Career Tests - Are They Reliable?

By Terje Ellingsen

Many career tests are based upon John Holland's applicable theory of vocational or career choice. Almost everybody wants to know which job or career fits them best. Holland's theory proposes that people like to be around others who have similar personalities. When we choose a career, it means that we choose jobs where we can be around other people who are like ourselves. This theory is one of the best known and is also one of the most widely researched theory on this topic. It is frequently used by many career counsellors and coaches. Let us take a little closer look at Holland's theory of career preferences. Holland divides the persons in our culture into six personality types:

realistic investigative artistic social enterprising conventional

He states that people of the same personality tend to flock together. For example, entrepreneurs are attracted to making friends and working with other entrepreneurs. Artistic people are attracted to other artistic people etc.

When people of the same personality type work together in a job, they create a work environment that fits their type. According to Holland, there are six basic types of work environments and are labelled exactly the same as the six different personalities above: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional. Let's take the example of the artistic personalities; when they are together on a job, they create a work environment that rewards creative thinking and behavior -- or what we call a typically artistic environment.

The next postulate in Holland's theory is that people who choose to work in an environment similar to their personality type are more likely to be successful and satisfied: Let's take investigative persons as an example; these people are more likely to be successful and satisfied if they choose a job that has an investigative environment, like choosing to be a researcher at a University or a research institute or maybe as a detective or Police investigator, which is an environment mainly populated by investigative type of people where research and investigation abilities are highly valued. This postulate implies that the way people act and feel at work depends to a large extent, on their workplace environment.

Now, what is the practical implications of Holland's theory? First and foremost you should choose an occupation or a career that is the same as or similar to your personality type. If you are let's say, a realistic type you should choose a career that places you in a realistic job environment or second best investigative job environment.

This theory is applied so many times and has proven it's validity so many times that you can be pretty sure it works. Use it as a guidance tool for your own choice of career.

Terje Brooks Ellingsen is an internet publisher. His website 1st-Self-Improvement.net offers valuable free information for all who want to improve themselves, for example in their careers and else. Check out Self-Improvement now.

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