Based on survey data collected from 237 principals including narrative responses to open-ended items, this study explores how personal, institutional, and professional factors contribute to interest in principalship in Ethiopia. A key finding indicated earning a degree in a field other than educational leadership diminishes one's proclivity for the principalship while another found working in metropolitan centers boosts the attraction for the role. As political loyalty trumps professional qualification in the appointment of the principalship in Ethiopia, policymakers must decouple politics from the principal recruitment processes, especially in rural schools where encroachment from local administration deters interests in the position.