The Holland Code is arguably the most practical personality typology for job search. Crack the Code, and unlock your best career path matches.

Crack The Holland Code and Unlock Your Career Aspirations

By A Portland Career, and edited by Suzie Sherman

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The Big Five personality traits and the Myers Briggs Type Indicator can offer insight into our personalities and the kinds of careers for which we are best-suited. But there’s no personality typology that is quite as practical and directly applicable to job search as the Holland Code. Find your Holland Code, and unlock the best career paths that match your strengths and interests.

Sociology professor and psychologist John L. Holland, PhD, was a thought leader in understanding career and personality, and published his theory of careers he called the “occupational themes” starting in the 1950s. He realized that the types of work people gravitate to can often reveal corresponding character traits that help us better understand the kinds of careers where we can flourish. Occupational statistics sites like O*NET use Holland codes to help job seekers with career research, so let’s help you get to know this powerful tool!

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The Holland Code occupational themes

Holland’s theory encompasses six occupational themes organized by first letter: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional (R-I-A-S-E-C, or simply RIASEC). Combining all six letters in different ranked orders generates up to 720 personality patterns. These patterns (or “Holland Codes” as they are commonly called) could be as simple as “IA” or as complex as “IARCSE.” They apply to both personal characteristics and preference for work environment, elucidating the kinds of work activities that people might enjoy and excel at.

Here is a snapshot of each of the Holland Code’s six occupational themes, or the six types. (We will discuss getting a more in-depth interpretation of your occupational themes below.)

Read through them, and then rank each theme in order from 1 to 6, according to which describes the activities you would find most attractive, interesting, and satisfying in your future job or career. Pay attention, especially, to your top three themes.

The Holland Codes: Your Occupational Themes Realistic: You like to work with things you can see and touch: the real and tangible vs ideas or concepts. You enjoy mechanical and/or physical tasks. Investigative: You enjoy logical thinking and like to learn how things work. You are good at science, math, solving problems, doing research, and understanding data. Artistic: You enjoy expressing yourself creatively, possibly through art, dancing, acting, music, or writing. You like the freedom and variety of working creativity. Social: You like to work with people. You solve problems by talking about them. You like helping, understanding, and teaching others. You care about others’ feelings. Enterprising: You like to be in charge of your own work and take control. Competition doesn’t scare you. You are willing to lead, supervise, and ensure the work gets done. Conventional: You like to keep things in order. You like clear rules and instructions, and produce detailed, precise work. You are good with data and care about accuracy.
Colorful chart illustrating the six Holland Code occupational themes

Your top three choices of occupational theme make up a 3-letter code (for example, AIE = Artistic, Investigative, and Enterprising.) Now, visit O*NET Online, and browse their exhaustive list of occupations sorted by these three-letter codes. O*NET calls these codes your “interest areas.” O*NET is one of the best sources for up-to-the-minute occupational data available.

For each occupation, O*NET lists the work activities, education level, technical competencies, knowledge and skill sets, median salaries, and predicted employment outlook. Note that the order of the three letters is interchangeable in the O*NET database.

screenshot of an occupational interests browse screen at onetonline.org
In our example, for the code AIE, the future’s looking particularly bright in film and video editing for all you Artistic, Investigative, and Enterprising people.

Broaden your search: If you aren’t finding careers or job titles at O*NET that speak to you using your 3-letter code, you can also try just entering your top two choices. This will broaden your search. “Computer programmer” is a job title that comes up with just the 2-letter code “IC” – most people with this aptitude or interest are definitely the investigative and conventional type (logical thinking, problem-solving, detail-oriented) but plenty of engineers we know are also artistic, enterprising, etc.

Holland Code combinations to get you thinking

Here are just a few great examples of career choices according to the Holland Code and O*Net. Think about your top three letters, and let these samples help you generate some ideas as you explore potential career paths. Remember: for a broader search, just use your top two!

R I A: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic
Patternmakers, musical instrument repairers, landscape artists, archeologists

R I S: Realistic, Investigative, Social
Veterinary assistants, medical equipment technicians, acute care nurses

R S C: Realistic, Social, Conventional
Restaurant workers, personal care aides, animal control workers, medical assistants

R E C: Realistic, Enterprising, Conventional
Correctional officers, baristas, security guards, motorboat operators

I A S: Investigative, Artistic, Social
Mental health counselors and therapists, social workers, speech-language pathologists, humanities professors

I A E: Investigative, Artistic, Enterprising
Film and video editors, news analysts and reporters, sustainability specialists, urban planners, creative writers

I A C: Investigative, Artistic, Conventional
Tech writers, mathematicians, desktop publishers

I S E: Investigative, Social, Enterprising
Community health workers, law professors, instructional coordinators, business professors

I S C: Investigative, Social, Conventional
Registered nurses, pharmacists, computer science and library science teachers

I E C: Investigative, Enterprising, Conventional
Paralegals, business intelligence analysts, actuaries, logistics analysts, computer programmers (especially startup entrepreneurs)

A S E: Artistic, Social, Enterprising
Nannies or au pairs, hairdressers and cosmetologists, choreographers, musicians, PR specialists, broadcast hosts

A S C: Artistic, Social, Conventional
Middle and elementary school teachers, training and development specialists

A E C: Artistic, Enterprising, Conventional
Editors, advertising managers, fundraisers, media directors

S E C: Social, Enterprising, Conventional
Customer service reps, waitstaff in restaurants, flight attendants, hospitality workers, real estate agents

