Faced with a dearth of contemporary data about the predictive validity of interest measures at a time of economic recession, the study compared several methods by which occupational entry might be predicted. In an investigation of material originally completed by 13‐year‐old pupils in Hertfordshire and North London, the most effective predictor appeared to be the two highest scales in an interests inventory; the least effective being those statements submitted by the pupils as representing the ambitions their parents held for t