Strong Interest Inventory

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The Strong Interest Inventory (sometimes referred to as the Strong or the SII) is a well researched and extensively validated career interest inventory which is used frequently by career counselors. It can help you determine jobs that are likely to be a good fit with your interests. The Strong Interest Inventory is useful for people who are interested in exploring career options and want to ensure they have job satisfaction and their career choice is a good fit with their interests.

Questions on the Strong cover your likes and dislikes related to jobs, school subjects, hobbies and leisure activities etc. It measures your potential interest in different types of careers. It does not measure your abilities (the things you are already good at) or aptitudes (the things you have the potential to become good at), so those factors will need to be considered as well.

The Strong makes use of the six basic personality types (Holland codes) or General Occupational Themes described by John Holland: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional. Holland's work states that 2 to 3 of these types dominate each personality and that each each code (as well as combinations of codes) can be applied to occupations.

For example, if you scored highest on the Investigative type (described as analytical, intellectual, scientific, explorative) your interests would likely fit well with jobs that are Investigative such as Chemist, Mathematician, Biologist, Physician, Medical Technician or Electrical Technician.

Because people are complex and not simply Social or Investigative, a combination of your top three codes is typically considered when matching occupations to interests. So, if your top result was for Investigative (I), your second score was Social (S) and your third was Realistic (R), your code would be ISR. Based on your interests, you would likely be a good fit for jobs that are also categorized as ISR such as Family and General Practitioners, Optometrists or Podiatrists.

In addition to assessing your interests based on Holland Codes, the report you receive if you complete the Strong Interest Inventory will show your scores on 25 Basic Interest Scales such as art, science, public speaking, etc., scores on 4 Personal Style Scales (learning, working, leadership, and risk-taking) and scores on 3 Administrative Scales used to identify test errors or unusual profiles.

The Strong Interest Inventory also compares your interests with the interests of people who work in a variety of different occupations (211 to be exact) and who enjoy the work that they do. This information can be very interesting and helpful when you are making career decisions.

If you are in the process of choosing a career or making a career change, the SII can be a very helpful tool to help you determine which careers would likely be a good fit for your interests and provide a great degree of job satisfaction for you.

 
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