Free Career Interest Test

Tick the work activities you would like to do. You get a score for all six interest areas (the RIASEC model: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional), your top areas and real example careers for each. It takes about 5 minutes. The full result is free, with no sign-up.

What the career interest test measures

Career interests are the kinds of work activities you enjoy. The most widely used model sorts them into six areas, known by the letters RIASEC: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional. Most people have one or two areas that stand out and a few that matter less.

This test is the O*NET Interest Profiler Short Form, made by the National Center for O*NET Development for the U.S. Department of Labor. It lists 60 work activities, 10 for each area. We show all 60 exactly as published, so the full test and the full result are free here.

How the scoring works

Tick each activity you would like to do, and leave the rest blank. Do not think about how much education or training it needs or how much it pays. Then the ticks are counted for each area, so every area scores from 0 to 10.

Your three highest scores are your top interest areas. The score comes from a fixed table in the page code, the same every time. There is no model guessing and no comparison group, so we do not show percentiles. When scores tie, O*NET advises choosing the area whose activities you think fit you best.

Where the items and the careers come from

The 60 activities and the scoring are the O*NET Interest Profiler Short Form (https://www.onetcenter.org/dl_tools/ipsf/Interest_Profiler.pdf), used unchanged. The example careers come from the O*NET database (https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html): for each area we list occupations whose single highest interest rating is that area.

Short on time? Try the 18-task Career Match quiz.

The six interest areas

  • Realistic. Hands-on, practical work: building, fixing, growing, driving and working with tools, machines, animals or the outdoors. You tend to like seeing a concrete result of your work, being active, and working with things more than with paperwork or talk.
  • Investigative. Work that asks questions: researching, testing, analyzing and solving problems in science, medicine, technology or data. You tend to like figuring out how things work, thinking a problem through on your own, and learning for its own sake.
  • Artistic. Creative work: writing, music, design, performing, film and other ways of expressing ideas. You tend to like freedom to make things your own way, work without a fixed script, and having your ideas seen or heard.
  • Social. Work that helps people: teaching, caring, counseling, coaching and serving others. You tend to like working with people more than with objects, explaining things, and seeing someone else get better or learn.
  • Enterprising. Work that leads and persuades: selling, managing, negotiating, starting businesses and making decisions for a group. You tend to like taking charge, taking some risks, and working toward goals such as sales, growth or winning a case.
  • Conventional. Organized, detail-focused work: records, numbers, schedules, files and the systems that keep an organization running. You tend to like clear steps, accuracy, and knowing exactly what is expected of you.

Example careers for each area

Realistic

Investigative

Artistic

Social

Enterprising

Conventional

Reading your result

Each area is scored from 0 to 10: one point for every activity you ticked in that area. The score shows how much of that kind of work appeals to you. It is not compared with other people.

This is a questionnaire for exploring what kinds of work you might enjoy. It does not measure your skills, it does not predict how well you will do in any job, and no job is right or wrong for you because of one score. Your answers stay on this device.

Sources and attribution

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 (license terms). O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The 60 activities and the scoring are the O*NET Interest Profiler Short Form, unchanged: Interest_Profiler.pdf.

The example careers include information from the O*NET® 31.0 Database by USDOL/ETA. Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (license terms). MyTypeQuiz has modified some of this information: we picked which occupations to list and worked out each one's highest interest area from the database values. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these changes. Each career links to its page on O*NET OnLine.