R S E: Realistic, Social, Enterprising
Passenger attendants, manicurists, coaches and scouts, exercise trainers

R A C: Realistic, Artistic, Conventional
Glass art specialists, tile and stone setters, shoe and leather workers, private chefs

R A E: Realistic, Artistic, Enterprising
Fashion designers, tailors and custom sewers, models, chefs and executive chefs, graphic designers

R A S: Realistic, Artistic, Social
Park naturalists, tree trimmer, sound engineer technician, recreation therapist

R I C: Realistic, Investigative, Conventional
Drillers and oil derrick workers, iron and steel workers, computer hardware engineers, audio and video technicians

R I E: Realistic, Investigative, Enterprising
Fishing and hunting workers, commercial pilots, foresters, wind energy engineers

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Explore deeper for a great career match

To go deeper with a Holland Code assessment, we encourage you to work with a career coach who administers and interprets the Strong Interest Inventory. This inventory generates an extensive report which provides a vast array of useful information:

  • It helps you rank your themes in greater detail, and assigns you a complete six-letter Holland Code. 
  • It generates an exhaustive list of possible careers for you to consider by comparing your answers to the responses of people who love their work!
  • It provides an overview of occupational themes and career clusters that may interest you. 
  • Finally, it lists a series of probing questions and “Action Steps” to encourage you to explore occupational themes and job titles in more depth.

The website www.123test.com offers a variety of career assessments for free, and provides fairly detailed reports. If you click on the “Career Test” under “Tests” from the home page, a quiz of visual prompts generates a quick assessment of your Holland Code. The test provides some insight, but the Strong Interest Inventory is going to provide your most accurate Holland Code and list job titles in descending order of interest organized under each category. It’s an invaluable resource for career development.

If you’re ready to deepen your career exploration, schedule a call with us.

two photos side by side, one of Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka and one of Arianna Huffington
We can imagine that Willy Wonka and Arianna Huffington would be very different kinds of ENFP! Huffington image credit: C2-Montreal by CHARLES WILLIAM PELLETIER via Flickr, creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0

Applying the occupational themes to your life and career

Our core personality traits intersect with our professional and creative interests in powerful ways that can change and develop over time. As you think about the occupational themes that stand out for you, consider how they interact with, or complement, your Myers-Briggs personality type. An ENFP “campaigner” on the Myers-Briggs typology who is Social, Artistic and Enterprising (SAE Holland Code) is going to be markedly different from an ENFP who is Realistic, Conventional, and Investigative (RCI). The former will be drawn to creative, entrepreneurial, and social pursuits, while the latter will likely find fulfillment applying their influencer and idea-generation skills in a more conventional, hands-on workplace—ideally with complex problems to solve.

Helpful ways to think about the occupational themes

Dr. John Holland’s formulation of the RIASEC occupational themes included a general “type” corresponding to each letter, a sort of coda to make the themes more concrete. If you’re having trouble identifying which occupational themes feel truest for you, you can think about them in these more practical terms:

  • Realistic people are Doers – you’ve got physical skills, you like working with your hands, digging in the dirt, and getting sh*t done! 
  • Investigative people are Thinkers – you enjoy research, analyzing, and problem-solving.
  • Artistic people are Creators – musicians, artists, makers, creatives, driven by self-expression.
  • Social people are Helpers – do you like collaborating with colleagues, working with clients, being sociable, and helping people? 
  • Enterprising people are Persuaders – you’re self-confident, disciplined, a natural leader, an influencer. Perhaps you’d like to start your own business…
  • Conventional people are Organizers – you don’t have to be “conventional,” in the boring way, to be detail-oriented, meticulous, and excellent at documentation.

An extra resource for Artistic people

If Artistic is your dominant theme in the Holland code, check out Carol Eikleberry’s book, Career Guide for Creative and Unconventional People. She points out the challenges inherent in making a living for those of us with Artistic as a core theme. She writes,

“The intuitive preference for what could be, rather than what is, helps produce some negative feelings. Creative people often focus on what is wrong, what is missing, what needs to be changed to make something better.”

This tendency to strain against the leash of society means creative people might need a more unique approach than a database like O*NET can provide. Eikleberry’s book presents an invaluable “Career Reference Section” that fleshes out “281 Occupations for Creative and Unconventional People.” We recommend anyone with an “A” in their code read this book and spend time deeply considering some of these career paths.

Final thoughts on using the Holland Code for career search

Your Holland Code is the most directly relevant personality typology for career exploration. Once you’ve done a self-assessment to find your Holland Code, or deployed a career expert to help you form a detailed profile, you can attack the O*NET database with confidence, knowing you will generate plenty of real-world ideas about the best career path matches for your personality and aptitudes. As with all personality typologies, go with your gut and have fun with it. The process is bound to spark creative thinking and give you more information about the kinds of work out there for you that promise the most growth potential and job satisfaction.

Key takeaways

  • The Holland Code is named after psychologist and sociology professor John L. Holland, who invented the typology in the 1950s.
  • The code includes six different occupational themes that can elucidate the best career paths for your personality type and the kinds of work you might enjoy. 
  • Your top three occupational themes form a shortened code that can point you to hundreds of career path matches. 
  • The occupational database O*NET organizes careers into interest areas based on these three-letter Holland Codes, so job seekers and career explorers can find career paths that match their interests and aptitudes.
  • The Holland Code is compatible with other personality typologies, like the Big 5 Personality traits and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Finding your Holland Code can add depth and a practical edge to your self-assessment process.

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