Career Interests Test (RIASEC / Holland Code)

RIASEC is John Holland's model of vocational interests. It proposes that people differ in which kinds of activity hold their attention, that jobs differ in which activities they are made of, and that the two can be described on the same six dimensions: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional. A good fit, in this model, is a job whose daily activities line up with what you already find engaging.

Each dimension is scored on its own, because they are not opposites. Someone can be high on Investigative and Artistic at once, which is exactly the profile of many designers, researchers and writers. The six are arranged in a hexagon in the original theory, with neighbouring types (such as Realistic and Investigative) more alike than opposite ones (such as Realistic and Social), and your result keeps that structure instead of collapsing you into one label.

The items describe situations rather than asking you to rate abstract preferences. Instead of agreeing that you like working with tools, you decide whether you are already under the hood when the car breaks down. A scenario is easier to answer from memory than from self-image, which matters for interests more than for most traits, since people often describe the career they think sounds admirable.

You get a score for each of the six dimensions on the scale's own range, charted together, with a plain description of what each level means. Your top areas are named, and they feed the career matches page, which ranks occupations from the O*NET database by how closely their interest profile has the same shape as yours.

The ranking is a way to start exploring, not a recommendation. Interest fit says something about what you may enjoy doing day to day. It says little about whether you would be good at a job, what it pays, or whether openings exist where you live.