What is a Holland code?

A Holland code is your three highest vocational interest types, out of six, written as their initials in order: RIA, SEC, ASE and so on. It comes from John Holland’s model, in which interests and occupations are both described by the same six types, so a person’s code can be matched to the codes of jobs.

The six types

Realistic (R) is work with things: tools, machines, plants, animals and physical tasks. Investigative (I) is work with ideas and evidence: science, analysis, working out causes. Artistic (A) is work that expresses: writing, design, music, performance. Social (S) is work for people: teaching, caring, helping. Enterprising (E) is work that persuades and leads: selling, managing, running things. Conventional (C) is work with order: records, procedures, numbers. The names are Holland’s and say nothing about the person; conventional people are not conventional, they like organised work.

The hexagon

Holland arranged the six types round a hexagon in the order R, I, A, S, E, C. Adjacent types go together more often than opposite ones: people who like investigating often like making or building too, and people who like helping often like leading or expressing. Opposite types, such as realistic and social or artistic and conventional, combine less often, so a code like RSC is rarer than RIC. The O*NET Interest Profiler Short Form fits this circular structure closely (Rounds, Su, Lewis and Rivkin, 2010).

How the code is made

The test on this site counts how many of sixty work activities you would like to do, ten per type. Your three highest counts, in order, are your code. Ties are broken by choosing the type whose activities you think fit you best, as the form instructs. The career pages list twenty UK jobs for each type with links to National Careers Service profiles, mapped from the O*NET occupations that share the type.

What it means for your results

A code describes what you would enjoy, not what you should do. The job you take also depends on what you are good at, what is available where you live, what it pays and what training it needs, none of which an interest test measures. Use the code to notice kinds of work you had not considered and to explain why some jobs have never appealed. Interests are among the most stable things about a person from early adulthood, so a code found at twenty-five usually still holds at forty-five.