Measuring vocational interests: a call for multi‐sample norms

Abstract

Increasing trends toward casualization of the workforce and job mobility have increased the need for delivery of targeted career counselling relevant to the specific needs of individuals but have not been matched by refinements to vocational interest instruments, which have largely remained focussed on student‐based norms. By investigating the interests and factor structure of the Vocational Interest Survey for Australia (VISA), this study has replicated earlier findings that the unemployed appear to respond with higher mean interest levels on the VISA in comparison to the instrument’s normative sample of secondary students. In comparison to an earlier study of unemployed white‐collar workers, the present study suggests that unemployed managers are able to discriminate between more dimensions of vocational interests than their non‐managerial counterparts. This observation is interpreted as support for a call to investigate the need for multi‐sample norming for vocational interest instruments.