Interest Inventories
In 1927, E.K. Strong, a psychologist, developed the first interest inventory, a tool used to measure individuals' interests and compare them to those of people working in various occupations. It was called the Strong Vocational Interest Blank. This tool has seen many revisions and name changes over the years. It is now called the Strong Interest Inventory (SII).
BRIEF SUMMARY
In 1927, E.K. Strong, a psychologist, developed the first interest inventory, a tool used to measure individuals’ interests and compare them to those of people working in various occupations. It was called the Strong Vocational Interest Blank. This tool has seen many revisions and name changes over the years. It is now called the Strong Interest Inventory (SII). Dr. John Holland created a system of placing people’s interests into groups. He believed every person’s interests fit into at least one group and most fit into at least two or three groups. One’s personal combination of Holland groups is their Holland Code.
There are other interest inventories, including the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey, Self-Directed Search, and the Campbell Interest and Skill Survey. The O*Net Interest Profiler is a free assessment that is one of the several tools that are part of O*Net Online, a project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration. Interest surveys may measure, for example, your interests regarding leisure activities, work-related activities, people with whom you prefer to work, and school subjects. To get the most accurate results, it is important that students respond to each item as honestly as possible and know that there are no right or wrong answers.
KEY POINTS
RESOURCES
- Strong Interest Inventory
- O*Net Interest Profiler
- Self-Directed Search
- Student Interest Survey for Career Clusters (Advance CTE)
- Explore Your Interests (Learn More Indiana)
- Indiana Career Explorer
- Career Party (Holland Code activity for Elementary School) Click Here
- Paws in Jobland
- Career Town (Virginia Career VIEW)
SHARED WISDOM
- (Added 12/13/23 ASCA Scene):
- Q: I work at the high school level. My colleagues and I are finding that some of our students really don’t have knowledge about the wide range of career possibilities. I would love to start with interest inventories that can link to information about jobs and/or college. Anything that doesn’t cost money would be awesome!! Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions!
- A: O’net – is a great free website. RIASEC language/themes is also very connected to the student’s theme and career and is supported by research. O’net allows students to connect their RIASEC theme with careers. I like this link for an inventory as well – short and easy for RIASEC. Here is a link to a video with RIASEC as well. There are 6 themes, be sure to play them all, have students track which words for each video they feel resonate with them, then play next, have conversations about each theme find out which students connected with each theme. Follow up with this simple inventory (free), you can then search the O’Net for careers that are connected with those themes. All the best!
CONTENT FEEDBACK
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