Holland Codes

Holland Codes are a series of letters that help suggest the type of career one should choose, which can be found out by taking a test. It was developed by American psychologist John L. Holland, who argued that "the choice of a vocation is an expression of personality." There are six letters in the test representing six different types. They are as follows:

Realistic (R) - practical, physical, hands-on, tool-oriented
Investigative (I) - analytical, intellectual, scientific, explorative
Artistic (A) - creative, original, independent, chaotic
Social (S) - cooperative, supporting, helping, healing/nurturing
Enterprising (E) - competitive environments, leadership, persuading
Conventional (C) - detail-oriented, organizing, clerical

These letters are then organized by the highest number you score on each one. So if you get I = 21, C = 11, S = 10, E = 6, A = 4, and R = 1 (as I did today in school), your Holland Codes would be ICSEAR. Since this is cumbersome and not too many people would care about your lowest scored letters, only the first three or so are used.

The types can also be represented on a hexagon. The shorter the distance between their corners, the more closely they're related. That's why it would be hard to find someone who's both artistic/creative (A) and conventional/organized (C).



You can take this version of the test now, although it's kind of a rough and ready sketch compared to the one I took at school.