How the Map scores your code and matches your profile with 183 occupations

The interest block has 48 statements about work activities, 8 per type. They come from the Oregon Vocational Interest Scales (ORVIS), from the International Personality Item Pool, which is in the public domain (Pozzebon et al., 2010): on each of the six scales, we chose the 8 highest-loading items.

Each answer is worth 0 to 4: Strongly dislike = 0, Dislike = 1, Unsure = 2, Like = 3, Strongly like = 4. The score for each type is the average of the valid answers for that type. A type only gets a score with at least 6 of its 8 answers; below that, the result is flagged as incomplete.

Here is a fictional example, just to show the math:

The code brings together the three types with the highest averages, in order. In the example, I (3.50), A (3.00) and S (2.75): code IAS.

When two averages tie, the type with more “Strongly like” answers comes first; then the one with more “Like”; finally, the fixed order R, I, A, S, E, C. Any tie that touches the top three positions shows up in the report, with a note that the order among those letters is not a real difference.

• Differentiation = highest average − lowest average. In the example, 3.50 − 1.00 = 2.50. Below 0.75 the profile is treated as flat. When no type goes above 2 (“Unsure”), the report says that few activities sparked interest.
• Consistency = distance on the hexagon between the 1st and the 2nd letter. I and A are neighbors: high consistency. It is reading information only; it does not enter the occupation scoring.
• Quality: the result is flagged as less reliable when one of the 2 attention items is wrong or skipped; when 25% or more of the timed answers take under 1 second, or there are 8 fast ones in a row; when there are 15 or more identical answers in a row in the interest block; or when fewer than 90% were answered. The result still appears, with the notice, and stays out of the norm, as in the IQ test.

The O*NET® 31.0 database, published under the CC BY 4.0 license, records the interest profile of 923 occupations, each type on a 1 to 7 scale. IQNorth selected 183 of them that exist in Brazil, covering the six types and every preparation zone, translated the names and wrote its own descriptions. No number from the database was changed.

The work values of each occupation come from version 30.2 of the same database, the last one that includes that file.

Each occupation gets a match score:

score = 0.6 × form + 0.4 × level + 0.1 × (values − 0.5)

• Form measures whether the pattern of your tastes matches the occupation’s: it is the Pearson correlation (r) between your 6 scores and the occupation’s 6, taken from −1 to 1 onto 0 to 1 by (r + 1) ÷ 2.
• Level is the average of your scores on the first two letters of the occupation’s code, divided by 4. It keeps someone who enjoys few things from being matched to an occupation just because the shape of the profile is similar.
• Values is the same correlation, (r + 1) ÷ 2, between your scores on the 6 work values and the occupation’s 6. The weight is small on purpose: it breaks ties and explains, but it doesn’t lead. For the 8 occupations in the catalog with no values data, this term is left out.

If two occupations tie on the score, the order follows the occupation code, so that the same answers always give the same result.

With the fictional profile above (code IAS), compare two occupations that are also fictional. Occupation X has the profile I 6, A 5, S 3, R 2, E 2 and C 2 (code IAS). Occupation Y has the profile E 6, S 4, C 3.5, A 3, R 2 and I 2 (code ESC).

Occupation X moves up the list because the pattern is almost the same and its letters are the ones the person enjoys most. Y moves down, but doesn’t disappear: the Map discards no occupation, it only ranks them.

The O*NET® database classifies each occupation by preparation zone (Job Zone). In version 31.0, zones 1 and 2 were merged, leaving four: 1-2, 3, 4 and 5. The Map groups them like this, without filtering:

• Start now or with little preparation: zone 1-2 (32 occupations in the catalog);
• With technical training or experience: zone 3 (48);
• With a degree or graduate study: zones 4 and 5 (68 and 35).

You see the 4 highest-scoring occupations in each group, each with its reason: the letters in common and the values that match. The Investigative type has no occupation in zone 1-2 of the database; for an I profile, that group shows the closest ones from other types.

If you have already taken the IQNorth IQ test, the fields where you did much better than your own average (at least one standard deviation above, comparing you with yourself) appear as “a strength that helps with…” on occupations where the O*NET® database gives an importance of 3.5 or more (on a 1 to 5 scale) to an ability linked to that field. This label never changes the order, never removes an occupation from the list and is never negative.

The weights 0.6, 0.4 and 0.1 and the cutoffs (0.75 for a flat profile, 2.5 for “high” in the quadrant, 1 second for a fast answer) are provisional. They will be calibrated with real data, from at least 500 people, comparing the result with the degree or job they report. Level is absolute for now (the average divided by 4); once there is a norm of our own, it will become a position relative to other people.

The classic congruence indexes compare only the code letters and depend on the hexagon, which doesn’t replicate well outside the US. That is why the Map compares the whole profile.