Tools / Free tool
Free RIASEC career interest test (O*NET Mini-IP): 30 questions, instant result
The RIASEC model, developed by John Holland from the late 1950s and used today by O*NET (the U.S. Department of Labor's occupational database, whose technical report is linked below), describes career interests along six types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional. The three types you score highest on form your Holland code, which O*NET uses to suggest occupations.
Career interests (RIASEC)
O*NET Mini Interest Profiler (Mini-IP), 30 items
30 short statements about work activities; say how much you would like doing each one (about 3 minutes). It is a self-reflection aid for exploring career directions, not a diagnosis, an aptitude test, or a predictor of success. Answers stay in this browser.
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Source: Rounds, Wee, Cao, Song & Lewis (2016), Development of an O*NET Mini Interest Profiler (Mini-IP) for Mobile Devices, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA.
This page includes information from the O*NET Career Exploration Tools by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY-ND 4.0 license. CC BY-ND 4.0 · Mini-IP technical report
The instrument is reproduced verbatim in English: its license permits exact copies of the validated version, and a translation would be a modified, unvalidated instrument.
What this test is
The Mini Interest Profiler (Mini-IP) is the shortest official O*NET instrument: 30 statements about work activities, rated from Strongly Dislike to Strongly Like. It was developed and validated by Rounds, Wee, Cao, Song and Lewis (2016) for the U.S. Department of Labor; the technical report documents its reliability (scale alphas between .74 and .81 in the validation sample).
Mini-IP technical report (O*NET Resource Center) ↗ · O*NET Career Exploration Tools licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) ↗
The six RIASEC types
- RRealistic
- practical, hands-on work with tools, machines or the outdoors
- IInvestigative
- analysing, researching, solving abstract problems
- AArtistic
- creating, designing, writing, self-expression
- SSocial
- helping, teaching, advising, caring for people
- EEnterprising
- leading, persuading, selling, building ventures
- CConventional
- organising, structuring data, processes, precision
What it is not
It is a self-assessment of interests, not a measure of skills, a personality diagnosis or a predictor of success. With five statements per scale, small gaps between letters are not meaningful; read your code loosely and use it to explore, not to decide. Your answers stay in this browser.
Then put it to work
Work & Career, the free private job-search workspace on this site, keeps your result in your profile next to your skills, target roles and applications, and scores each posting against them.