Tell us what you enjoy, what you're good at and how you like to work. You'll get a matching career path, the skills you'd need to build, and practical first steps.
What you'll get
Your three-letter interest code
The Holland code career advisers use, and what it says about the kind of work that keeps you interested.
A career match, with salary data
Scored against your answers and linked to a full career guide with typical pay.
The skills to work on
Ranked by importance, each with a practical first step you can take this month.
We don't have enough career data at the moment to give you a reliable result. In the meantime, you can talk to a career mentor or browse our career paths.
A career aptitude test measures which kinds of work you find most interesting and matches that pattern to careers. This one scores six interest types, known as RIASEC or Holland Codes: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional. Your three strongest types make up your code.
The psychologist John Holland developed the six types, and they still underpin the US Department of Labor's O*NET Interest Profiler, which uses them to describe more than 900 occupations. Most people are a mix of types, which is why the code has three letters.
R · Realistic
You like work with a tangible result. You'd rather build, fix or run something than talk about it.
Engineering, infrastructure, hands-on technical work
I · Investigative
You like to understand how things work before you act. Working through a hard problem is often the best part.
Research, data, analysis, science
A · Artistic
You want room to create something new, and you care about how it looks, sounds or reads.
Design, writing, brand, content
S · Social
You want your work to help people. You read people well and enjoy teaching and supporting others.
Teaching, coaching, support, people roles
E · Enterprising
You enjoy pitching ideas, closing deals and making decisions. Uncertainty feels like an opportunity to you.
Sales, product, founding, management
C · Conventional
You like bringing order to things. Accuracy and a process that works are satisfying to you.
Operations, finance, programme management
Neither. This is an interest inventory. Each of the three measures something different, so the right one depends on what you want to find out.
| Instrument | What it measures | Best question for it |
|---|---|---|
| This test (RIASEC) | What kind of work holds your attention, and what you say you are good at | Which careers should I look at? |
| Myers-Briggs (MBTI) | How you prefer to take in information and reach decisions | How do I tend to think and decide? |
| DISC | How you behave with other people at work | How should my team work with me? |
The MBTI is a registered trademark of The Myers-Briggs Company, and DISC assessments are published by several other companies. This test isn't affiliated with either, and it won't give you a four-letter type or a DISC profile. We focus on interests because research suggests interest fit is a better predictor of job satisfaction than personality type.
Here's exactly how it works. Every career in our catalogue has a hand-set interest profile, a ranked list of the skills it needs, and a typical working style. We score your answers against every career out of 100, and the highest score is your top match.
60 of 100
Interest fit
How closely your interests match the role. Things you said you'd avoid count against it.
25 of 100
Strength fit
How many of the role's key skills you selected, weighted by how important each one is.
15 of 100
Working style
How your preferences for structure, people, pace and scope compare with how the job usually runs.
+5 bonus
What matters to you
A small bonus that helps separate careers with close scores. It won't outweigh a real difference in interests.
When the top three careers are within 4 points of each other, we tell you instead of naming a single winner. Interest profiles follow the O*NET content model published by the US Department of Labor. Salary midpoints use the same benchmarks as our career path pages, cross-checked against the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook.
Scoring and role profiles last reviewed by the MentorCruise careers team.
A test can narrow down your options, but it can't make the decision for you. Here's how to get the most out of it.
Take the testPick what you'd enjoy doing on a free day, rather than what you think sounds impressive. The result is only as useful as your answers.
Your dislikes matter as much as your likes. Without them, most careers score about the same and none stand out.
Your three-letter code describes the kind of work you enjoy, and it applies to many more jobs than the one we suggest.
Your top match is a direction to explore. Your skill gaps are things you can start working on this month, and they're useful across several careers.
A test can't tell you what a job is like day to day. Ask someone who already does it.
Career coaches who help people answer this question every week.
Yes. The full test, your Holland code and your top career match are free, and you don't need an account. We only ask for your email if you want the full ranking and all your skill gaps.
No. You can take the test and see your top match without signing up.
About three minutes. There are six short steps, and most of them are just tapping options.
A three-letter summary of the kinds of work you find most interesting, based on six interest types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional. It's the model behind most career aptitude tests, including the US Department of Labor's O*NET Interest Profiler.
No. This is a RIASEC interest inventory. The MBTI is a registered trademark of The Myers-Briggs Company and measures something different: how you prefer to take in information and make decisions. Interest inventories tend to be better at predicting how satisfied you'll be in a job.
No. DISC assessments describe how you behave at work, usually to help teams communicate. This test looks at what kind of work you want to do and matches it to careers. If you need a DISC profile specifically, you'll need a separate assessment.
A personality test describes how you tend to behave. A career test looks at what you're interested in and good at, then matches that to jobs. They overlap, but only a career test suggests specific careers.
It's good for narrowing down a shortlist, but it shouldn't make the decision for you. Interest inventories are especially useful for ruling directions out. Treat your result as a starting point and test it by talking to people who do the work.
It can tell you which kinds of work suit how you like to spend your time. It can't take into account your finances, where you live, your visa situation or who's hiring, and those matter just as much.
Look at your three-letter code as well as the job title. If the code feels right but the job doesn't, we may not have the right career in our catalogue yet. If the code feels wrong, try again and be stricter about what you'd avoid.
We'll tell you, instead of picking one at random. Close scores usually mean you have broad interests, which is useful to know and a good thing to talk through with a mentor.
Yes. The test works at any stage of your career, and one of the steps asks whether you're changing careers. If you are, the roadmap and mentor match it links to take that into account.
Every career in our catalogue has a short, ranked list of the skills it needs most. Your gaps are the skills from that list you didn't select in the strengths step. We don't infer anything from your name, age or anything else you didn't tell us.
Some employers use assessments when hiring, but rarely this kind. Interest inventories are designed to help you choose a career, and your result here is just for you.
From the same role benchmarks we use across our career pages. They're market midpoints, so use them as a rough guide rather than the offer you should expect.
We store your answers and result without any personal details, so we can check the test is making sensible recommendations. Your email is only attached if you choose to unlock the full result.
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