessments because it is based on information already collected in interviews and applications. We call this “passive scoring.”

The words reflecting motivation were measured with four “word dictionaries” that reflect various types of motivation.

1. Proactivity is the tendency to anticipate future situations and to take initiative, including the motivation to pursue, plan, prepare and make things happen, even without being told.
2. Grit is the motivation to persevere long-term in the face of challenging circumstances, to sustain interest and apply persistent effort over time, to recover from stress or setbacks, to make autonomous choices and to control short-term impulses by patiently awaiting future rewards.
3. Enthusiasm is the expression of interest, joy, and excitement toward the job opportunity. Individuals high on enthusiasm likely display high levels of motivation, energy, involvement and interest in the work itself.
4. Empathy is the propensity to be aware of, relate to and understand the feelings and experiences of others, and to listen to what others have to say and recognize their points of view.

Our research shows that NLP word dictionaries provide a reliable and valid method for measuring motivation in job candidates. We applied these dictionaries to text responses from applications and interviews to predict hiring ratings and job performance in six studies of 12 samples (total N = 67,652), including employment and school settings, experimental and actual hiring studies, various research designs, and occupations ranging from hourly and skilled jobs, to professional and manager jobs, including medical students.

Results showed consistent prediction of hiring ratings by recruiters and interviewers in every study, including job performance. The correlations with the motivational dictionaries are smaller than for competencies and larger than personality-based dictionaries. They are large enough to be highly useful for hiring, and they are an easy way to add value to the quality of the hiring process with no additional effort for the candidate or the organization.