<p>I will soon be interviewing with a company that uses a personality-and-aptitude test as part of the interview process. Specifically, they use a test called “The Achiever” offered by a company called Saterfiel & Associates:</p>
<p>I interview very well, but this test makes me nervous, because it could show that although I want the job and am smart enough for the job, and indeed have done the job successfully before, my personality may not be ideal for the job. For example, I tend to try to do things myself that I should delegate to others, which I’m afraid will hurt my “leadership” or “management” score on this test. The job is in production management, and I’m a dyed-in-the-wool engineer for the most part; I like manufacturing partly because it’s not my natural element, so I find it to be an interesting challenge.</p>
<p>So, for anyone who is familiar with such tests and how employers use them, what are the odds that a guy who interviews well for a job he has done successfully in the past will be turned down because he doesn’t have the typical personality required for that job, as indicated by a standardized test such as this one?</p>
<p>Time will tell if I’m just being a worrywart.</p>
<p>I hate those things. My son had one where he “failed” one of those tests, but the guy doing the hiring had already met and talked to him and liked him enough to go ahead and hire him anyway. He was very glad he did. In a bigger company that would probably not happen. When he was job hunting last year he had to do one and one of the questions was “do you ever lie”. He’s a very honest person but he said yes because , as he said to me afterwards, everyone lies sometimes - even if it is to the “does this dress make me look fat” kind of question. (He didn’t get an interview for that job). </p>
<p>I read a couple of articles which said to answer questions the way a “perfect” employee would answer.</p>
<p>That’s what worries me. I’m a very honest person…like your son, honest enough to admit that I have lied, and just might keep the $5 bill I find on the street instead of turning it in to the local police, etc.</p>
<p>Of course, a well-designed test would anticipate this kind of thing and actually give you a lower score for seeming “too perfect” (e.g., the person who claims never to lie). And I suppose I wouldn’t want to work for a company that puts too much stock in a flawed test, so maybe it all works out in the end.</p>
<p>I took one of these, and I guess I did ok, because I was offered an interview and then job, but I didn’t like taking it. It was was long and it was online, so you couldn’t go back and look at your previous answers, and it felt kind of tricky. At first you could tell what the “right” answer was, but as the test went on, it kept circling back to topics that you had already answered questions about, but would change the situations slightly, and give harder options to pick from, where all the choices were bad, but you had to pick one or you couldn’t finish the test. I remember finishing it and thinking that I probably didn’t want to work for that company.</p>
<p>Oh I forgot to add that the test moved from question to question automatically, and you had to answer rather quickly. They didn’t want you to think too much about the questions, they wanted your first impulse.</p>
<p>I went through similar testing for my new job. The firm I work for is very intentional about hiring people who are the “right fit,” and they use a well known consulting firm to administer testing to this end. I was very honest when I took the personality assessment, because I did not want to be hired if it wasn’t a good fit. I was hired, but as a result of the testing - and the interview I had with a senior partner at the consulting firm - I was placed on a different team than the one they had originally intended. I have been there two months, and I am thankful for the assessments … I am quite happy with the team I ended up being placed with, and I think it was definitely the better team for my personality. In other words, I think it can really work. Don’t be apprehensive!</p>
<p>P.S. To give you an idea of my honest answers … I work long hours, I like difficult challenges, and I don’t really care whether or not I am “friends” with my coworkers. Some companies might have taken my answers as indicating I am not a team player. I actually work quite well on a team, but I prefer smart coworkers to fun coworkers. If the company didn’t like my answers, I probably wouldn’t have liked working there.</p>
<p>H went through this type of thing–not sure if the same test. The director was so into it.
Funny thing–almost all of the people he thought were “perfect” according to the test ended up getting fired within a year or two. Then the director himself quit. The new guy isn’t into this BS. I think the one who interviews candidates should trust his/her gut. You can only hope that they don’t take it that seriously–good luck!</p>
<p>That was why I didn’t mind my testing. I had 3 interviews before the testing. The owners were up front about wanting to hire me but also wanting to be sure that it was the right fit - there are only 12 people in the company, so fit is important. It was made clear to me that they liked me & appreciated my skill set … they just needed to make sure that what I brought to the table would complement what was already there. So it wasn’t for screening, but for final decision making.</p>
<p>I prefer the online assessments to ROLE PLAYING any day of the week … H’s company did the role playing interview thing for awhile. H had to do it when he applied for another job within the corporation, and he really hated it. He is an engineer through and through, and that was far too touchy feely for him.</p>
<p>I think 30 years ago they already had the test. I applied for a job in an international chemical company based in Germany in New Jersey. I was booted out after the test in Personnel dept before even got to the managers.</p>
<p>Thirty years ago, fresh out of business school, I had an on-campus interview with an HR consulting firm. They liked me enough to invite me to their offices for a day. I assumed I’d be interviewing – but noooooo, I spent the entire day doing these personality tests. I was so annoyed by that that I turned down their next offer of an interview. </p>
<p>If they had warned me that I’d just be taking tests that day, I might not have been so annoyed.</p>
<p>Is the consensus that these personality tests are effective in screening out less-desirable applicants? I’ve never taken one, so I’m just curious.</p>
<p>I went through one years ago and one of the “benefits” was that a licensed psychologist reviewed your test results with you over the phone. One thing that he brought out was that with an older worker your past experiences shape your answers. One of the written summary comments on my test that concerned me was that it indicated I was “production minded” and the position I was interviewing for was an upper level management position. He pointed out that I had fifteen years on my resume in production type positions which was a pre-req for this position and that of course that would come through on these tests if I had been honest in my answers. I got the job.</p>
<p>I’ve taken these type of tests two times since the one I mention above, but never had the opportunity for a post-test review. I thought that was a very nice benefit.</p>
<p>IMO, However idioit it is, the system has been there for years. By judging the success of the companies emplyeed the system, yes, I think it has a foot in applicant screening.</p>
<p>I had to take the MMPI for my big career jump opportunity. My mother happened to have an old copy of the book that explained how various answers are compiled into a profile. This was a book any determined person could find in a college library (and before the web brought info to our fingertips.) I did well, but the real point was that my experiences in the field and for start-ups made me a great fit.</p>
<p>Not everyone who was hired had done well on the test. I think the question has always been: how much does an individual employer rely on that and how much on the age-old interpersonal aspects of an interview?</p>
<p>4 years later, I did have a chance to have my results reviewed. At that point, my employer was no longer in trailblazing mode. (They were trying to set a new 5-year plan and thought consultants could help determine the strengths of the workforce.) It was not a talk to shoo me out the door, but the consultant explained why I was feeling the fit was no longer as great. All that from the test results. It was as if he knew me. He was right. I did leave, within the year, and went on to a better match, another start-up.</p>
<p>FWIW, the interview schedule has me meeting the boss, the boss’s boss, and the interim person currently doing the job before I take the test. I hope they stick to that. The travel schedule is grueling, so it would be a real shame to get there, take a test, and be shown the door without actually speaking with anyone.</p>
<p>My company is in the process of switching to this personality/analytical reasoning type online testing as a first step in the hiring process. In the development stage, they asked all 18,000 employees to take both tests, and we had to identify our department, years with the company, and overall years of experience. I believe they are developing some kind of metric with which to compare a potential new hire to the “average” employee currently in that position.</p>
<p>I have yet to hear how successful this has been though.</p>