Teacher career choice has become a prominent field of research in educational sciences over the past decade, with increasing attention to motivations related to adult career change. This study examines the choice of the teaching profession from a life-course and reflexive perspective, employing the FIT-Choice model developed by Watt and Richardson (2007) exclusively as a deductive reference framework, while remaining open to the contextual specificities of Hungarian vocational teacher education. The empirical basis of the research consists of N = 187 motivation letters submitted by applicants to the engineering teacher and economics teacher education programmes at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. The texts were analysed using qualitative methods with the support of Atlas.ti software, applying a combined deductive–inductive coding strategy. The analysis identified six major motivational dimensions, which partially correspond to the theoretical categories of the FIT-Choice model, while also revealing novel, context-specific motives embedded in the Hungarian higher education and societal environment. These findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of contemporary interpretations of the teaching profession within an increasingly unstable social context.