Know Thyselfby Silenos Works

Work & Career

Career Interests

Your Holland code: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional

  • About 8 minutes
  • 60 questions
  • 6 dimensions
  • 6 illustrated results
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Illustration: Career Interests

This inventory lists activities from many kinds of work, from rebuilding an engine to running a support group. For each one, ask yourself a single question: would I enjoy doing this? Do not worry about whether you have the training, how much it pays or what other people would think. Answer quickly; your first reaction is the most informative.

A few questions ask you to pick one of three options. At the end you get your three-letter Holland code, a hexagon of your six interest areas and a list of occupations whose typical interests match yours.

What it measures

Realistic

Hands-on work with tools, machines, materials, plants and animals, often outdoors or physically active.

Low: Building, repairing and physical work hold little appeal for you as a job.

High: You enjoy practical, tangible work where the result is something you can see and touch.

Investigative

Observing, researching, analysing and solving intellectual problems, especially in science, medicine and technology.

Low: Research, theory and abstract problem-solving are not where your energy goes.

High: You are drawn to questions, evidence and figuring out how and why things work.

Artistic

Creating, designing, performing and expressing ideas in words, images, sound or movement.

Low: Open-ended creative work and self-expression are not what you look for in a job.

High: You want room to imagine, design and express, and you dislike rigid templates.

Social

Helping, teaching, caring for, advising and serving other people.

Low: Work centred on caring for, teaching or advising people is not a strong draw for you.

High: You find meaning in helping people learn, heal and grow.

Enterprising

Persuading, leading, selling, negotiating and starting ventures; pursuing goals, influence and results.

Low: Selling, persuading and taking charge of ventures do not appeal much to you.

High: You enjoy influence, competition and making things happen with and through people.

Conventional

Organizing information, records, numbers and procedures; working accurately within clear systems.

Low: Detailed record-keeping and structured procedures feel confining to you.

High: You like order, accuracy and well-run systems, and you take pride in getting details right.

Possible results

About this test

In the 1950s the psychologist John L. Holland proposed that both people and work environments can be described by six broad interest types: Realistic (hands-on work with things, tools, machines and nature), Investigative (ideas, science and analysis), Artistic (creating and expressing), Social (helping, teaching and caring), Enterprising (persuading, leading and selling) and Conventional (organizing data, records and systems). He arranged them on a hexagon, R-I-A-S-E-C, so that neighbouring types have the most in common and opposite types the least. People tend to be most satisfied and to stay longest in environments that match their interests.

The RIASEC model is the most widely used framework in career guidance. It underlies the Self-Directed Search, the Strong Interest Inventory and the free O*NET Interest Profiler of the U.S. Department of Labor, and meta-analyses support its circular order, although the hexagon fits less neatly in some countries and samples. Interest fit is a modest but real predictor of job satisfaction, performance and persistence.

This test asks about nine activities per type on a five-point scale plus six forced choices. Your code is your three highest areas, in order. Occupations are matched by comparing their three-letter codes, taken from the interest profiles in O*NET OnLine, with your scores, weighting the first letter most. Caveats: interests are not abilities; O*NET's current occupation profiles are partly estimated by machine learning, differ in places from Holland's own classifications, and real jobs vary a lot; scores are relative to the answer range, not to population norms. Interests are also shaped by exposure and stereotypes, so an area that feels foreign may simply be unexplored.

References

For self-reflection and curiosity, not diagnosis. Scores describe how you answered, relative to the possible range; they are not compared with population norms.

Career Interests

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About 8 minutes · 60 questions

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