Careers by Interest Type
Career interests are the kinds of work you enjoy, and researchers often sort them into six types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional.
Most people are a mix of two or three. Knowing yours can point you to jobs you might enjoy. Our free career test measures all six and matches you with real jobs from O*NET® data.
Updated
What are the six interest types?
How do the six types fit together?
The six types are often drawn as a hexagon, in the order R, I, A, S, E, C. Types next to each other have more in common: Realistic and Investigative people both like to work with real things and facts, and Social and Enterprising people both like to work with people. Types across from each other, like Realistic and Social, have the least in common. That is why codes made of neighbors, like RIC, are common, and codes that mix opposites, like RSA, are less common.
What is an interest code?
Your interest code is your three strongest types, strongest first. Someone who most enjoys helping people, then creating, then researching would be SAI. Two people with the same first letter can still want very different jobs, so the second and third letters matter too.
How do interests relate to personality?
Only a little. A large review of studies (Barrick, Mount and Gupta, 2003) found small links between the Big Five personality traits and these interests: Extraversion with Enterprising and Social, Openness with Artistic and Investigative, Agreeableness with Social, and Conscientiousness with Conventional. Because the links are small, your personality type can only hint at your interests. The career test measures them directly.
Which jobs fit each type?
A few examples from O*NET data. Each interest page lists many more, by level of preparation.
What careers suit each personality type?
Each of the 16 personality types has its own careers page: its work style, what energizes and drains it, its team role and jobs worth a look. There are 923 jobs in the data behind them.
- INTJ careers
- INTP careers
- ENTJ careers
- ENTP careers
- INFJ careers
- INFP careers
- ENFJ careers
- ENFP careers
- ISTJ careers
- ISTP careers
- ESTJ careers
- ESTP careers
- ISFJ careers
- ISFP careers
- ESFJ careers
- ESFP careers
Career interest questions
What are the six career interest types?
Realistic (hands-on work), Investigative (ideas and research), Artistic (creating), Social (helping people), Enterprising (leading and persuading) and Conventional (organizing and details). Most people are a mix, summed up as a three-letter code such as SAI.
How do I find my interest code?
Take our free career test. It takes about 10 minutes, scores all six interest types and ranks over 900 real jobs by how well they fit you.
Is a career interest the same as a skill?
No. An interest is what you enjoy. A skill is what you can do. The two often grow together, because people practice what they enjoy, but a strong interest in something you have never tried is still worth exploring.
Do interests change over time?
They tend to be fairly steady in adults, more so than many people expect, but they can shift with new experiences, especially in the teens and twenties. Taking the test again every few years is a good idea.
How do career interests relate to personality?
Loosely. Research finds small links: more outgoing people lean a little toward Enterprising and Social work, more curious people toward Artistic and Investigative work, and more organized people toward Conventional work. Your interests are still best measured directly.
Find your interest code
The free career test takes about 10 minutes. No sign-up, and your answers stay on your device.