About the Strong Interest Inventory®: The Applied Arts, Writing, and Culinary Arts Basic Interest Scales

The Basic Interest Scales (BIS) on the pages 1 and 2 of the Strong Profile show how your interests match those of people working in various careers. Your BISs show the things you like to do, as opposed to just interest you. This time we'll look at three BISs on the Strong and which careers they match. You'll notice these three BISs are all from the Artistic General Occupational Scale. Many people who struggle to find suitable work are high scorers on the Artistic scale. We'll look at the jobs that match these BISs to give you a better idea of where you might enjoy working.

Let's start with the Applied Arts BIS. The six professions with the highest scores on this scale are Medical Illustrator, Art Teacher, Commercial Artist, Architect, Fine Artist, and Photographer. In contrast, the lowest six professions on this scale are Farmer, Business Education Teacher, Agribusiness Manager, Banker, Bookkeeper, and Life Insurance Agent.

On the Writing BIS, the highest scoring professions are English Teacher, Reporter, Public Relations Director, Technical Writer, Sociologist, and Minister. The lowest are Farmer, Agribusiness Manager, Plumber, Auto Mechanic, Athletic Trainer, and Vocational Agriculture Teacher.

For the Culinary Arts scale, the highest scorers were Home Economics Teacher, Chef, Dietician, Food Service Manager, Dental Hygienist, and Restaurant Manager. The lowest scores were found among Agribusiness Managers, Plumbers, Auto Mechanics, Physicists, Farmers, and Bookkeepers.

Does this mean you should be a chef if your highest BIS was Culinary Arts? Not at all. It means you and the chef likely share interests and probably like many of the same things. This is a lot different than actually enjoying the work a chef does. This is where the Occupational Scales come in. Here your likes and dislikes are compared to those who are working in various professions. The Occupational Scales are better predictors of which professions are likely to be good matches for you.

When your General, Basic Interest, and Occupational Scales all match, it's likely you'll find it easier to choose a satisfying work path. Those who have widely different interests on the three scales will probably struggle more to find a good fit. You might discover your work life is greatly different from your private time. To use our example, you might be a computer programmer during the week, and spend your weekends cooking for friends and family. It's perfectly fine to live that way. This often happens for those with high scores on the Artistic scale. It's hard for many to find satisfying Artistic work, so they get a job to pay the bills and pursue their true interests outside of work.