Career interest inventory
Career Interest Inventory for Students
A career interest inventory shows which kinds of work a student is drawn to. One student can take it in a few minutes, and a whole class can take it from one link.
What a career interest inventory measures
A career interest inventory measures what a student is drawn to. It asks what a student would like to do, not how well they score. The result is a profile of interests, not a grade.
JobCannon offers three of them:
The RIASEC model in plain words
RIASEC was developed by the psychologist John Holland in 1959. It sorts work into six types, named by their first letters.
- Realistic (R): hands-on and practical. Building and fixing things.
- Investigative (I): analytical and curious. Research and problem-solving.
- Artistic (A): creative and expressive. Design and media.
- Social (S): empathetic. Helping roles such as teaching and counseling.
- Enterprising (E): ambitious and persuasive. Business and management.
- Conventional (C): organized and detail-oriented. Administration and finance.
A student's three highest types make a three-letter code, such as AIE or ISA. That is the Holland Code. It maps to careers where people with the same interests work. O*NET, the US Department of Labor's occupation database, codes occupations by Holland type.
Each type has its own page in the RIASEC types guide.
What a student sees in the results
After the last question, a student on the RIASEC path sees six scores, one for each type, and a three-letter Holland Code. The top three careers show on the same screen. A single test needs no account.
The three careers are listed best fit first. Each shows a fit score as a percentage, with a fit label beside it: Strong fit, Good fit, Possible fit or Stretch fit. The label comes from the score, not from the career's place in the list. The score compares the student's interest profile with the interest profile O*NET holds for that career.
Skills and courses are not on the result screen. They are in the Career Guide, a separate step that needs a student account, so a student on a class code does not see them through the class link. In the Career Guide a student picks a career and sees the skills behind it, with free courses and docs for the skills where we have a curated link.
The result screen shows the top three careers. A longer ranked list is part of Premium for individual accounts.
How a class takes it with one link
Ask us for a class link, then share it with the class. A class code works the same way. Students open the link or enter the code, pick a username and start. There are no student accounts, no email addresses and no roster import.
The core class assessment pairs RIASEC with the Big Five and takes about 8 minutes in all.
The teacher gets a class report: every student who took the test through the link, with each one's main result, on one page. On tests scored on several scales, the page also shows the class average for each scale once at least five students have finished, so no single student can be picked out. Students who use the public link instead are the only ones who see their own result.
The rules for student data, including students under 13, are in the questions below.
Want a class link for your students?
Tell us your school and how many students. We reply by email to set up your class link.
Interest inventory vs personality test
An interest inventory asks what a student likes to do. A personality test asks how a student tends to think and act. They answer different questions, and one does not replace the other.
RIASEC is the interest side. The Big Five is the personality side. It scores five traits: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism, in 50 questions and about 4 minutes.
Used together, they give a student a profile of interests and a profile of traits. Our RIASEC vs Big Five comparison sets the two side by side.
The RIASEC test has 60 questions and takes about 4 minutes. A class assessment that pairs RIASEC with the Big Five takes about 8 minutes in all.
No. It shows what a student is drawn to. A career interest inventory asks what a student would like to do, not how well they score.
Not for a single test. Anyone can take the RIASEC test without creating an account or giving an email address, and the scores appear on screen at once. A class uses a class link or class code instead: students enter it, pick a username and start.
No. It ranks careers by how closely a student's interests match each career's interest profile in O*NET, and shows the top three. The student decides what to explore next.
Most JobCannon tests are calibrated for ages 14 and up, and RIASEC works well for US grades 9-12. For grades 6-8, the middle schools page explains which tests we recommend and how a class starts.
For under-13s our posture is data minimisation, not parental consent: on a class code a student enters the code and picks a username, and we collect no email address and no demographics. We do not have a verifiable-parental-consent workflow; if your school or district requires one, that requirement is unmet today. The FERPA and COPPA guides linked below set out the rest.
Request a class link with the form on the schools page. We reply by email to set it up. The schools page also sets out what a school pays.