You know you want a career that feels right. What you don’t know yet is which one.

An interest inventory solves this problem.

What are Interest Inventories?

An interest inventory is an assessment that measures what interests you – the activities, subjects, and environments that naturally hold your attention – and connects those interests to potential career, educational, and leisure activities.

The Strong Interest Inventory® has been around since 1927, when Stanford University psychologist Edward Kellogg Strong Jr. first developed it. Over the last century, it has been refined repeatedly – most recently with the Strong Interest Inventory® 244, a shorter, gender-neutral version with expanded academic and occupational coverage – and adapted for high school students, college students, and adults at any career stage.

Other well-known options include the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey (KOIS) and the Campbell Interest and Skill Survey (CISS), although the Strong remains one of the most widely used and researched of the bunch.

Interest inventories aren’t personality or aptitude tests. They connect the dots from your interests to your career options.

The Main Advantage: Clarity Over Guesswork

A personality quiz or well-meaning advice from friends or family can’t do this. From your test answers, an interest inventory compares your interests and what you enjoy against people who are already working in specific careers and report true enjoyment in their roles.

If you match closely with people who enjoy teaching or engineering, that’s no coincidence. The final “inventory” (or results) comes from data-backed evidence directing you to work, subjects, or activities you’re likely to find fulfilling. The Strong Interest Inventory® Interpretive Report also includes a complimentary analysis session with a certified interpreter, adding professional context to your raw scores rather than leaving you to interpret the numbers alone.

There are no vague suggestions or generic messages. The results give you a clear, evidence-based framework of where your interests point. “What should I do next?” becomes a manageable shortlist.

TAKE THE STRONG INTEREST INVENTORY!

What you get from an interest inventory:

Career Interest Inventories:

  • An evidence-based, ranked list of career directions
  • Insight into the work activities, settings, and subjects that consistently appeal to you
  • A way to separate what truly interests you from what merely sounds good on paper
  • Careers in which you share interests with individuals who report being happy in those careers, with the premise that if those individuals who share your same or similar interests are content in their careers, there is a good chance you will also be content in these careers. Additionally, shared interests in the workplace can build a sense of community and camaraderie. Something of great importance in the workplace, especially when working in team or group environments.
  • Your Top 10 best-suited Careers that coincide with your interest patterns based on how you scored on your assessment.
  • Your areas of little Interest (careers that would not match your particular interest profile)
  • Your careers of least compatibility

College and High School Interest Inventories. What you get from College Interest Inventories and High School Interest Inventories.

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Everything included in the career-based inventories listed above, plus:

  • College and high school curriculum and college major recommendations related to your interests and “Likes” and “Dislikes,”.
  • Your best-fit:
    • study habits
    • learning environments
    • work styles
    • risk-taking, as it relates to whether you are a planner who prefers careful consideration before acting or someone who prefers to try new things in more of a spontaneous manner.
    • Assessed for leadership and team orientation, that is, whether you prefer to be directed by others or go at it alone, and whether you prefer team activities as opposed to working alone or within a small group.
  • Your top 10 occupations related to your scores.

A breakdown of the following for your top 10 careers:

  • Required education for your top 10 careers
    • College courses that align with these educational/degree pursuits

For high school students choosing between colleges, or college students deciding on majors, choices are often based on a hopeful guess that’s made before they’ve had any real career exposure. Choices may be centered on a single class they enjoyed or a subject that came easily to them.

An interest inventory brings some much-needed direction to this important decision. It connects subjects’ students enjoy to areas of study likely to lead to a satisfying career. In contrast, major chosen by elimination, pressure, or a parent’s suggestion can be a poor fit.

When students are still weighing their options, an interest inventory like the Strong Interest Inventory® High School Edition Profile is a far steadier starting point than a coin toss, giving them something concrete to weigh against gut instinct. The SII High School Profile builds on information such as a student’s top five interest areas, areas of least interest, the student’s top ten occupations based on their interest patterns, and occupations of dissimilar interest (those of least interest). The High School Profile builds on this by describing what the individual values in their career interest and jobs, such as taking chances, influencing others, budgeting, managing data, making a profit, etc.

Along with the Strong Interest Inventory High School Profile, other versions of the SII, such as the Strong Interest Inventory College Edition and Strong Interest Inventory Standard Profile, also explain one’s work style, such as whether you prefer to work alone or with others, if you enjoy working with data or, for instance, enjoy helping others, your preferred learning environment, leadership style, risk-taking level, and team orientation (whether you prefer to work on a team or more so on your own, as well as other team dynamics). The Strong Interest Inventory High School Profile is best suited for freshmen and sophomores in High School or Juniors and Seniors in High School who are not planning on attending college while The SII College Edition Profile is best suited for juniors and seniors in High School, freshmen and seniors in College who are planning to attend college, High School graduates who have attended some college and are planning on returning to college or those who would like to attend college for the first time later in life.

