O*NET Interest Profiler (US DOL)

The O*NET Interest Profiler is the career assessment instrument published by the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET program — the same federal occupational database used by workforce agencies, career counselors, and labor economists nationwide. Where most interest assessments ask how much you enjoy abstract categories like 'working outdoors' or 'helping people', the O*NET Interest Profiler presents concrete work activities: 'Build kitchen cabinets', 'Develop a new medicine', 'Manage a retail store'. You rate each activity on a 5-point scale from Strongly Dislike to Strongly Like, and the algorithm maps your ratings to a Holland Code (RIASEC) profile anchored directly to O*NET's taxonomy of 900+ occupations.

The 60-item Short Form was developed by Lewis, Rivkin, and colleagues at the National Center for O*NET Development and is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration. Published validation studies report Cronbach alpha reliabilities of .78–.85 across the six RIASEC scales and strong convergent validity with the full 180-item O*NET Interest Profiler. Unlike the Standard RIASEC test, which uses interest statements, the O*NET IP uses work-activity items — which produce more occupation-specific predictions because the items are drawn directly from O*NET occupational task databases.

JobCannon runs the O*NET Interest Profiler as the I-axis Deep tier on its assessment depth ladder: Mini Career Match (12 items, 2 min) → Standard RIASEC (60 items, 15 min) → O*NET Interest Profiler Deep (60 work-activity items, 25 min, 100+ occupation matches). The Deep tier is for users who want the most granular occupational fit data available for free. Your result includes a 6-axis RIASEC radar, your 3-letter Holland Code, and a list of O*NET occupations matched to your dominant interest profile — the same data that career counselors use when advising on career transitions.