Method and sources
What the test measures, where the questions come from, how the result is calculated and where it falls short.
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What the test measures
Selfstep measures two different things. The first is your vocational interests, using John Holland's RIASEC model: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional. The second is your personality, using the Big Five: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.
The free result shows your interest code. The optional full report adds personality and cross-references both with occupations.
Where the questions come from
- Interests: the O*NET Interest Profiler, from the U.S. Department of Labor, distributed free of charge under the O*NET Career Exploration Tools license. An official Spanish version exists; the Portuguese version is our own adaptation.
- Personality: items from the IPIP (International Personality Item Pool), in the public domain, in the form of the IPIP-NEO-120 (Johnson, 2014).
- Occupations: public O*NET data.
No question is copied from commercial tests such as MBTI, DISC or the NEO PI-R.
How the result is calculated
Each answer adds points to the matching type. The six totals form the bar chart, and the three highest letters form your code (for example, I·A·S). Everything is calculated in your browser.
We show the relative position among your own types. We do not compare you with a population sample, because that requires validated statistical norms for each language. When the report mentions an "approximate comparison", it is only a general reference.
Limits you should know about
- It does not predict success, performance, salary or satisfaction. Studies show that person–job fit helps, but the effect is modest (for example, Nye et al., 2012).
- It is not a psychological diagnosis, it does not measure intelligence and it does not replace career counselling.
- The Portuguese and Spanish versions of the personality items are our own translations and have not yet been statistically validated in those languages. That is why we treat the result as exploration and show no percentiles.
- Career lists are suggestions to research, not a statement of what you "should" do.
Attribution
This site includes information from the O*NET Career Exploration Tools by the U.S. Department of Labor, used under the O*NET Tools Developer License. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The IPIP is in the public domain.