How to Motivate Someone to Get a Job

Whether you’re a parent or spouse, you might find yourself spending too much time trying to convince someone you care about to get a job. Maybe someone you love is currently in a rut, experienced a business failure, or just got a little too comfortable at home. No matter what the challenge is that’s holding them back from getting a job, we’re going to share how to motivate someone to get a job in different ways, so you can stay connected to them while helping them through this chapter with more encouragement.

How to Motivate Someone to Get a Job

1. Show them what’s possible with money

Most people will say that more money equals more problems, but it usually ends up giving you more solutions. With more money, you can afford to live more comfortably. At total ease. And you’ll be able to support yourself. Whether it’s paying down debt faster, buying a house, attending a good school, or simply buying something that would make you happy, money can open up opportunities for you. If you’re trying to convince someone to get a job, show them all the great things life can do for them with that money. A job provides predictable income you can count on. If someone had a failed business venture and is in denial, remind them that a job can help them get financially on track again. They’ll need to make some money to get themselves back on track again, so that their next business is better positioned.

2. Get them excited about their personal growth

Having a job can help you grow as a person in so many ways. You can improve your ability to connect with others as you’ll often be working with multiple people, which also helps you expand your network. Alternatively, you can grow your skills as you’ll be able to apply them at work regularly. You can also learn from others, exposing yourself to different personality types, ways of living, and possible life paths. Framing your job as an opportunity to grow in different ways can be a great way of looking at it. It’s about leveling up who you are as a person, by surrounding yourself with all these talented people. To motivate someone to get a job, show them all the ways they can grow on an individual level so they could see what’s possible for themselves.

3. Remind them that even billionaires have jobs

It’s very unusual for someone not to have a job. No one ever talks about it, but isn’t it strange that even billionaires have jobs? Elon Musk is the CEO of SpaceX, CEO of Tesla, and CTO of X at the same time. He’s got three jobs! And he’s one of the richest people on the planet! Why do billionaires with unlimited money still work? Because the reality is the beauty of life is all in the challenge of it. You derive meaning in life from being around people, working towards a goal, improving who you are, and trying to grow in a myriad of ways. People think relaxing at home or living on a beach will fulfill them, but sooner or later boredom and depression sets in. Work is important for your mental health. It gives you a reason to get out of bed every day. And a challenge to pursue. People to meet. And so much more. To motivate someone to get a job, help them understand the meaning of work in a well-lived life. Life doesn’t have to be all work, no play. But some work is needed to thrive.

4. Remind them they’re good enough

If the reason why someone isn’t motivated to get a job is because they’re discouraged, remind them that they’re good enough to get a job. Sometimes, setbacks, such as layoffs can make people feel insecure about their capabilities. For some people, the gap between jobs lasts months and sometimes a full year. Seeing rejection after rejection, they begin to pull themselves away from trying, feeling discouraged, hopeless, and like a failure. Some people might think they’ve chosen the wrong career path or like they just can’t get anything right. Giving them a pep talk to tell them all the extraordinary things they’ve accomplished, everything you love about them, and all the success they can still achieve in life might help push them back on the right track. Sometimes, people just need to know that they’re good enough and a rough patch isn’t the end of the road, just a road with a big, messy puddle.

5. Help them track their progress

Sometimes, to motivate someone to get a job you’ve got to start them off on some baby steps. A good way to get them started is by using a job tracker like Huntr. You can add jobs you’ve applied to, to the tool automatically by installing the Chrome extension. So, you keep track of all the places you’ve applied to in one place. You can use a tool like Huntr to encourage someone to get a job, by helping them along the way, monitoring their progress, using the data to help them understand how many jobs they need to apply to to get enough interviews.

6. Show them how easy resume building is

Creating a resume can feel daunting when you’re going through a rut, hard time, or lacking motivation. It can feel like it’ll take you hours to complete, when in actuality building a resume has never been easier. On Huntr, you can use a LinkedIn importer to add specific jobs to your resume in only a few clicks. Plus, Huntr allows you to add AI suggestions to your resume based on your relevant work experience to help you modify your resume as needed. Plus, if you want to tailor your resume to a job, you’ll be able to get a resume score to see how well your experience lines up to a job, so you can better modify your resume for a specific job posting (and all you need to do is add the job link). You can motivate someone to get a job by showcasing the ease of which resume building has become so they stop pushing it off. It really shouldn’t take more than an hour of playing around to create a base resume (and it’ll probably be done in even less time).

7. Introduce them to successful people

To motivate someone to get a job, you might want to introduce them to some happy, successful people. Of course, introducing them to a successful person who’s burned out and exhausted isn’t going to encourage them to go out there and get a job. However, if you find someone who’s achieved success in their career, feels at peace in their life, and is happy with who they are, it might inspire your friend or family member to get a job. A successful person might even be able to help them see their potential. A successful person can help motivate someone to see their own capabilities and channel them onto the right path of where they should direct their focus.

