Strong Interest Inventory® (Strong®)

Choosing a career path or altering one can feel overwhelming, especially when the options seem endless and so much is at stake. But with the right guidance, uncertainty can turn into confidence and a clear sense of direction. 

The Strong Interest Inventory® (Strong®) assessment is a powerful tool for career exploration and planning. Trusted by professionals around the world and used by millions of people, it helps individuals uncover what truly interests and motivates them—an essential driver of long-term career satisfaction. By connecting personal interests to real-world occupations and educational pathways, the Strong assessment transforms self-discovery into practical, actionable career direction. 

Whether you’re supporting students as they explore future possibilities, helping professionals navigate career transitions, or guiding individuals back to meaningful work, the Strong assessment delivers the insights needed to make career decisions with greater clarity and confidence. 

Backed by decades of research and grounded in the proven RIASEC model, the Strong continues to evolve to meet the needs of today’s dynamic world of work—offering a trusted, relevant, and impactful solution for modern career development. 

Take career counselling to the next level by combining the Strong with the MBTI. The two measures are fundamentally different, but complementary and together they create a multidimensional map of a person's ideal career path. To discover how to use these two tools in combination, read MBC’s insightful Using the MBTI® and Strong® assessments together in career transition.    

The Strong empowers individuals, from high school students to seasoned professionals seeking a change, to chart a path towards a fulfilling career. It unlocks your potential by helping you discover:

• Your ideal work environment: The Strong identifies six core work styles (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional) and assesses which one best aligns with your natural inclinations and allows you to thrive.

• Skills and Values in Action: By understanding your preferred work environment, you'll gain clarity on how to best utilise your skills and express your values in a way that is both stimulating and satisfying.

The Strong goes beyond basic interests. It provides a comprehensive analysis through four key scales:

1. General Occupational Themes (GOTS): These scales assess core interests within the RIASEC framework.

2. Basic Interest Scales (BISS): This dives deeper, exploring specific clusters of interest within each GOTS category.

3. Personal Style Scales (PSSS): These scales shed light on preferred work styles, learning environments, and approach to leadership and risk-taking.

4. Occupational Scales (OSS): These scales compare your interests to those of successful professionals in over 130 diverse occupations.

Areas of Applications

The Strong offers valuable insights for various purposes:

• Academic and Career Decisions: Make informed choices about your education and career path based on a strong understanding of your interests.

• Open Communication: Facilitate productive discussions about career exploration between students, parents, and educators.

• Mid-Career Evaluation: Reassess your career path and identify areas for growth or potential career shifts.

• Understanding Job Satisfaction: Gain valuable insights into factors influencing your job satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

Available Reports

The Strong offers a variety of specialised reports which cater to different populations.  

The Profile reports provide raw data and basic visual breakdowns of an individual's results across the four traditional Strong scales (General Occupational Themes, Basic Interest Scales, Occupational Scales, and Personal Style Scales). 

Reports available on OneJVR include: 

• Strong Profile (Standard/Adult Edition): This baseline report for adults and mid-career professionals paints a clear picture of how an individual's personal and professional preferences align with various broad work settings and specific occupations. 

• Strong College Profile: Specifically tailored for higher-education students. In addition to standard interest reporting, it highlights data relevant to selecting college majors, pursuing specific internships, and identifying satisfying extracurricular activities. 

• Strong High School Profile: Geared toward younger students mapping out their initial post-school choices. It focuses heavily on connecting foundational interests to broad educational pathways and early-stage career exploration. 

For practitioners or clients who want to move beyond data charts into a structured road map, the interpretive options build on the baseline profiles. 

• Strong Interpretive Report: This type of report is available for each of the above-mentioned Profile reports. The data is presented in a narrative-style career road map, explaining why certain patterns emerged, offering strategies for career exploration, and recommending leisure or work-life balance activities that match the client's profile. 

• Strong Profile with Skills Confidence Inventory: This report integrates the standard Strong Interest Inventory with the Skills Confidence Inventory (SCI). It places a client's interest areas side-by-side with their perceived self-efficacy (how confident they feel performing tasks in those specific areas). It is incredibly valuable for identifying fields where a client has high interest but low confidence (training gap) or high confidence but low interest (burnout zone).