Plain-language glossary of all 28 work interest scales and 7 work style scales used in SIGMA Career Explorer. Browse definitions, see what high scorers tend to enjoy, and explore where each scale shows up in everyday work.
Each work interest scale describes a pattern of activities people tend to enjoy.
Drawn to novel, risky, exploratory work.
What it means: Represents an interest in novel situations and seeking out somewhat dangerous or risky types of jobs.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy participating in extreme sports and exploring new places and environments.
Examples of where this might show up:
Creative writing and storytelling for an audience.
What it means: Represents an interest in creative writing for a general audience.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy writing, editing, and publishing novels, short stories, poetry, news stories, and communications for a variety of purposes.
Examples of where this might show up:
Running and growing organizations day to day.
What it means: Represents an interest in the day-to-day work responsibilities and functions associated with running a company or organization.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy doing administrative work involving planning, organizing, marketing, budgeting, and supervising employees.
Examples of where this might show up:
Expressing ideas through original visual or musical work.
What it means: Represents an interest in the applied or fine arts and in expressing ideas in creative, original, and artistic ways.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy sketching, decorating, painting original artwork, and composing music.
Examples of where this might show up:
Direct, assertive supervision and command.
What it means: Represents an interest in work environments that encourage an assertive or aggressive style of leadership that involves active, direct supervision, such as in the military.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy demonstrating authority, maintaining discipline, enforcing rules and standards, and giving performance feedback.
Examples of where this might show up:
Teaching and caring for young children.
What it means: Represents an interest in teaching or caring for young children.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy teaching basic subjects and skills, and planning interesting activities to engage young children and support their development.
Examples of where this might show up:
Designing, testing, and building things that work.
What it means: Represents an interest in designing, testing, or manufacturing a wide variety of products.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy working with raw materials, industrial equipment and technology, and applying scientific principles to the solution of practical problems.
Examples of where this might show up:
Active engagement in home and family life.
What it means: Represents an interest in domestic activities and an active participation in family life and household responsibilities.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy planning family activities, decorating and renovating the home, and entertaining guests.
Examples of where this might show up:
Working with money, markets, and investment.
What it means: Represents an interest in handling the financial needs of the public.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy solving financial problems, keeping up on market trends, and making decisions related to investment and trade.
Examples of where this might show up:
Counseling and advising clients in a specialty area.
What it means: Represents an interest in counseling and giving expert advice to clients.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy consulting, surveying, and providing professional recommendations and advice in a specific industry.
Examples of where this might show up:
Legislation, policy, justice, and legal practice.
What it means: Represents an interest in legislation, policy, and justice.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy defending and representing clients, writing and reviewing legal documents, compiling facts, and referencing cases.
Examples of where this might show up:
Investigating living organisms and life processes.
What it means: Represents an interest in investigating various aspects of living organisms and life processes.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy studying and researching in fields such as biology, medicine, and ecology.
Examples of where this might show up:
Working with numbers, formulas, and quantitative methods.
What it means: Represents an interest in working with numbers and formulas to solve problems.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy doing calculations, estimating figures, and planning and applying mathematical methods to solve problems.
Examples of where this might show up:
Treating illness and promoting patient health.
What it means: Represents an interest in the prevention and treatment of human illness and disease and promoting good health.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy assessing patients, treating injuries, administering medication, and providing therapy.
Examples of where this might show up:
Outdoor work with plants, animals, and the land.
What it means: Represents an interest in working outdoors with animals or plants.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy preserving nature and the environment, planting and tending to gardens, working in greenhouses and orchards, raising animals, and harvesting crops.
Examples of where this might show up:
Detail-oriented administrative and clerical work.
What it means: Represents an interest in clerical work and other administrative tasks relevant to a business context.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy routine work and responsibilities that require a high degree of detail, organization, and planning.
Examples of where this might show up:
Performing live for an audience.
What it means: Represents an interest in performing for an audience.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy acting, singing, entertaining, or playing a musical instrument.
Examples of where this might show up:
Direct, person-to-person service work.
What it means: Represents an interest in providing direct services to the public.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy helping people arrange plans, providing basic and luxury services, and accommodating special needs and requests.
Examples of where this might show up:
Studying nonliving matter such as physics, chemistry, and geology.
What it means: Represents an interest in investigating and studying nonliving matter in subjects such as physics, chemistry, astronomy, and geology.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy studying scientific theory, researching, analyzing information, observing chemical reactions, and experimenting with various elements and compounds.
Examples of where this might show up:
Consulting and giving expert advice.
What it means: Represents an interest in counseling and giving expert advice to clients.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy consulting, surveying, and providing professional recommendations and advice in a specific industry.
