Application Questions: Motivation, Skills and Additional Information

Many employers ask applicants to complete an online form as well as submit a CV. Forms often contain open-ended questions with word limits. These may be the first writing a recruiter sees beyond your CV, and one of the clearest ways to distinguish a considered application from a mass application. This guide covers question types, drafting and final checks. See Batch 1, no. 15, for cover letters and no. 16 for the STAR structure; this guide focuses on written answers.

1. Common types of open-ended questions

Based on Prospects’ examples of application-form questions and common employer questions, they generally fall into five groups:

1. Motivation: why this role, this organisation or this industry?
2. Skills: give an example of how you contributed to a team, explained complex information, handled a major challenge, or dealt with a failure or missed deadline.
3. Self-awareness: what are your greatest strengths and weaknesses, or what achievement makes you proudest?
4. Situations or views: what do you think about a change in the industry, or what would you do if you were responsible for a particular task?
5. Additional information: usually a final field such as “Please provide any other information in support of your application.” Prospects specifically advises applicants not to leave this blank. It works much like a cover letter: connect your skills directly to the role’s requirements.

2. How to answer motivation questions

1. Use three layers:
   1. Why this function: explain which experience or course introduced you to this work and what relevant task you have done.
   2. Why this organisation: use specific points that can be verified in public sources, such as its business mix, focus in Hong Kong or the Greater Bay Area, or published training structure.
   3. Why you: name two capabilities relevant to the role and give evidence for each.
2. Avoid generic claims such as “an industry leader”, “a large platform” or “many learning opportunities”. They could apply to any employer and say little.
3. Check the employer’s name carefully. This is one of the most basic mistakes. When reusing an answer, search for every proper noun.
4. Employers in Hong Kong and on the mainland may ask about your long-term plans. If you are a mainland student applying for a Hong Kong role, you can briefly explain your interest in building a career here. You do not need to detail visa arrangements in a motivation answer; answer any dedicated status questions truthfully.

3. How to answer skills questions

1. Give one example per question, chosen for its relevance to the role.
2. Compress STAR for a written answer: use one or two sentences for the Situation and Task, devote more than half the space to Action, state the Result clearly, and add one sentence on what you learned.
3. Say what “I” did. For a team project, explain your role and actions instead of writing only “we”.
4. Be specific about results: time saved, people reached or feedback received. Use only figures that are true and whose source you can explain.
5. For a failure question, such as missing a deadline, Prospects advises explaining the cause and taking responsibility, then focusing on what you changed. Do not blame teammates.
6. For a weakness, choose something real that is not fatal to the role and that you are working to improve.

4. Word limits and formatting

1. A word limit is a ceiling, not a target. Around 80–90% is often enough, while a very short answer may look careless.
2. Draft in a separate document before pasting into the system. Many systems time out, and writing directly into a web form risks losing your work.
3. Check formatting after pasting. Bullets, line breaks and quotation marks may display incorrectly.
4. Check whether the limit counts characters or words. This matters especially when you mix Chinese and English.
5. Some systems do not allow edits after submission. China Merchants Bank’s campus-recruitment FAQ says a submitted CV cannot be changed, so read the complete application before submitting.

5. What to put in the additional-information field

1. Relevant material that does not fit in your CV, such as the context of a project and your specific contribution.
2. A circumstance that needs explanation, such as a notable drop in grades during one term, an interruption in study or a change of major. See no. 19 in this batch. Keep it brief, factual and focused on the present.
3. The actual setting in which you used a language, such as speaking Cantonese with customers during an internship.
4. Do not use it for unrelated personal stories, comments on another employer or salary expectations, unless the form specifically asks.

6. Appropriate uses of AI

1. AI can help check grammar, shorten an answer or assess whether the logic is clear.
2. Do not ask AI to invent experiences or examples. Prospects warns that exaggerating skills or fabricating experience can lead to rejection and have lasting consequences if discovered after hiring. Interviewers may also probe what you wrote.
3. If you use AI to generate many applications, the answers may sound alike. Motivation answers especially need your own specific details.
4. Some employers set rules on AI use in their application instructions. Follow those instructions.

7. Reusing answers

1. Keep an answer bank organised by question type and note which employers received each version.
2. You can reuse an example for a skills question, but adjust the emphasis to the role.
3. Rewrite the organisation-specific part of every motivation answer. Do not merely replace the employer’s name.
4. In the tracker (see no. 1 in this batch), record which examples you used for each application. Review them before the interview so that your spoken and written answers agree.

8. Pre-submission checklist

1. Does each answer respond to the question asked, rather than the point you wanted to make?
2. Are the employer, role and department names correct?
3. Is your own action clear in every example?
4. Are all figures accurate and explainable?
5. Are the answers within the limits and formatted correctly?
6. Have you completed the additional-information field?
7. Have you saved a copy of what you submitted?

Sources

• Prospects, “Example application form questions and answers”, checked 20 October 2026.
• Prospects, “How to write a successful job application”, checked 20 October 2026.
• Prospects, “Using generative AI in job applications”, checked 20 October 2026.
• China Merchants Bank Campus Recruitment FAQ, checked 20 October 2026.