Is the O*NET Interest Profiler free?

Yes. Taking it is free: JobCannon runs all 60 items with no signup required. The basic result, your Holland Code, 6-axis RIASEC radar, and top-matched O*NET occupations, is visible immediately on screen. A free optional account lets you save your result and compare future retakes. On licensing: the 28 items worded exactly as in the current Short Form come from U.S. Department of Labor materials that the Department offers under CC BY-ND 4.0 (credit to USDOL/ETA and the National Center for O*NET Development, no modified copies). The other 32 items are older Long Form items or JobCannon wordings, so we make no licence claim for the test as a whole.

What is the difference between the O*NET Interest Profiler and the standard RIASEC test?

Both measure the same six RIASEC dimensions (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional), and both ask you to rate concrete work activities such as 'Build kitchen cabinets', 'Develop a new medicine' or 'Write books or plays'. The difference is the item selection: the Standard RIASEC test uses all 60 items of the current O*NET Interest Profiler Short Form, while this test uses a different 60-item selection in which 28 items are Short Form items and the rest are older Long Form items or JobCannon wordings. The two take about the same time (4 min each).

Who created the O*NET Interest Profiler?

The ONET Interest Profiler was developed by the National Center for ONET Development under a contract from the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration. The evidence for the 60-item Short Form is reported in Rounds, Su, Lewis and Rivkin (2010). The instrument is part of the O*NET Career Exploration Tools suite, available at onetcenter.org, where the Department offers the Short Form under CC BY-ND 4.0 (unchanged copies, with credit). JobCannon's 60-item selection is its own and is not a verbatim copy of that form.

How accurate is the O*NET Interest Profiler?

The published evidence is for the Short Form, not for this exact test. Its psychometric report (Rounds, Su, Lewis and Rivkin, 2010) gives Cronbach alpha reliabilities of .78–.87 across the six RIASEC scales (mean .81) in a sample of 1,061 people, measured on the Short Form's 2010 development edition. This test shares only 28 items word for word with the Short Form (12 more come from the older Long Form and 20 are JobCannon wordings), so those figures describe the instrument family, not a validation of this test, and JobCannon has not published a separate reliability or validity study of it. Like every interest inventory, it measures what you like to do, not what you are good at.

Can I use the O*NET Interest Profiler for career change planning?

Yes, it is ideal for career change. The work-activity format means your result reflects what you would actually enjoy doing in a role, not just the abstract idea of a career. A software engineer who discovers a high Social score might find that user experience research, product management, or developer advocacy roles fit better than pure coding. A nurse with a high Investigative score might thrive in clinical research or health informatics. Your matched careers show which adjacent roles fit your interest profile, so you can compare them with your current background.

How does the O*NET Interest Profiler relate to other career assessments like the Holland Code or Career Match?

The ONET Interest Profiler is the I-axis Deep tier on JobCannon's depth ladder: Career Match (Mini, 12 items, 3 min) → Standard RIASEC/Holland Code (Standard, 60 items, 4 min) → ONET Interest Profiler (Deep, 60 items, 4 min). All three measure the same RIASEC framework, at different depths and with different item selections. The Mini gives a quick Holland letter; the Standard gives a full 3-letter code from the 60 Short Form items; the Deep gives a 3-letter code from its own 60-item selection plus careers matched from ONET data. If you've already taken Career Match or RIASEC and want to go deeper, the ONET IP is the natural next step.

CareerResearch-grade· O*NET Interest Profiler

Free O*NET Interest Profiler, 60 Work-Activity Items, Career Matches

A 60-item Holland-themes interest inventory drawn from U.S. Department of Labor O*NET Interest Profiler materials (28 items worded as in the current Short Form), 4 minutes, with a RIASEC Holland Code linked to O*NET occupations. Free, no signup, no email.

No signup4 min

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Learn more about this test

The basics

What is the O*NET Interest Profiler?

The O*NET Interest Profiler is a career interest 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. JobCannon's version is a 60-item inventory drawn from those materials. Where many interest assessments ask how much you enjoy abstract categories like 'working outdoors' or 'helping people', it 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.

Keep reading

This is not the Department of Labor's published 60-item Short Form. Of its 60 items, 28 are worded exactly as in the current Short Form, 12 are word for word items of the older 180-item Long Form, and 20 are JobCannon wordings that match neither form. The Department of Labor has not approved, endorsed or tested this test, and we make no licence claim for it as a whole. The published reliability figures (Cronbach alpha .78–.87 across the six RIASEC scales, mean .81, in a sample of 1,061 people) are from the Short Form's psychometric report (Rounds, Su, Lewis and Rivkin, 2010), measured on the Short Form itself, not on this test. JobCannon's Standard RIASEC test is the one built on the full set of 60 Short Form items.

JobCannon runs the O*NET Interest Profiler as the I-axis Deep tier on its assessment depth ladder: Mini Career Match (12 items, 3 min) → Standard RIASEC (60 items, 4 min) → O*NET Interest Profiler Deep (60 work-activity items, 4 min, a different 60-item selection from the Standard RIASEC test). 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.

Closely related

What you get

What You'll Discover

Your 3-letter Holland Code from a 60-item inventory drawn from U.S. Department of Labor O*NET Interest Profiler materials

Careers matched to your Holland Code and ranked by fit, scored against O*NET occupational interest profiles

6-axis RIASEC radar with percentile rankings across all six Holland types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional

A second look at your Holland Code from a different 60-item selection than the Standard RIASEC test, so you can compare the two results side by side

Industry and work-setting fit recommendations based on O*NET occupation zone and industry cluster data linked to your top Holland letters

Career pivot analysis: how your RIASEC profile maps to adjacent occupations you may never have considered, with salary ranges from the O*NET Occupational Outlook

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📚Scientific validation

O*NET Interest Profiler is grounded in published psychometric research:

O*NET Interest Profiler

This test's 60 items are drawn from the O*NET® Interest Profiler materials of the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), but they are not the 60-item Short Form: only 28 of the 60 are word-for-word Short Form items (Rounds et al., 2010), 12 are word-for-word items of the older 180-item Long Form, and 20 match neither published form word for word. This is JobCannon's own selection and wording, not a verbatim administration of the Short Form the reliability figures below were measured on, and USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed or tested it. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.

Holland, J. L. (1959). Original theory paper proposing the six vocational-personality types later named RIASEC, the underlying model for all O*NET Interest Profiler variants. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 6(1), 35-45 source

Rounds, J., Su, R., Lewis, P., & Rivkin, D. (2010). For reference only: internal consistency for O*NET's own validated 60-item Interest Profiler Short Form — of which this test uses only 28 items — ranged α=.78-.87 (M=.81) across the six RIASEC scales (N=1,061). These figures were not measured on this test's 60 items. O*NET Interest Profiler Short Form: Psychometric Characteristics — Summary, National Center for O*NET Development / US Dept. of Labor source