8. Remind them of work-life balance

People who often talk about work-life balance often talk about adding more play into their life rather than work. However, the reverse can be problematic as well. Too much play can cause depression. Many highly successful people strive for a retirement or a business sale. However, once they have made enough money to spend their time as they wish and are officially work-free, they often fall into a depression or rut. They start out by spending their days learning new things, but eventually life starts to blur and lose meaning. Slowly but surely, it’s noticeable that they’ve developed a sort of depression. That’s because going to work, working towards a mission or cause, interacting with multiple people, and having a reason to get out of bed (to work on said mission) all play a role in your fulfillment in life. Work life balance truly is about striking the balance between work and play rather than trying to lean more towards one side or the other.

9. Provide them emotional support

Often, when we’re trying to motivate someone to get a job, we push them further away from our goal of getting them to seek employment because of how we communicate. We might communicate with anger, annoyance or even frustration. And naturally, no one listens to someone when they’re mad. We tune them out. To make an emotional connection with someone, you need to be able to provide them the emotional support they need to make the transition back to work as smooth as possible. You need to be their hype person, be their source of encouragement, and remind them of their value.

10. Share job fairs, career coaches, or employment offices

To motivate someone to get a job, you need to connect them to the right places or people. For example, attending a job fair with them to help them interact with recruiters or hiring managers can help build their confidence in communicating with others (especially if they’ve never had a job or have been out of work for a while). You might also introduce them to a career coach, who can help them along the way, give them guidance about the best jobs, how to talk about employment gaps, build confidence, help them prepare for interviews, and more. And you could also direct them to their local employment office to help them by giving them advice, giving them job boards to check out and jobs to apply to, and help them build new skills or retrain them in their field.

11. Give them a list of their skills

One of the reasons why people don’t have jobs is because they might not think they have the right skills to get one. By telling them about all of the amazing soft and hard skills someone has, you can point them in the right direction of what kind of jobs to go after. You don’t need a fancy education or a ton of work experience to get a good job. Even an entry level job at McDonalds can eventually lead to a senior management position at the company or a role in head office. Experience is built with time, practice, and effort. If you’re open to learning new skills and mastering your current set of skills, you can achieve great things in life. Where you start doesn’t need to be where you end up.

12. Encourage them to do personality tests

While your personality isn’t fixed and can evolve over time, a personality test can help you discover new career paths you may find intriguing based on who you are right now. There are numerous types of personality tests, such as Myers Briggs, Enneagram, Big 5 Personality, True Colors, and more. Within these personality tests, you’ll find career options that make sense for your personality type. For example, those who are ENTJ for Myers Briggs will be drawn to executive, sales, political, and medical roles just to name a few. After doing a personality test, you’ll naturally start to see possibilities that make sense for the person you’re trying to motivate. As a result, they may start working towards a specific career path because there’s now some intrigue in having a job that’s suited to their personality.

13. Help them gain experience through volunteering or internships

If someone isn’t motivated to get a job because they don’t have enough relevant experience to get a good one (or one they deem worthy) you can encourage them to gain some newfound experience through volunteering or internships. Volunteering and internships are typically lower commitment than a job but often help you build the foundational skills needed to land a role in specific industries to help them. Plus, they’re great opportunities for building soft skills, such as communication, team work, time management, and problem solving.

14. Celebrate their wins

Throughout their job search journey, celebrate their wins. Hyping someone up along the way will help motivate them to get a job. It’s about celebrating each interview they land. Giving them pep talks to frame their mindset before interviews too. Ultimately, by being positive throughout the entire experience it helps them get out of negative thinking, self doubt, or imposter syndrome in case they feel anxious or nervous about the process.

15. Explain that their contribution is needed

The last way to motivate someone to get a job is to tell them the truth: that their contribution is needed. For instance, an out of work spouse can put a financial drain on a household. With layoffs happening constantly, it puts your family at financial risk. We live in a dual income society. Most families need to have both spouses work in order to manage living expenses. Asking someone to be an equal financial contributor is often a necessity rather than a nice to have. Sometimes, you just need to show someone the books to help them understand the financial situation and the importance of their contribution to the family financially.

Helping someone get a job

Now that you know how to motivate someone to get a job, it’s time to help them on their journey. There are so many helpful job search tools out there to help people break through job gaps or ruts to land their next role. You can use Huntr as a resume builder with a little help from AI, resume tailor to craft a resume specifically for a job posting, job tracker to organize your job search, AI cover letter generator, or come up with mock interview questions. Sign up for Huntr today!