The Strong Interest Inventory Standard Profile does not offer any College or High School information or data. It does not assess university or high school curriculum; instead, it focuses purely on career exploration. It is important to point out that the nine-page Standard SII Profile is included in both the High School and College reports to give college and high school students a solid idea of career options along with their majors and curriculum.

Who should take an interest inventory?

  • Starting Your First Career Search

Starting a first job search without any direction usually means applying everywhere and hoping something sticks, before realizing months later the job’s all wrong. A Career interest inventory switches this process around. It helps to narrow down what genuinely interests you first, then you can set out with a clear target in mind.

That means:

  • Fewer wrong turns before you find a suitable fit
  • A shortlist based on true interests rather than hoping for the best
  • More momentum toward work that suits from the get-go

 

  • At a Career Crossroads

A mid-career rethink can happen for a number of reasons, ranging from boredom to burnout. When you’re looking for a career change, it’s easy to box yourself into a corner and overlook options in different sectors that might suit you far better. A Career interest inventory offers a wider picture with an evidence-based focus on what you’re drawn to now, rather than what made sense in the past.

For mid-career changers, this may mean:

  • Discovering directions you hadn’t even considered
  • Confirming or challenging the options you had in mind already
  • Making a career change based on evidence-based data, not relying on chance alone, which can lead to frustration and detrimental career changes.

Real change, backed by real evidence – not just a hunch that anything would be better than your current situation.

  • High School and College Students Looking to Choose a Major

A college degree doesn’t come with a rigid plan for the future. Plenty of graduates finish college with no clear sense of how their studies fit with a future career – or which of several appealing options might suit them best.

The Strong Interest Inventory® College Edition Profile Plus Strong Interpretive Report helps in this area. It suggests college majors as well as career options, matches the coursework you are most interested in studying with the appropriate college major and to realistic future career options based on your major choices and your best-fit careers aligned with your top interest patterns. For students choosing a major, or graduates thinking about their next move, it provides clarity rather than general advice. The Strong Interest Inventory College Assessments are meant for juniors and seniors in High School who are planning to attend college, as well as freshmen and sophomores in college who are looking for college major and career guidance, as well as anyone at a crossroads who is considering returning to or attending college for the first time.

However, an interest inventory won’t decide on a single occupation or college major choice for you. The Strong Interest Inventory® College Edition Profile suggests several occupations, including the top 10 job options that most closely match your interests, along with college major choices, though the final decision is where it belongs: with you. This is also where your interpretation session can aid you, whereas your certified professional can help walk you through such a decision, explaining your results in a manner that is easier for you to decipher and understand.

  • Career Consultants and Coaches Looking for a Data-Based Tool

Intuition is powerful, but in client work it can only go so far. A data-based tool like a Career interest inventory gives consultants and coaches something concrete to work from. It provides a shared reference point, backed by evidence, not just opinion, and gives clients results they can trust because they didn’t come from intuition or a single conversation. Coaches get a structured starting point their clients can trust and clients receive results that hold up to scrutiny, because they’re supported by research rather than a single session’s impressions. That’s a far stronger foundation for any career conversation.

Where This Leaves You

An interest inventory brings the same main advantage to every stage: real insight and clarity. Unlike trial and error- taking an entry-level job that doesn’t truly fit- an interest inventory provides a data-informed map of where your interests point and where you’re most likely to find satisfying, long-term work. No guesswork. No wasted years in the wrong role.

Crossroads, study options, plain curiosity – whatever’s brought you here, an interest inventory is a good place to start.

What you get from an Interest Inventory administered by Career Assessment Site:

  • A link sent to you or your participants (you may receive a link to distribute to your participant (s) yourself if this is your preference to streamline the process for the link to arrive directly from you).
  • User-friendly platform to complete your assessments.
  • A PDF report of your results sent to you and/or your participants to the email(s) you provide.
  • A complimentary 30–45-minute Zoom or phone interpretation by a Myers-Briggs Co. certified legitimate interpreter when purchasing a Level-B restricted Strong Interest Inventory Assessment
  • 100% online access to your assessment
  • Quick turnaround time for receiving your report/results (within 1-3 business hours).
  • Stellar customer service support via phone, contact form, email, and Live Chat. We reply to emails and contact forms within 2-4 business hours.
  • Extended business hours: 8 AM- 5 PM Pacific Standard Time.
  • Consistent updates on your remaining inventory, how many of your participants have completed assessments, and all other pertinent information for when purchasing in bulk at your desire.
  • Trained Customer Service Agents to troubleshoot issues, explain options, and recommend assessments that align with your purpose, and more.