Career and Job Outlook for the Investigative Personality Type

If one of your top 2 or 3 Holland personality types is Investigative, you’ve hit the job outlook jackpot. In this economy, growth jobs with “liveable” wages are in technology, health care, and computer science - fields with many jobs matching the Investigative personality.

And you can choose from promising options requiring a variety of skill and education levels - a phD or medical school is not required for most jobs (not that there's anything wrong with those).

To start out, look at the Career Key career matches for you and check the job outlook for each career that interests you.

From the Career Key test and website, you’ll find direct links to the Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) from each career you choose to explore. Each OOH description of a career includes a job outlook section, that in turn links to state specific labor market information. Career Key Canada provides the similar links to Job Futures with employment prospect information.

If what you see in the OOH or Job Futures is not promising or you want to consider other options, read on…

Top Investigative Career Key work group* picks for promising job prospects:

2.02 Life Sciences
2.03 Health Sciences
2.04 Laboratory & Medical Technology
2.05 Computer Science & Technology
* The Career Key organizes matching careers in unique, easy to use work groups by interests, skills, and abilities. To learn more, click here.

The Investigative occupations predicted to offer the most new U.S. jobs through 2016 (listed with Career Key work group number, grouped by required education level) are:

• Medical Scientist, except epidemiologist (2.02)
• Physicians & Surgeon (2.03)
• Pharmacist (2.03)
• Veterinarian (2.03)
• Dentist (2.02)
• Biochemist and Biophysicist (2.02)
• Computer and information scientist, research (2.05)
• Management analyst (2.08)
• Computer software engineer, applications (2.05) This career will grow more than any other Investigative career.
• Computer systems analyst (2.05)
• Computer support specialist (2.05)

The fastest growing of all occupations are:

• Veterinarian (2.03)
• Pharmacist (2.03)
• Chiropractor (2.02)
• Optometrist (2.03)
• Medical Scientist, except epidemiologist (2.02)
• Biochemist and Biophysicist (2.02)
• Computer & information scientist, research (2.05)
• Actuary (2.06)
• Network systems and data communications analyst (2.05)
• Computer software engineer, applications (2.05)
• Veterinary technologist or technician (2.03)
• Environmental science and protection technician, including health (2.04)
• Cardiovascular technologist or technician (2.04)

For informative snapshots of the industries that involve the careers that interest you, use the OOH's companion Career Guide to Industries to learn more about health care, software publishing, computer systems design, scientific research and development services, and other industries. These government websites are surprisingly readable and thanks to internet - the info is much more accessible than it used to be.

In Canada, please see this list of the best Canadian job prospects in 2009:
For Investigative occupations, see:

• Civil Engineers
• Electrical and Chemical Engineers
• Dentists
• General Practitioners and Family Physicians
• Medical Laboratory Technologists and Pathologists’ Assistants
• Medical Technologists and Technicians (except Dental)
• Optometrists, Chiropractors and Other Health Diagnosing and Treating Professionals
• Pharmacists
• Pharmacists, Dietitians, and Nutritionists
• Specialist Physicians

A word about the other Investigative CK work groups:

2.01 Physical Sciences
The growing scarcity of water, environmental regulation, climate change make the careers in this group a positive bet for job outlook.

2.06 Mathematics & Data Analysis
Statistics and data analysis is a growth area for jobs, as recently pointed out in this recent New York Times article by Steve Lohr.

2.07 Social Sciences
There are no fast growing jobs on the list from this group. A few months ago I wrote a post about choosing a career in the humanities that is related to social sciences' challenges. But that doesn't mean a economist or historian career choice would be a mistake. Talk with people now working in the fields that interest you - do informational interviews and other research to learn more practical information about job outlook.

2.08 Engineering
Environmental engineer is the highest growing engineer job, while the largest number of engineer jobs created will be in civil engineering. Overall, the job outlook for engineers is positive. Like anything else, your location will dictate job opportunities so research your local job market.

Next post: Job Outlook for the Artistic Personality Type. (in progress) Want to see the previous posts in this series? Start with my introductory post in Your Career Options Job Outlook Cheat Sheet.

Source for U.S. Job Outlook: Tomorrow’s Jobs, 2006-16, U.S. Department of Labor
Sources for Canadian Job Outlook: Job Futures, 2009; Human Resources and Skills Development Canada
For more suggestions and activities, read our website article, Learn About Occupations.