The Occupational Interest Profile (OIP) assesses an individual’s personal preferences for varying types of work.

Whilst most people will have scores around the middle of each measure it is the high and low interests, which tell us most about how they differ from the 'average' person.

Artistic/Creative

Interest in creative and expressive activities including art, design, drama, music and dance.

Practical/Mechanical

Interest in activities requiring a degree of manual dexterity and involving the use of tools, machines and/or engines. Practical occupations might include civil or mechanical engineering, crafts and trades, assembly, maintenance and construction work.

Scientific

Interest in activities involving the understanding of natural and physical sciences. Scientific pursuits might include physics, chemistry or biology based occupations and involve laboratory work.

Administrative/Clerical

Interest in office based clerical and financial activities involving established procedures such as filing, coding and accountancy. These activities usually involve repetitive work of a paper and pencil or keyboard kind.

Caring/Helping

Interest in activities centred on helping and caring for others. This interest may lead to employment in occupations such as training/teaching, customer servicing, social work and counselling.

Logical/Computational

Interest in activities requiring logical thought processes for problem-solving and a flair for numerical data analysis. Apart from statisticians and others employed in the broad area of mathematics, the computing/information technology industry offers opportunities for people in software programming and systems analysis.

Persuasive

Interest in activities involving communication of information and ideas in a convincing manner. Persuasiveness, applied appropriately, is important in most supervisory and management positions and is vital in most selling positions.