Examples of where this might show up:
Engaging customers and selling products or services.
What it means: Represents an interest in engaging customers and selling products and services.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy demonstrating products, influencing people, and developing effective marketing strategies.
Examples of where this might show up:
Hands-on work with tools, machines, and materials.
What it means: Represents an interest in skilled manual labor and working with hands or machines to make, repair, or manufacture products and supplies.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy servicing and operating equipment, and assembling and installing materials and products.
Examples of where this might show up:
Researching human behavior and social systems.
What it means: Represents an interest in investigating and learning about topics related to society, organizations, human behavior, and social interaction.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy conducting research, surveying people to collect data, and using this data to analyze and investigate relationships and trends.
Examples of where this might show up:
Helping people cope and supporting social welfare.
What it means: Represents an interest in helping people cope with problems and providing for the social welfare of individuals.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy counseling and providing guidance, resources, and social programs to people in need.
Examples of where this might show up:
Coordinating and developing a team's work.
What it means: Represents an interest in planning, organizing, and coordinating the activities of employees.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy managerial responsibilities such as delegating, training, providing direction, and reviewing the work and performance levels of employees.
Examples of where this might show up:
Instructing others in a specific subject area.
What it means: Represents an interest in instructing and teaching a specific subject.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy designing course materials, planning learning activities, helping students, and answering questions.
Examples of where this might show up:
Detailed factual writing on technical topics.
What it means: Represents an interest in writing detailed factual reports, manuals, or essays about scientific, technical, legal, or historical topics.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy compiling facts, defining concepts, translating documents, and writing communications.
Examples of where this might show up:
Working with computers, software, and digital tools.
What it means: Represents an interest in working with computers, information technology, and digital tools.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy learning new technologies, troubleshooting systems, programming or configuring software, and using technology to solve practical problems.
Examples of where this might show up:
Each work style scale describes a preference about the work environment itself.
Scholarly engagement and disciplined study habits.
What it means: Represents an interest in scholarly activities and typically has disciplined study habits.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy studying, reading, completing assignments, researching, and learning about new subjects.
Examples of where this might show up:
Integrity, follow-through, and traditional work values.
What it means: Represents an interest in work environments that require a high degree of integrity and traditional values.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy keeping on top of responsibilities, respecting others, and fulfilling obligations.
Examples of where this might show up:
Working freely, with minimal supervision.
What it means: Represents an interest in work environments that are free from restrictions, rules, and close supervision.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy independently solving problems rather than seeking advice from others.
Examples of where this might show up:
Self-assurance in social and public situations.
What it means: Represents an interest in work environments requiring a high degree of self-assurance when dealing with others and confidence in accomplishing interpersonal tasks.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy meeting new people, leading discussions, giving presentations, and speaking confidently on a variety of topics.
Examples of where this might show up:
Stable, predictable environments with low risk.
What it means: Represents an interest in work environments that provide a stable and predictable future with little chance of failure or personal loss.
People who score high: High scorers tend to favor well-established procedures, employ safe practices, and avoid social and financial risks.
Examples of where this might show up:
Sustained effort over long stretches.
What it means: Represents an interest in working at a task for long hours at a time and persevering in the face of difficulty.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy spending extra time to solve challenging problems and finish lengthy tasks.
Examples of where this might show up:
Organized habits, structure, and dependability.
What it means: Represents an interest in work environments that encourage organized work habits, structure, and dependability.
People who score high: High scorers may enjoy keeping things in order, following through with obligations, adhering to a plan or schedule, and meeting deadlines.
Examples of where this might show up:
They are short labels for patterns in what kinds of work people tend to enjoy and how they prefer to work. The 28 work interest scales describe types of activities, such as Technology, Creative Arts, or Social Service. The 7 work style scales describe preferences about the work environment itself, such as Independence, Planfulness, or Stamina.
After you complete the assessment, your scores on these 35 scales are used to generate a personalized debrief and to match you against 923 O*NET occupations. The glossary on this page is a reference, written in plain language so you can think about your own results.
No. They are exploratory career-reflection scales. They are useful for thinking about what kinds of work might fit you, not for diagnosing anything about you. Use them as a conversation starter with yourself.
Not by themselves. A high score suggests an interest or preference that may be worth exploring, while a low score simply means a particular pattern is less prominent for you. Career fit depends on many things, including skills, opportunities, life circumstances, and what you value.
They come from SIGMA Assessment Systems' published work interest and work style measures, used here as the basis for the free SIGMA Career Explorer. The descriptions on this page are written for general readers.