Kelly Nicosia

December 5, 2021

Career Assessment Tools

The career assessment I researched was the Strong Interest Inventory (SII) tool. This

assessment is used when a student is looking for potential career options. This tool measures

your external interests such as how you feel about various careers, what subjects you enjoyed in

school and what hobbies you enjoy participating in (Hansen & Weirnik, 2019)..

The Strong Interest Inventory was first created by Dr. E.K. Strong Jr. in 1927. Dr. Strong

was a researcher at Stanford who studied people in different career fields. Strong wanted to

measure if there was any correlation between individuals in certain careers and their satisfaction

in that career/their interests. After Strong conducted his research, he found that people in the

same career field tended to have similar interests. Strong believed that if an individual took this

assessment, he would be able to measure their interests and tell them which career they would be

best suited in (Hansen & Weirnik, 2019).

Continuing Strong’s research was another sociologist from Johns Hopkins University,

John Holland. Holland was a sociologist who conducted research between people’s attitudes

towards their careers and how content they felt. In a 1959 article titled “A Theory of Vocational

Choice,” Holland hypothesized that every career he researched fell under one of six emphases:

Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and/or Conventional (Hansen & Weirnik,

2019). Careers that are realistic involve working with your hands and often involve outdoor

activities. Investigative careers involve research and gathering information such as a chemist or a

private detective. Artistic careers involve creativity and individuals in this field tend to be an
artist, musician, publisher, etc. Careers that are social involve some of the best career such as

school counselors! People who have these careers are typically helpers and focus on working

with others though listening and discussing. Enterprising careers involve lawyers, business

consultants, managers, etc.; these individuals will like obtaining positions of power and

leadership. Lastly, conventional careers involve strict data interpretation such as an accountant or

a financial analyst (Hansen & Weirnik, 2019).

The Strong Interest Inventory tool is recommended to be used by school counselors,

career counselors, career coaches and college advisors on high school students, college students

and adults who may be looking for a career change (Duggan, 2020). According to the Myers-

Briggs Company, the Strong Interest Inventory has high internal consistency reliability; general

occupational theme (GOTs) reliabilities range from .90-.95 (Duggan, 2020). There have also

been multiple studies that prove the validity of the SII tool. For examples, researchers found that

the GOTs are predictive of work-related variables and that Basic Interest Scales “can accurately

distinguish occupations” (Duggan, 2020). Research has also been done proves that the

Occupational Scales have shown their ability to predict occupations individuals will likely enter

(Duggan, 2020).

A research study I found was conducted to measure if there were any cultural inequalities

on the Strong Interest Inventory. This researcher grouped the results of the participants by

ethnicity and gender under each RIASEC category. The researcher found that there were

minimal variations between the scores from each of the five ethnicities who participated (Fouad

& Mohler, 2004). This study helps confirm previous studies that there are no significant impacts

on score differentiations with different ethnicities or race (Fouad & Mohler, 2004).
 Overall, the Strong Interest Inventory is a useful tool for counselors of all types to use,

especially school and college/career counselors. By being able to turn your interests into a

potential career is a great thing for anyone to discover. When I took the Strong Interest

Inventory in college, counselor came up as the second recommended career for me, ironically

bartender was #1 and I don’t even drink! But I guess when you think about it, bartending it

similar to counseling when it comes to talking with others.

In conclusion, this is a useful tool and something that everyone should do at least once.

There is significant empirical data to back the validity and reliability of the too, ensuring you are

receiving accurate results. When I am a school counselor, if working in the high school setting,

this is something I may use to help my students decide on a major and/or other options after

high-school.
 Sources:

Duggan, D. M. (2020, August 1). Chapter 5: Applying the Strong Interest Inventory to your
career exploration. Blueprint for Success in College Career Decision Making. Retrieved
December 5, 2021, from https://cod.pressbooks.pub/careerdevelopment/chapter/5/.

Fouad, N. A., & Mohler, C. J. (2004, November). Cultural Validity of Holland’s Theory and the
Strong Interest Inventory for Five Racial/Ethnic Groups.
https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?
doi=10.1.1.1001.5877&rep=rep1&type=pdf. Retrieved December 5, 2021.

Hansen, J. I. C. (2019). Interest inventories. In Handbook of psychological assessment (pp. 169-

190). Academic Press.