Second Generation Occupational Interest Profiles for the O*NET System: Summary

June 2008

James Rounds
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Educational Psychology and Psychology

Patrick I. Armstrong
Iowa State University, Department of Psychology

Hsin-Ya Liao
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Psychology

Phil Lewis, David Rivkin
National Center for O*NET Development

This report summarizes the development of new Occupational Interest Profiles (OIPs) for all occupations that are represented in O*NET-SOC classification. This work was undertaken due to changes in the O*NET database content and structure including 9 updates to the data, changes to the O*NET-SOC taxonomy, and the addition of new and emerging occupations. The goal of the development was to use updated O*NET data in an expert rating procedure to develop OIPs consisting of six numerical scores corresponding to one of six interest areas (e.g., Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional). The resulting OIPs serve as an excellent description of the types of interests that can be satisfied by a given occupation. High point interest codes were also developed for each occupation. A more comprehensive study report will soon be available for download.

• Second Generation Occupational Interest Profiles for the O*NET System: Summary (PDF)