Interviewing for a job can be very tough and stressful. No matter how hard you prepare for it, it is almost impossible to know how well you’re going to fare. A lot about a typical interview process as to do with your composure as well as ascertaining your qualification for the job.
With the competition for jobs on a continuous rise, companies and businesses have devised new tests that can be used to further weed out the crowd of applicants. Among these additional tests is the personality test, which has become a regular post-interview practice that makes the employment process much easier.
What is a Personality Test?
A personality test is basically an assessment tool or medium that is used by an employer to gauge an applicant’s personality and try to determine if it will fit perfectly with the company. It includes a series of tests that are used to evaluate your behaviorism qualities as well as your thought process.
If you’re requested to take a personality test after a job interview, you shouldn’t really be worried…unless you’re a serial killer with dead victims buried in your home. Thankfully, you’re not…right?
Anyway, just see the personality test as a way for the employer to get to know you on a personal level because that is exactly what it is.
Why Employers Make Use of Personality Tests
The hiring process for companies is quite cumbersome in terms of financial expenses, time, and organization. With all these put into consideration, you must understand why employers are always under pressure to hire the right applicants.
It will be quite unfortunate and potentially damaging for a company to have to redo its hiring process simply because it brought in an employee that doesn’t just fit into the job. With this in mind, you’ll agree that interviews alone are no longer adequate to assess the suitability of a job applicant.
Here are a few other reasons why a personality test for jobs is now used by employers:
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To be certain that your personality fits the company’s culture
The importance of this can’t be overstated. Even if you’re qualified for the job and have all the expertise needed to carry out the duty it entails, you’ll still not be an ideal fit for the company if your personality doesn’t match its corporate culture.
If the culture at an employer’s company is more laid back and relaxed, you’ll struggle to adapt if the personality test deems you a strict and serious-minded person. This is also the same if you’re a laid back person looking to work in a serious corporate setting.
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To see if you’ll work with the rest of the employees
Almost every company bases its success on the collaborative performance of every member of its workforce. So when a company hires a new employee, it must make certain that the individual is able to work seamlessly with the rest of the team.
If you fail to prove in a personality test that you’re indeed a team player who interacts impressively with other co-workers, you’re likely to be disqualified from securing the job.
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To see if you’re an effective communicator
If you’re applying for any job that requires regular communication with other employees, you must show in the personality test that you’re capable of communicating your ideas to others.
This is even more important if communication plays a key role in the completion of the job’s task. With the ideal personality test, though, an employer can gauge your communication style and determine if it fits the company.
There are a lot of misconceptions about what a personality test is. Remember, unlike the original job application test, the personality test doesn’t determine your competence at the job. So essentially, you really can’t fail it.
Even if an employer doesn’t hire you, it isn’t an indication that you failed, it just suggests that your temperament and behavioral qualities may not fit the company. So don’t let it weigh you down as there are several other companies that may need your exact personality.
Here are a few types of personality test for jobs, which are commonly used today:
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The Caliper Profile
This is a simple written test that attempts to make a correlation between your personality and your job performance. It is basically developed in the form of a questionnaire with a series of statements that may or may not be related to work.
You’re simply to provide an answer that perfectly matches your viewpoint. The answers you submit can then be used by your employer to establish your personality profile.
The questions in the Caliper Profile are often accompanied with a vast range of answers including “True/False” and multiple choice answers that use a “degree of agreement” scale. The scale ranges from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”.
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The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
This is one of the most used personality tests in the hiring industry. It is a well-tested method that is used by a majority of the Fortune 100 companies according to CPI.
MBTI tries to examine the personality of a prospective employee by seeing where he or she leans in the following groupings: Intuition or Logic, Introversion or Extroversion, Judging or Perceiving, Thinking or Feeling.
With this assessment, an applicant can fall into any of the 16 personality categories. This is why MBTI is mostly used to determine if your personality fits a company’s corporate culture.
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The SHL Occupational Personality Questionnaire
This test doesn’t only try to determine your behavioral qualities, it also tells your prospective employer how those qualities will directly influence your job performance.
In this test, you’re evaluated using three major personality criteria: Thinking Style and Feelings, Relationship with People, and Emotions. By honestly answering the questions that are presented in the test, your prospective employer will be able to determine if you have the right temperament to work for the company.
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The DiSC Behavior Inventory
This is perhaps the oldest model for personality assessment. It involves the assessment of an applicant’s behavioural trait using four personality factors, which are Dominant, Influential, Steady, and Compliant.
The DiSC model is used to understand an applicant’s work behavior and also gauge his or her ability to be a team player. It is a concise test with just about 10-25 questions asked.
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The Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI)
Though this personality assessment model was originally developed for social analysis, it is now being used as a personality test for job applicants. It is a quite bulky test with over 200 questions, which must all be completed in 15-20 minutes.
The HPI model makes use of 6 vital scales including Reliability, Service Orientation, Stress Tolerance, Sales Potential, Clerical Potential, and Managerial Potential.
Tips for Passing a Job Personality Test
Remember again that this test doesn’t in anyway grade your competence, it only analyses your personality to see if it fits that of the employing company. So unless you’re able to switch personalities and behavioral qualities like James McAvoy in Split, then your only other choice is to answer the questions as truthful as possible.
It won’t also hurt your chances to investigate the corporate culture of your would-be employers too. Having that knowledge can guide you through the personality test and will definitely help you give the answers the employer wants.
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