To get detailed insights about your personality, you can take a free personality test at the end of this article. The test uses the latest advancements in artificial intelligence to give you deep insights into your personality.
In 1970, John L. Holland, a psychologist developed some personality types and called them Holland Codes. Dr. Holland believed that people can perform their best in a work environment if it matches their preferences. It’s possible to match work environments with people so they can work somewhere that is a perfect match for their personalities.
The personalities of most people are a combination of two or three Holland interest areas and these areas become the “Holland Code”.
Matching Interest With Occupation
Every person has unique interests and preferences in their professional life. To find a satisfying career, it’s essential to consider fundamental interests while choosing an occupation. A social person will not be happy if he/she has to sit alone in the office all day. Similarly, an artist will hate to work in a strict environment that offers no room for creativity.
Holland Codes Based Personality Tests
Holland codes are among the most popular models used in career tests. Holland was of the point of view that an individual’s choice of career shows their personality. The Holland model presents six personality types that can fit most people.
Realistic
Physical, hands-on machine, practical, tool-oriented, and concrete.
Investigative
Intellectual, thinker, scientific, analytical, and explorative.
Artistic
Media, original, chaotic, creative, text, graphics, independent and inventive.
Social
Supporting, nurturing, healing, teaching, and cooperative.
Enterprising
Leadership, status, competitive environment, and persuading.
Conventional
Organizing, clerical and detail-oriented.
Holland Code Occupations
You can take a career aptitude test on our website and get a better insight into your work interests.
Here are different types of Holland codes and their work preferences.
Realistic type
Occupations that involve dealing with practical solutions and hands-on problems are considered realistic. Their work involves dealing with machinery, tools, plants, and animals. Most of the realistic type occupations do not involve working with other people or paperwork.
Investigative type
These occupations involve activities involving working with patterns, forms, and designs. Investigative occupations require searching the facts and mentally working out issues.
Holland code artistic type
Artistic careers require working with forms, patterns, and designs. These jobs offer freedom as you get to work without any clear set of rules and use self-expression.
Social type
Social occupations are about communicating with and teaching people. They involve providing service to others and helping them.
Enterprising type
These occupations involve starting and carrying out projects. The occupations are about leading people and being responsible for making decisions. There are going to be risk-taking instances and dealing with businesses.
Conventional type
Conventional occupations include following particular routines and set procedures. They include detail-oriented work and working with data instead of ideas. The jobs mostly have a clear line of authority.
Creating a Personal Holland Code
Dr. Holland says that people do not necessarily belong to just one of the Holland code personalities because if that was true there will only be six types of personalities in the world. In reality, people can associate with more than one personality type. You can get your specific Holland Code by identifying your interests, starting with the ones that are on top of your list and moving to the ones that you have the least interest in.
The best way to remember Holland codes is to memorize RIASEC. There are about 720 different possible combinations. Generally, two or three letters are required to establish a useful description, for example, IRC, AIC, or SC. The description may apply to a person or work environment. Typifying both using Holland codes allows you to find the best matches between the two and assess a potential career choice.
According to Holland’s theory, there is a stronger link between two code letters that are next to each other in a hexagon created by RIASEC. It means Realistic people end work environments are better linked to conventional and investigative people and environments. The one difference between social and realistic is working with people or machines. Conventional resemble more realistic and artistic and enterprising are pretty similar.
You can take an online test on our website to determine a personal Holland Code.
Sam Najar, MBA
MBA from the Australian Institute of business. Over a decade working for IBM Australia and Oracle Europe and the Middle East. Worked on Artificial Intelligence technology for many years and believes that technology can help everyone better understand his/her personality and find the job they deserve.
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