The easiest way to answer the question “What is your Passion?” is to simply state the thing you think about most.
Not only is this the honest answer, but it’s also the one that you’ll be able to talk about with the most conviction!
Below are some examples of passionate behaviors that you can peruse to get an idea. Think about which ones resonate with you and use them as a springboard for your own answer to this question!
How to Know what you’re Passionate About
- You Think About It Endlessly – You’ll know you’re passionate about something when you find yourself thinking about it over and over again.
- You Do it in your Spare Time – It’s something that you dedicate your own personal energy toward, not just something you do when you’re paid to do it.
- You Never Give Up on It – People who are passionate do not give up because they believe so wholeheartedly in their cause.
- You Dedicate your Life to It – If you’re passionate enough about something, you will dedicate your life to it. You see this with artists, politicians, and entrepreneurs.
- You Train to Get Better at It – If you’re passionate about sports, you’ll train every day to become the best you can possibly be at the sport.
- You Study your Passion at University – When students graduate high school, they’re often asked: “what are you passionate about?” This question, people say, should influence what you decide to study at university.
- You Volunteer for your Cause – If you’re passionate about animal welfare, then you’ll likely want to volunteer your time to help animals.
- You Blogg About It – If you love something and have a lot to say about it, you might start a blog, podcast, or social media account dedicated to talking about the topic.
“What are you Passionate About?” Examples for a Job Application
1. I’m Passionate About my Career
One of the most common passion examples presented in job interviews is: “I’m passionate about this job – so give it to me!”
While this may be true, you might need to dig a little deeper.
For example, you could say that you’re passionate about your career because:
- The career gives you purpose
- You feel filfilled when you end the day and have done your best
- You want to be the best at what you do
- You have long-term career goals that you desperately want to achieve
When demonstrating your passion for your career, you want to come across as if you’re the sort of employee who will give your best every single day. You want to show that you have initiative, ambition, and work ethic.
2. I’m Passionate About a Cause
The next option would be to talk about a cause that motivates you. Here, the idea is to demonstrate your values to the potential employer.
You would want to show that your values are consistent with a good employee (i.e. you believe in doing your best, being ethical, and being a thoughtful person.
A secondary benefit is that you could demonstrate that your values are consistent with the values of the workplace. For example, if you want a job at a Veterinary office, then showing your passion is animal welfare makes perfect sense.
3. I’m Passionate About my Hobby
When talking about your passion for a hobby, your goal should be to demonstrate that you have drive and purpose.
Employers want to hire people who have energy. They want to hire go-getters and enthusiasts. These are the sorts of people who will have initiative around the office.
They don’t want to employ people who are low-energy and can barely think of something they like to do in their spare time!
So, when talking about your hobby passion, mix in evidence of how this motivates you, how it demonstrates your persistence, and how you have dedicated yourself to it to frame it as an example of commitment and work ethic.
