5 Ways to Find Your Life’s Direction

New research tests 5 predictors that can help you find your best fit.

Reviewed by Margaret Foley

Key points

• Finding productive work that fulfills you may seem like an unachievable goal.
• New research shows you where to turn to assess yourself in five key domains.
• By taking stock now, you can begin to plan the ideal fit to energize and motivate you throughout life.

Spending your working life in a position that ideally suits your personality, interests, and abilities may seem to be an unattainable goal. Yet, considering that the majority of your day is spent in some type of productive activity, achieving this happy state would certainly be worth striving for. Many factors affect people’s ability to find and remain in a job, not the least of which is a combination of ability and luck. However, those who work in the field of vocational psychology continue to maintain that there are ways to reduce the luck factor in this equation.

Have You Ever Heard of O*NET? Probably Not.

One of the best-kept secrets vocational psychologists have developed is a web-based resource known as O*NET, the Occupational Information Network developed by the U.S. Department of Labor. O*NET is based on a data set that represents the “world of work,” with comprehensive profiles of more than 900 occupations. Not only are these occupations categorized according to technical specifications such as job family (e.g., management, construction, etc.), but they are also referenced according to their psychological profiles. There are other hidden gems on the site, including which jobs have a “bright outlook” (i.e., are growth areas), the job market by state, and the education and skills needed for each occupation.

One of the key ingredients of the O*NET system is its inclusion of the well-accepted vocational development theory developed by Johns Hopkins psychologist John Holland. According to Holland, people achieve their maximum potential when they are in a job that suits their personality and interests, a model known generally as “person-environment (P-E)” fit. P-E fit can occur along six dimensions, Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional, leading to the acronym “RIASEC.”

You can go to O*NET and take a brief quiz to find out where you stand in the RIASEC dimensions; once you do this, you’ll receive a three-letter profile that helps you to determine which job would be your best fit. However, you might immediately ask yourself whether having these interests does you any good if you can’t find a job in that field. As you will soon learn, there are ways to build from this one test as you develop your own vocational profile from the broader O*NET domains.

Putting O*NET to the Test

With this background, you can now appreciate why research is needed to determine whether O*NET has any validity. This is what led Zihan Liu of the University of Illinois and colleagues (2024) to launch a comprehensive investigation of the potential for O*NET to do what it’s supposed to do. Their work includes but goes beyond the RIASEC model to examine the predictive utility of the five domains represented in O*NET fit assessments. Across three studies using diverse samples and, in one study, a 14-month predictive validity test, the authors used five “fit” assessments (matching person and job variables) across 88 distinct dimensions, “which is the most comprehensive coverage of person-occupation fit currently available.” The findings on which dimension provided the best prediction may surprise you.

Before getting to these results, here are the five fit assessment categories along with information to help you rate yourself on each one:

1. Vocational Interests (your RIASEC codes): How would you feel about doing this type of work?
Repair car engines (R)
Study the formation and evolution of galaxies (I)
Design the layout and lighting of an exhibition (A)
2. Work Values (relative importance you place on aspects of work such as altruism or achievement): In your ideal career, how important is it for you to…?
Provide personal care to others
Get exercise while I work
Perform physical work tasks
3. Knowledge (background): How much do you know about...?
Customer service: handling customer needs and resolving service problems
Food production: planting, growing, and harvesting food products
4. Skills (abilities): How skilled are you at…?
Instructing: teaching people how to do something
Body coordination: moving your arms, legs, and body together
5. Personality (enduring traits): I am someone who…
Is outgoing, sociable
Is relaxed, handles stress well
Is compassionate, has a soft heart

To test the predictive value of these fit assessments, the authors analyzed data in the areas of subjective fit (e.g., “The job that I currently hold gives me just about everything that I want from a job”) with objective fit, matching the occupational classification of a participant’s job with its objective outcomes, including income, job satisfaction, and career choice satisfaction.

Across all five domains, scores on the knowledge scale showed the greatest predictive fit with income, a finding that might not seem all that difficult to understand. As the authors concluded, “occupational knowledge requirements are an important consideration in helping people successfully sort themselves into different occupations.”

However, it was the interest scale that came out as number one in the prediction of job and career satisfaction; as the authors conclude: “[I]nterests not only lead people to choose occupations that can better fulfill their likes and preferences…but also provide energy and motivation” that lead people to learn more about their occupation and ultimately do better in it. The one proviso in this showing of support for RIASEC was that the authors needed to expand their interest measure to a 20-item scale in order to achieve this strong prediction.

Even more surprisingly, personality had little to contribute as a predictor of either objective or subjective occupational success. Apparently, people leave their personalities partially at the door when they enter the workplace, utilizing instead more job-specific adaptive qualities.

Getting to Your Best P-E Fit

These five assessment areas show that understanding what will give you the greatest ability to thrive in your productive activities is a realistic goal. Additionally, if you want to go beyond O*NET, it’s worth checking out another site recommended by the authors, Career One Stop, also developed by the U.S. Department of Labor.

You might not be able to get your hands on exactly the instruments that Liu et al. validated in their study, as some are not freely available (e.g., their 20-item interest measure). However, both of these resources are a great place to start.

To sum up, just because you’re feeling stuck in your job or uncertain of where to go next in your life doesn’t mean you must remain relegated to a life with little to motivate you. Taking stock in these five areas will get you started on a path that can offer the fulfillment of true fit with your environment.