This study reports on findings from an investigation into the reasons for year 1 students from the English Language Teaching Department at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey, for choosing teaching as a field of study and future career. A questionnaire comprising of open-ended questions was employed to decipher the reasons of 96 participants. Content analysis of the emergent data revealed 20 reasons which were broadly categorized as intrinsic, extrinsic, and altruistic. Participants, in general, reported more intrinsic reasons than extrinsic reasons. Unlike those reported in the field, altruistic reasons were much fewer than other types of reasons. A further motivational clustering of students showed that the majority of students had a mixture of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The data also indicated possible gender related differences. The study concludes that although student teachers are intrinsically motivated, this motivation may need to be maintained so as to be long term. Further, the study calls for measures to be taken to control possible methodological biases.