175 Passion Examples (A to Z List)
3D printing | Acting | Animal welfare | Anime |
Antiquing | Ant-keeping | Archaeology | Archery |
Astrology | Astronomy | Backpacking | Badminton |
Baking | Baseball | Basketball | Baton twirling |
Beachcombing | Beatboxing | Beauty pageantry | Beekeeping |
Being a YouTuber | Billiards | Birdwatching | Blogging |
BMX | Board games | Bodybuilding | Bonsai |
Book restoration | Botany | Bowling | Boxing |
Brazilian jiu-jitsu | Breadmaking | Brewing coffee | Bullet journaling |
Calligraphy | Camping | Candle making | Canoeing |
Card games | Cats | Cats | Caving |
Ceramics | Cheerleading | Cheesemaking | Chess |
Collecting stamps | Community activism | Composting | Computer programming |
Cooking | Cosplaying | Creative writing | Cribbage |
Cricket | Crochet | Crystals | Curling |
Darts | Disc golf | DJing | Dogs |
Embroidery | Engraving | Entrepreneurship | Esports |
Fantasy sports | Farming | Fashion | Filmmaking |
Fishing | Fishkeeping | Football | Furniture building |
Gardening | Geocaching | Glassblowing | Go karting |
Golf | Golf | Hairdressing | Hiking |
History | Horsemanship | Human rights | Ice skating |
Interior decorating | Interviewing people | Jewelry making | Jigsaw puzzles |
Judo | Juggling | Karaoke | Karate |
Kitesurfing | Knitting | Leadership | Learning languages |
Listening to music | Listening to podcasts | Livestreaming | Lock picking |
Magic | Makeup | Making money | Making phone apps |
Making podcasts | Making video games | Manga | Marching band |
Meditation | Meteorology | Microscopy | Model building |
Motorcycling | Mountain biking | Your business | Your husband or wife |
Your pets | Your religion | Orienteering | Origami |
Paintball | Painting | Paragliding | Parkour |
Philosophy | Photography | Pickleball | Pilates |
Playing music | Playing Quidditch | Poetry | Politics |
Pottery | Puppetry | Quilting | Railway modelling |
Rapping | Reading | Reptiles | Rock Climbing |
Rock Collecting | Role-playing games | Running | Scrapbooking |
Scuba Diving | Sewing | Singing | Skateboarding |
Skiing or snowboarding | Snowmobiling | Soccer | Sociology |
Sports cars | Stand-up comedy | Surfing | Tarot cards |
Tattoos | Taxidermy | Teaching | Tennis |
The environment | Thrift Shopping | Thru-hiking | Travel |
Ultimate frisbee | Video games | Volunteering | Wood carving |
Working out at the gym | Writing short stories | Yoga |
Passion Examples for Students
- Membership of a Club – If you’re active in a student club, then it’s likely that this is your passion!
- A Life Goal – Talk about the thing you want to achieve in life. It could be related to having a family, moving somewhere, or becoming a respected community member.
- A Specific way you want to Make Positive Change – It could be to invent something to lower greenhouse gasses, educate the youth of tomorrow, or simply improve the local community.
- Your Career Goal – Students should be able to state a lofty career goal, like “Be a CEO of a marketing firm.”
- A Sporting Pursuit – Many students are passionate about a sport. This can help demonstrate your inner drive.
- The Thing you Do During your College Break – It might be traveling, training for a sport, or doing an indoor hobby like arts and crafts.
Examples of Passionate People
- Elon Musk – Musk has created several businesses oriented around solving big problems in the world like climate change (Tesla, Solar City) and space travel (SpaceX).
- Nelson Mandela – Mandela was so passionate about democracy in South Africa that he went to prison for over 10 years for protesting for democracy. He later became the president of South Africa.
- Bill Gates – Gates has been passionate about using technology to improve the world since he was a teenager. He co-founded Microsoft and is now one of the richest men in the world.
- Malala Yousafzai – Malala is a Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban for speaking out against them and advocating for girls’ education. She has since recovered and become a powerful advocate for education and human rights.
- Tony Robins – Tony Robins is a motivational speaker who is passionate about helping other people find their passions!
- Greta Thunberg – Greta is a climate change activist who passionately protested, all alone, in Stockholm to get the world’s attention.
- Bernie Sanders – While he never became president, Sanders was noted as one of the most passionate political leaders in the United States. He advocated for human rights and equality.
Passionate Examples in a Sentence
- She was passionate about human rights.
- Bill Gates is passionate about educating children in Africa.
- The saxaphone player is passionate about jazz music.
- The baseball coach is passionate about winning the tournament.
- The struggling writer is passionate about sharing her first novel.
- The speech was a passionate argument against the government.
Conclusion
Passions are unique to each and every one of us. The above examples should hopefully stimulate some “passionate examples” that you can use as a springboard for your discussion of what you’re passionate about. Try to talk about passions that are not only true passions of yours, but talk about them in a way that demonstrates your initiative, work ethic, and moral values.
Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]