RIASEC test

What a RIASEC test measures

A RIASEC test measures vocational interests: which kinds of work activity you would enjoy, independent of whether you are trained for them yet. It is built on John Holland’s theory that people and work environments can both be described by six types, and that people are more satisfied in environments that match their interests. The six types are:

• Realistic: practical, hands-on work with tools, materials, machines and the outdoors.
• Investigative: studying, analysing and solving scientific or intellectual problems.
• Artistic: creative work in writing, music, design and performance.
• Social: helping, teaching, counselling and supporting people.
• Enterprising: leading, persuading, selling, negotiating and running things.
• Conventional: organising information, records, numbers and structured processes.

Your three strongest interests, in order, form your Holland code. Career databases such as O*NET OnLine list occupations by code, so a result such as IRC or SEA becomes a starting point for browsing careers rather than a label.

How this free test works

• 30 work activities, about 5 minutes, no deadline. Five activities per interest area, each rated from strongly dislike to strongly like.
• The O*NET Mini Interest Profiler, reproduced without changes to its items, order, response scale or scoring.
• Six scores from 0 to 20, one per interest area, and a three-letter code from your top three when their order is unambiguous. Ties are shown, not hidden.
• A short description of each interest area on your result.
• An optional shareable result with all six scores on one card, a permanent link, preview image and an Add to LinkedIn profile button.

Sample RIASEC activities

Rate how much you would enjoy doing each activity, not whether you could do it today.

• “Build kitchen cabinets” (Realistic)
• “Develop a new medicine” (Investigative)
• “Write books or plays” (Artistic)
• “Help people with personal or emotional problems” (Social)
• “Manage a department within a large company” (Enterprising)
• “Install software across computers on a large network” (Conventional)

Someone who answers “strongly like” to the first two and “dislike” to the rest will see Realistic and Investigative at the top, with a code that starts RI or IR.

How to get a useful RIASEC result

1. Rate enjoyment, not ability or pay. The instructions are explicit: think about whether you would like the work, not about training or salary.
2. Answer the activity as described. “Build kitchen cabinets” is about making things with your hands; it is not a question about your kitchen.
3. Use the full scale. A profile of thirty “unsure” answers produces six identical scores and no code.
4. Look at the shape, not the single top area. A code of SEA and a code of SAE suggest different environments even though both start with Social.
5. Browse occupations by code afterwards. O*NET OnLine and similar databases let you search by Holland code; treat the list as ideas to investigate, not a prescription.

Reading your result

Your result shows six scores from 0 to 20 and your interest code. The result guide describes each area and how the code is formed. Scores describe interests, not skills, job eligibility or predicted success, and they can change as you gain experience.

The ONET Mini Interest Profiler is developed by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, and is used here under the CC BY-ND 4.0 licence without modification. ONET is a trademark of USDOL/ETA; its use does not imply endorsement of this site.

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