What the VDMS measures
Choosing a career is one of the most high-stakes, ambiguous decisions a human can make. Harren's model posits that people do not fail at their careers because they lack intelligence; they fail because their underlying decision-making style is flawed. If someone makes decisions purely to please their parents, or purely on gut feeling without doing any research, they are highly likely to suffer severe career regret.
The dimensions it assesses
- Rational Style: Logical, systematic, and data-driven. The individual gathers all available information, weighs pros and cons, and projects future consequences before acting. (Highly adaptive, but prone to analysis paralysis).
- Intuitive Style: Driven by internal emotional states, "gut feelings," and sudden flashes of insight. The individual decides based on what feels right in the moment, often ignoring logical data.
- Dependent Style: Relies entirely on the expectations and advice of external authority figures (parents, teachers, peers). The individual abdicates responsibility for the decision to avoid blame if it goes wrong.
What your score means
Scores on the VDMS are interpreted against the ranges below, which come from the instrument's published validation research rather than from us.
| Score | Interpretation | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| Rational | The Analyst | Excellent at minimizing risk. Danger: "Analysis Paralysis." Will spend 2 years researching careers without actually applying for a job, waiting for a 100% perfect logical guarantee that doesn't exist. |
| Intuitive | The Artist | Passionate and emotionally aligned with their work. Danger: Extreme volatility. Will quit a stable, excellent job on a Tuesday because they "caught a bad vibe" from the manager. |
| Dependent | The Passenger | Clinical Red Flag. Highly prone to the "Mid-Life Crisis." They will wake up at age 40 as a successful lawyer, deeply depressed, realizing they only went to law school because their father told them to. |
These ranges describe groups of people, not individuals. A score near a boundary is not meaningfully different from one just across it, and no range on this table is a diagnosis.
What to do with your result
- Fixing the Dependent Style: Users who score highest on Dependent must be stopped from making any immediate career choices. The coaching intervention must focus on identity separation (individuation). They must be tasked with finding one thing they want to do that their parents/mentors actively dislike, and exploring why they are afraid to pursue it.
- Balancing the Intuitive: Intuitive deciders must be forced to implement a "72-Hour Rule." When their gut tells them to quit a job or accept a wild offer, they must wait 72 hours and write out a basic financial/logical impact statement before acting.
- Unblocking the Rational: Rational deciders must be taught the "80% Rule." Once they have 80% of the data, they must act. They must learn that a career is an iterative prototype, not a permanent math equation.
Common questions about the VDMS
- What does the VDMS measure?
- Measurement of the cognitive and behavioral strategies an individual uses when making high-stakes life and career decisions.
- Can the VDMS diagnose me?
- No. How You Make Career Decisions (VDMS) is a screening questionnaire, not a diagnostic tool. It can flag that something may need a closer look. It cannot tell you what is causing it. It describes tendencies rather than diagnosing anything, and no result here is a condition or something to fix.
- How long does the VDMS take?
- 30 questions, which most people finish in 5 – 7 minutes. There is no time limit, and answering honestly matters more than answering quickly. The results page checks for patterns suggesting the questions were rushed.
- Is this VDMS test really free?
- Yes. No account, no email address, no payment. Psychometrics Today is funded by donations rather than advertising, which is also what allows us to publish instruments whose authors permit free but non-commercial use.
- Are my answers stored or shared?
- No. Your answers are scored inside your browser and never sent to us. There is no database of responses, because we never receive any. Closing the tab erases them, which is why results cannot be recovered afterwards.
- How often should I retake the VDMS?
- Traits and preferences move slowly, so retaking this every few months is more informative than retaking it often. Larger shifts usually follow a genuine change in circumstances.
- Who created the VDMS, and is this the real version?
- It was published by Psychometrics Today (original items). Original items based on Harren's model of career decision making. The model is theory, not an instrument. The items here are the published ones rather than a paraphrase, and the scoring follows the original rules. Both are documented on this page so they can be checked.
- How accurate is the VDMS?
- Screening questionnaires are good at flagging that something merits attention and poor at establishing what it is. This one is sensitive to how you feel on the day you take it, and many instruments were validated on narrow populations whose cut-offs may not transfer cleanly to everyone. The references at the foot of this page are the primary sources.
Sources
Items written by the Psychometrics Today Team, based on published theory. The theory is credited below.
- Harren, V. A. (1979). A model of career decision making for college populations. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 14(2), 119-133.
- Phillips, S. D., Pazienza, N. J., & Ferrin, H. H. (1984). Decision-making styles and problem-solving appraisal. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 31(4), 497.
Licensing
Public domain. Original items based on Harren's model of career decision making. The model is theory, not an instrument.