Holland Interest Themes

The Center for Major and Career Exploration uses many career theories to assist students with exploring majors. One of the most cited career choice theories is that of John Holland (1997). The idea behind his theory is that individuals fall into 6 different personality and interest types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. The design of these themes is based on interests, skills, and personality traits that exist within all people in some way, shape or form. Most people will have a top 2-3 Holland Interest Theme, and knowing your themes can assist with selecting a major or career pathway. The graphic below shows the 6 Holland Interest themes.

We have several resources to help you identify what your Holland Interest Themes are. Check out the links below to learn more.

O*NET Online Interest Profiler

The O*NET Interest Profiler can help you find out what your interests are and how they relate to the world of work. You can find out what you like to do.

SuperStrong Assessment

Is your future career plan SuperStrong? The SuperStrong® assessment is derived from the Strong Interest Inventory® assessment, one of the most widely used career tools in the world.  The SuperStrong helps students identify their interests and extends their understanding of how interests can support academic and career success with up-to-date data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and Occupational Information Network (O*NET). Using the same career theory and research behind the Strong Interest Inventory, the SuperStrong is readily accessible to all members of the OU community. The assessment takes 5-10 minutes and can be taken via computer, cell phone, tablet, or any other electronic device.

If you have an idea of what your Holland Interest Themes are, you can now explore OU academic majors. Clicking the link below will take you to our "OU Majors By Holland Code" chart, which has all of the academic majors offered at OU categorized by their Holland Interest Theme.