How Career Interests can be used in matching
The theory of Career Interests, made famous by Dr John Holland, describes how people's interests fall into a small number of 'core' interest groups, and that these tend to be relatively stable over time. The theory also identifies workplaces and college courses as also being characterised by the same set of 'core' interests as their workers and students.
Research over the last few decades has identified patterns of these core interests in various occupations, and more recently in college courses. The theory works on the principle that if a persons' core interests are aligned with those of a particular occupation (or family of occupations) then that person is likely to find such an occupation very satisfying.
There is strong empirical evidance for the coorelation of these Interests and many occupations, so if we can find out an individuals core interests (Interests Profile), we can make some good predictions as to what occupations they are likely to find engaging and rewarding. Though there is less empirical information for the relationship between core interests and courses, there is increasing evidance to support this claim.
The Careers Portal Interest Profiler - CPIP
You can create your own Interest Profile using our Interest Profiler (CPIP) which is freely available on this site. This will produce a profile of your 'core' career interests, and will then be used to show matching occupations and courses. This information may help you with deciding on a career path with a greater degree of confidence.
Start by joining CareersPortal (its free - see link to Join on this page) and selecting the CPIP App. Once you start the Interest Profiler you will be shown two activities, from which you are asked to indicate which you would prefer to do.
Example of questionnaire item. There are 56 questions to be completed
Please note that this is not a test and there are no right or wrong answers! It is solely based on your preference and interest in different tasks.You can like or dislike both statements or much prefer or prefer one over the other. There is also the option of having no preference. Tip: Try not to spend too much time thinking about your choices – go with the best one that suits you. You can arrow back (to the previous statements) at any stage to revise your choices. It is useful to complete the Interest Profiler again at a later stage. As individuals, we change over time and our interests can too. For example: take it again after completing a course or training.
Once you complete the exercise, you will be shown a chart of your career interests. The system will focus on the top three categories from the eight used in the profiler and provide a brief description of each.
Example profile for a CareersPortal member. Note profiles differ significantly from each other - what you are looking for is which Interests come out strongest, regardless of the 'score'
If you are happy that the top three interests are accurate for you, then you can proceed to Career Matching or Course Matching (either CAO or PLC courses).
There are three Matching options from the results screen
Matching Careers
If you choose to find matching careers, you will be asked to complete 3 further optional sections - the first is just to confirm the order of your interests (you can manually change them here if you prefer), the second asks you to filter the results acccording to the career sectors that most interest you (up to a max of 4 in any one search), and the third section narrows the results to match a particular career zone.
Sample second filter showing 2 sectors chosen
Note: you can explore career sectors in detail here
Once you select Match from the filters page you will be shown a list of matched occupations ranked with the closest matches at the top. Scan through the list and 'star' those that interest you most - this will save them to your Career Library in your account (your 'Career File').
Sample careers based on chosen filters
Matching Courses
If you select Matching Courses (CAO or PLC) you will be brought directly to the CourseFinder with your three top Interests selected, and the list of courses already filtered. The list of courses is not ranked in order of fit as it is with occupations, instead it is ordered by course title (the list will contain all courses that are related to any of your top three interests). You will need to use the additional filters on the coursefinder to narrow down the list to more realistic numbers, and, as with the occupations, you can 'star' any courses that particularily interest you. These will also be saved to your Career Library, which is always available to you when you login.
Sample course list showing filters pre-selected. Note: Accounting courses are displayed as they are associated with the Enterprising interest from our sample user, and the list is alphebetical by default
Printing Reports
A number of reports can be freely printed from the Interest Profiler. Some visitors may prefer to 'print to pdf' to download and share their reports with guidance professionals or others assisting in your career choices.
Career Interests
You can print a simple one page report showing your Interest Profile and a brief interpretation.
Career Report
You can also print a fuller Career Report which contains an interpretation of your results along with occupation matching results.
Course Report
You can create a list of courses based on a combination of your Interest Profile and any filters you select when using the CourseFinder. Two options are available to print:
- Compact List. This provides a printout of the courses listed onscreen along with NFQ level, course Duration and CAO points (for CAO courses only).
- Expanded List. This provides extended information of each course to include both a Course Overview and information on Career Opportunities for that course, as well as the Career Interests associated with each course.
