Motivation to learn EFL includes not just the desire to become a skilled language user, but also how we regard the target language as being beneficial to our future education and career goals. Using the Dörnyei’s multidimensional motivational model scale, the author investigated the relationship between instrumentality promotion motivation (motives related to aspirations, advancements, and accomplishments leading to future career success) and the experience of online EFL learning. The questionnaire was administered in face-to-face setting to 279 non-English major students of child education at University of Slavonski Brod in Croatia during the 2022. /2023. academic year. The t-test and Kendall’s tau-B coefficient analysis revealed that participants’ attitudes toward particles of the instrumentality-promotion scale positively correlated with their EFL online learning experience. The mean value of participants’ answers to instrumentality-promotion scale particles was modest, ranging from 3.45 to 3.75, with the highest value achieved for particles related to learning EFL for future career advancement and working on a global scale. The results showed a decrease in students’ instrumentality promotion motivation when compared to pre-pandemic research conducted among the similar group of participants in the Croatian context.