Career Interest Inventory
What is a career interest inventory?
A career interest inventory is a type of professional assessment that school and career counselors use to help individuals identify their interests for use in career decision making. Essentially, it is a self-reflection exercise not a test, which implies right or wrong answers. Because a person self-declares or “inventories” their interests, these assessments are not intended to measure aptitude - how good you are at something. Just your preferences, and in the case of Career Key Discovery’s career interest inventory, one’s resemblance to Holland’s six personality types - sometimes referred to as Holland Codes.
Because inventories have been around so long and individuals think they’ve seen and done them all, people turn to aptitude tests to direct them to the right career.
Career interest inventory in High School
High schools often use a career interest inventory to teach students a framework for how to choose a career and to help students complete a graduation plan. Knowing a general career direction can help students and their parents think about classes to take. For example, a graduating senior would not want to find out they cannot go straight into a health care major or training program because they did not take a 4th year of science or math.
The career interest inventory in Career Key Discovery or the printed Career Key Test Booklet is often a conversation starter that helps avoid these mistakes.
Create career interest examples with a career interest inventory
Employers in a job interview or counselors in school will ask about your career interests, or career goals. A career interest inventory can help you refine your list, so (a) you sound like you’ve given it some thought, and (b) you’re authentic.
For example, in Career Key Discovery, we group careers by Holland personality type and work group (similar worker traits, skills, and abilities). For example, with the Realistic type, we have work groups like Agriculture and Natural Resources and Safety and Law Enforcement. You will not only learn your dominant personality types and related interests, you will be able to see and describe yourself in the world of work. Not just, I like working outdoors or Realistic personality type, but “I’m interested in natural resources and jobs that make forests healthy and sustainable.”
TIP: combine Career Key Discovery with our free Motivated Skills exercise. That will help you craft a career interest example that doesn’t sound formulaic or even worse, sound like an unedited chatbot response.
Why a career interest inventory is better than an aptitude test alone
You find aptitude tests more often now in career exploration. They show up in software tools and online tests we take in school and in workforce development. Like any assessment, including interest inventories, they are useful in the right context. We seek them out of natural curiosity, but also because they seem like a simple answer to what we should do in a career.
On their own, these assessments of how good you are at something can be misleading and limiting for several reasons,
Measuring aptitude is easy to do poorly; it takes a lot of research, expertise and money to do well. Chances are, if you don’t see any published, long-term research behind a test, don’t trust its results. With the addition of AI and machine learning in education, quality becomes even more critical.
Aptitude is not destiny. In other words, you were not born with a finite set of capacity. We also call this a growth mindset. Many people, especially those in low-asset households, have never had the opportunity to have great teaching, access to musical instruments, or inspiration of mentors. So how can you be good at something if you never had the opportunity to learn and practice it? This disconnect is often what STEM education and other equity and access programs strive to fix.
Aptitude is related to age and experience. Imagine yourself in 8th grade, never having worked, never having taken a class outside of your local middle school. Your aptitude in math, science, language arts, and social studies in secondary school should not dictate (or limit) your future career path. We’re not saying standardized tests don’t matter - just don’t rely on them as the main indicator of future career fit.
#1 mistake to avoid with a career interest inventory
While aptitude tests have their limitations, so do career interest inventories. Here the most mistake to avoid,
Choosing free over quality. Ignoring accuracy, reliability and validity. Yes, we know this sounds self-serving because we sell commercial products that includes a career interest inventory. But given our 25-year history, mission, and Career Key’s author and founder was a stickler about scientific validity to the point he started to irritate people in his career development field, we’re not going to change our mind on this.
Schools, workforce, software companies, and online tools continue to use the public sector Career Clusters Interest Inventory despite independent, peer-reviewed published research (not by us) showing it is inaccurate and does not measure important STEM related interests. But because it is free, people don’t seem to care. Learn more about how to choose a career test.
Career Key’s career interest inventory
In Career Key Discovery, youth and adults learn about themselves and identify hundreds of diverse, promising careers and education programs that match their personality and interests. It helps them understand the value of personality-environment fit based on Holland’s Theory of Career Choice and contains downloads and resources to take concrete steps toward a decision.
It is a true measure of the six Holland personality types. Nationally recognized counseling psychologist and counselor educator, Dr. Lawrence K. Jones, NCC is the inventory author. Career Key Discovery is scientifically valid, meaning it measures what it claims to measure based on research published in national journals. More technical details are available in Career Key's professional manual.
Differences from other career interest inventories
Easy to understand: Users quickly know which careers and education programs will be thriving, promising and challenging for them instead of 3-letter Holland codes. It is self-guided and self-interpreting.
Intuitive: Career Key Discovery also uses a unique work group matching system for easier exploration. Occupations and education programs are grouped within each personality type by similar worker traits, skills and abilities. This classification system is based on the Guide to Occupational Exploration and updated regularly to reflect changes in the labor market and education system.
Open minded: Groups familiar and unfamiliar options using shared characteristics, opening up exploration so that users learn about new, promising occupations and programs they might not otherwise have considered.
Comprehensive and diverse: Career Key Discovery includes over 450 occupations and over 2,000 postsecondary non-degree awards, majors, postgraduate certificates, credentials and training programs from the U.S. and Canada.
Short: The inventory takes about 10 minutes to complete
Teaches decision making: The inventory includes the ACIP 4 step decision making process in an interactive module with videos, checklists and downloads.
No credential is required to administer. Dr. Jones, working extensively with school counselors, career services and workforce development staff, expressly designed the inventory to not require extensive training by overworked counselors and advisors.
There are two versions of Career Key Discovery, Student and Transitions. The career interest inventory is the same in both, but advising and decision-making content is different. The Student version is best for students between 8th grade and early college. The Transitions version is best for nontraditional students, employees, and people considering upskilling and career change.
To learn more and request a self-guided demo, advisors and counselors can fill out this short request for information.
Companion Resources
Career Key Discovery in Career Key Solutions
To Be Happier: a practical, science-based guide (free interactive and PDF eBook download)
"Match Up! to Majors" eBook, contains a complete list and description of all 1,400 majors and programs classified by Holland type as described above.
Download our free eBook for professionals, Personality-College Major Match and Student Success; and
Our Career Clusters/Pathways E-Book.