Many career tests are based upon John Holland's applicable theory of vocational or career choice. Almost everybody wants to know which job or career fits them best. Holland's theory proposes that people like to be around others who have similar personalities. When we choose a career, it means that we choose jobs where we can be around other people who are like ourselves. This theory is one of the best known and is also one of the most widely researched theory on this topic. It is frequently used by many career counsellors and coaches. Let us take a little closer look at Holland's theory of career preferences. Holland divides the persons in our culture into six personality types:
He states that people of the same personality tend to flock together. For example, entrepreneurs are attracted to making friends and working with other entrepreneurs. Artistic people are attracted to other artistic people etc.
When people of the same personality type work together in a job, they create a work environment that fits their type. According to Holland, there are six basic types of work environments and are labelled exactly the same as the six different personalities above: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional. Let's take the example of the artistic personalities; when they are together on a job, they create a work environment that rewards creative thinking and behavior -- or what we call a typically artistic environment.
The next postulate in Holland