Teaching, Social Service, and Religious Activities 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 Social General Occupational 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 Teaching BIS. The six professions with the highest scores on this scale are School Administrator, High School Counselor, English Teacher, Social Science Teacher, Physical Education Teacher, and Foreign Language Teacher. In contrast, the lowest six professions on this scale are Agribusiness Manager, Plumber, Interior Decorator, Auto Mechanic, Farmer, and Medical Technician.

For the Social Service scale, the highest scorers were High School Counselor, Minister, Child Care Provider, Home Economics Teacher, Social Worker, and Nurse. The lowest scores were found among Physicists, Plumbers, Geologists, Mathematicians, Chemists, and Auto Mechanics..

On the Religious Activities BIS, the highest scoring professions are Nurse (LPN), High School Counselor, English Teacher, Home Economics Teacher, Foreign Language Teacher, and Social Science Teacher. The lowest are Auto Mechanic, Advertising Executive, Marketing Executive, Geologist, Physicist, and Computer Programmer/Systems Analyst.

Should you be a Nurse if your highest BIS was Religious Activities? Not necessarily. What it means is you and Nurses share this common interest. However, there is more to choosing a career than just one BIS. 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.