How Employers Analyze Personality Tests.

How Employers Analyze Personality Tests.

Last updated: 7/2008

Job Interview Questions? Taking A Personality Test?

Let's face it- the job market is extremely competitive these days. Employers are enjoying a "buyers market." They have lots of job candidates, and fewer openings. To help them select the best job candidate, they're implementing the use of personality tests as one of many tools to help distinguish the good job candidates from the rest.
What is a personality test? It is a that test aims to describe aspects of a person's character that remain stable across different situations. In other words, by categorizing your personality, employers are being sold a service that claims to be able to predict which job candidates will fit best for different employment opportunities.
Many people will simply take the test, then realize that they should have prepared for it. You'll notice that the test will ask the same question many times with slightly different wording each time.
If you ask, most human resource managers, recruiters, and other job placement professionals will tell you to take the test and answer the questions honestly.
Do you really want to go into that test blind? Is it a really good career opportunity for you?
Why risk questionable results from the job interview pre-employment personality test?
If we were all the same like clone's, then the personality test wouldn't matter. Of course we're not. Every single person has a slightly different personality test. Sure some personality types can be grouped into some general categories such as introverted, extroverted, etc., but really every person represents a variety of personal character traits.
Executive managers want to avoid risk.
Today a manager's career can depend on his or her ability to select great employees. So the conservative manager takes steps to minimize the chances that he or she will select the wrong job candidate. The personality test is just one tool that helps them do this.
A personality test can determine your career success!

Why personality tests are unreliable:
They only measure different attitudes about things from different people. Your attitude about something in general cannot be used to predict how you'll react to different & distinct business situations.
They cannot predict behavior because behavior is context sensitive. People act differently in different situations.
They associate success with specific personality types. In fact, personality requirements are different for different jobs. Rarely do any of the tests customize their recommendations by job type or environment. It's simply "This person will (or will not) succeed."
YOU NEED TO KNOW HOW YOUR ANSWERS WILL BE INTERPRETED BY EMPLOYERS.
How would you answer the most common job interview question:
"I have never told a lie."
There is a very specific answer to this question that will indicate whether or not you are an honest person. It's one of the most basic ...

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