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How Your Personality Matches With Careers - The Holland Theory of Personality

This is a game designed to help you match your interests and skills with similar careers. It can help you begin thinking about how your personality will fit in with specific work environments and careers. Come play along and see what happens!

This exercise is based on Dr. John Holland's theory that people and work environments can be loosely classified into six different groups. Different peoples' personalities may find different environments more to their liking. While you may have some interests in and similarities to several of the six groups, you may be attracted primarily to two or three of the areas. These two or three letters are your Holland Code.

Imagine walking into a room in which the six groups of people below are already interacting. Read the descriptions of each group and list the group you would be drawn to first, then your second choice, and finally your third choice.

For example, if you choose R then E and then S you would most resemble the Realistic type, somewhat less resemble the Enterprising type, and resemble the Social type even less. The types that are not in your code are the types you resemble least of all. Most people, and most jobs, are some combination of two or three of the Holland interest areas.

Click on your first, then second and then third choices of the Holland categories below to find out more information on career possibilities and identifications that correspond to your strongest interest areas. This will give you additional ways of checking out your career-related interests and getting involved in your career planning.

Realistic Investigative Artistic Social Enterprising Conventional
People who have athletic or mechanical ability, prefer to work with objects, machines, tools, plants or animals, or to be outdoors People who like to observe,learn, investigate, analyze, evaluate or solve problems. People who have artistic, innovating or intuitional abilities and like to work in unstructured situations using their imagination and creativity. People who like to work with people to enlighten, inform, help, train, or cure them, or are skilled with words. People who like to work with people, influencing, persuading, performing, leading or managing for organizational goals or economic gain. People who like to work with data, have clerical or numerical ability, carry out tasks in detail or follow through on others' instructions.

This RIASEC model of occupations is the copyrighted work of Dr. John L. Holland, and his publisher, Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc. (PAR). Western Illinois University and the WIU Career Services Office would like to thank the University of Missouri Career Center for allowing us to share this helpful and useful "Career Interest Game" site with our students and alumni.