• career advising
• career courses
• finding jobs and internships
• career resource library
• career events

• learn about yourself
• explore majors/careers
• get experience
• prepare for the job search
• prepare for grad school

• post a job or internship
• recruit on campus
• hire IU students
• attend a career fair

• help my student
• get involved
• get more information

• director's welcome
• about the center
• our staff
• getting to our office
• facts and figures

Interests

Interests are the things we like to do. Our interests lead us to explore certain majors and careers because we're interested in the types of people, tasks, or environments involved. Interests differ from values. Values guide your judgment of right and wrong, moral and immoral. Your interests determine whether you'll be bored or engaged.

One useful model for thinking about your interests is John Holland's RIASEC theory. RIASEC stands for realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional; this model is the most compelling and popular theory of interests in the field of career counseling. Holland says that there are six types of people and six corresponding types of environments. People are attracted to environments that match them. The types are:

• Realistic: People who enjoy hands-on work; environments that require physical involvement.
• Investigative: People who enjoy learning, researching, and solving problems; environments that are research-oriented and provoke mental challenges.
• Artistic: People who like be creative or observe self-expression; environments that facilitate self-expression.
• Social: People who like to help others; environments that provide the opportunity to foster human development.
• Enterprising: People who enjoy persuading others; environments that require selling to or influencing others.
• Conventional: People who like to organize; environments where information or situations must be put in order.

Holland says most people can be described by three types in order of priority; the first letters of these three types form a Holland Theme Code. The Dictionary of Holland Occupational Codes, available at the Career Resource Library, categorizes 12,860 jobs by Holland Theme Code. Flipping through this book can be a way to generate ideas for careers to research.

The Strong Interest Inventory incorporates Holland’s RIASEC theory as part of an overall assessment of interests. If you would like to pinpoint your interests, take the Strong Interest Inventory, or learn more about Holland’s theory, attend drop-in advising or enroll in ASCS Q294: Basic Career Development.