Posted on 11/28/2006 6:56:38 AM PST by freepinglurker
What If Employers Want You to Take a Personality Test?
by Peter Vogt MonsterTRAK Career Coach
If you're asked to take a personality test as part of the hiring process, you have some choices to make -- theoretically, at least.
For example, you could respectfully decline to take the test. You could ask the many questions you have concerning how the test was developed, what it purportedly measures, who will be administering it and interpreting the results, who will see the them and how they will be used. You could even ask the employer why he's using a personality assessment for hiring purposes in the first place.
But what you could do in theory and what you should do in reality are two very different things.
"When you're applying for a job, you have to remember that someone else is probably applying for it too," says Josh Pierce, an account executive with financial-planning firm Leon Rousso and Associates.
"If you gripe about a test that gives an accurate blueprint of a candidate and the other person doesn't, I think we all know who will get the job," says Pierce, who took a personality test when he interviewed at the firm in late 2005. "You have to have the confidence that the employer is ethical and does not use the negative traits as a bias against you."
Pierce was fortunate in that regard. Leon Rousso, the company's founder, had a straightforward, laudable goal in using a personality test as part of the selection process: He was simply doing all he could to hire the best-fitting candidate for the job for everyone's benefit.
"In my mind, I'm hiring someone for life," Rousso says. "Josh has been with me now for over six months and is working out as I had hoped…. The bottom line, in my opinion, is that he will become a better employee and associate, and hopefully, I will become a better leader and mentor as a result of this additional aspect of the hiring process."
Find a Middle Ground
Fair enough, but that probably doesn't erase the concerns you have about taking a personality test as part of applying for a job, nor should it. It's only natural -- and wise -- to have questions. The trick is finding the middle ground between the path of least resistance (taking the test and keeping quiet) and the path of, well, greatest resistance (refusing to take the test), especially when the latter path might effectively end your candidacy.
"Remember another thing the company is assessing is your reaction to the idea of taking the test," says Ben Dattner, principal of Dattner Consulting, an organizational effectiveness firm. "If you seem overly defensive or paranoid or whatever, they'll wonder about that."
Be Wise with Your Questions
If you have a question or two, ask away, says Kathleen Shotkoski, vice president of human resources and training for Securities America, a financial-services company. Just be sure to "ask the question in a polite and professional manner," she advises. "Start with something like, ‘It seems like assessments are being used by a lot of employers these days. What prompted you to start using one for this job?' From this one question, you can get a wealth of information, and if you don't feel comfortable with the answer, ask more questions."
At worst, you'll discover that the job and the company just aren't a good match for you, especially if you sense that the employer is quickly becoming annoyed by just a few straightforward questions.
"Ultimately, questions may not only give you insight about the test, which is important, but also about the culture of the company, which is more important," says Joe Schmitt, chair of the Labor and Employment Practice Group at law firm Halleland Lewis Nilan & Johnson. "Do you really want to work somewhere that is going to be upset with you if you ask questions about their test?"
"I'm assuming she's applied for a customer service position and they are seriously testing her patience quotient."
I hope they don't test me on my patience. That's not one of my redeeming qualities.
ROFL!!!! Having had the pleasure of working with IBM, I can honestly say that I'm not surprised. Management, in their global services division at least, was comprised completely and uniformly of the most incompetent misfits that I'd ever had the displeasure of doing business with.
Their techs were OK. But management.....wow. Proved the Peter Principle to a T.
I got all lows and 2 moderates. I tried to be honest.
An interview IS a personality test, among other things. They want to know how you get along with others. It is also an opportunity for HR people to justify their jobs, which are basically non-productive mental masturbation and social engineering.
They want to know if you're a "team player" and will be an enthusiastic lemming, or if you'll create friction by pointing out when the emperor has no clothes.
Remember, all those benefits that they promise you when they're luring you onboard, and which you consider part of your compensation package, will eventually be eliminated or changed to your detriment, and if you are the type of person who questions that, it makes them uncomfortable. Because if you're not OK with that, you'll quit when they pull all their HR funny stuff on you. And it's expensive to replace you.
They don't want someone who is too concerned about being treated with respect. They want a "human resource", not a person. They want someone who will basically sacrifice their lives for the company, always available for uncompensated overtime and other crappy assignments, and who will go along with everything management decrees because of the promises they make when they hire you, which seldom come to pass.
BUMP
I think you nailed it on the head!!!
The reason I am leaving my current job is that basically, the employment offer they gave me was pure BS. They promised me (in writing) a certian territory. Before I even left training at corporate headquarters, they eliminated a third of this territory. Within 6 months they eliminated ANOTHER third of my territory and GAVE my existing business to someone else and my compensation is based on cumulative revenue.
I don't want to argue that they can change anything they want after they hire you, but I feel this has been a huge SCAM to get me on with this company. This was 2/3rds of my promised territory in the employment offer gone with no replacing it with anything. A hell of a way to treat someone who has already made this company mega bucks with my expertise in the field.
YUP! One reason I am looking at much smaller companies. They also tend to *share* $ucce$$ with all employees.
OTOH, when they crash, it can leave a mess.
I think I have taken a personality test for a job a time or two. It was no big deal and in fact I was hired so I don't think people should be afraid of them.
Do they allow you to see the results of these tests?
Do they allow the person taking the tests view these results?
He does not come though these as a 'sales type'. On one occasion an employer ignored the results and hired him anyway.
He tracked down the person/professor who created and sold this to the company and brought a W2 with him to make a point about the fallability of this test.
It is very frustrating when you have little or no control over your future. Employers already do credit checks prior to hiring. and yes, I think DNA testing will be part of the hiring process in the future. Good thing we all die. It evens the playing field somewhat!
Yeah, I'm in IT and programming as well. Personally, for work environment, it's one of the best industries to be in. You don't have this overly formal overbearing type bureaucracy and as long as a fellow IT man is in charge of your department, you don't usually get any crap as long as you get your projects done in reasonable time. It's an industry where everybody really does understand each other. My boss even lets me wear jeans to work.
I hear ya. I'm going through the same stuff right now. The thing that kills me is the fact that they won't hire you if you have what "somebody" considers to be excessive debt. Well, if you've been unemployed for a while you're gonna have amassed some debt. How do they ever expect you to pay it back if they won't give you a freekin' job? That just blows my mind. I'd really like to meet the genius that came up with that one - and slap him senseless.
I knew that counter interrogation training would someday be useful useful in civilian life.
When the corporations and the state become police like in nature thats when it becomes useful. ;)
When I was asked during one of those interviews what best defines my moral beliefs I answered with what I knew they wanted to hear. "judeo Christian in foundation". They liked that answer.
of course it is the truth but I already knew how to answer it. I manipulated them. And they were too stupid to know it.
You live you learn (or at least she did).
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