Personality Assessment Test

gigitha

What is your favorite type of personality test?

scaredoftests

NONE. They are useless in my opinion.

cyberguypr

They have their uses. 3 jobs ago my company used some cheap stupid test as a hiring gating element. We lost great candidates because some HR goon determined they weren't a good fit based on the stupid test. I've taken others such as the Kolbe Index but they just tell me stuff I already now. The value I get from this particular one is that working in a big company I can see the numbers others got and understand a bit how to tailor my communication to them.

scaredoftests

I had one interview in which I was given a test a few days before the interview. She wanted me to come in. I thought to interview, instead, she went over the test for 40 Minutes! Then, proceeded to say that 'we are too much alike, therefore, I can not work with you'. Bizarre.

cyberguypr

I remember reading that post and wanting to hurt puppies after.

scaredoftests

cyberguypr wrote: »

I remember reading that post and wanting to hurt puppies after.

LOL. same here.

LeBroke

I love the MBTI, but it's more of a personal hobby.

I have a psych degree (yes, really... time and money well spent), and will tell you right away that these tests have no place in hiring and the workplace (tailoring your communication to other people is perhaps the only valid use).

They are either unreliable and invalid (scientific definitions.. reliability = whether you get the same result between tests, validity = does it measure what you intend it to measure) like the MBTI, despite attempting to be proscriptive (predictive). Or, they are purely descriptive, like the Five Factor model. Ask 50 questions, all different variations of, "are you detail oriented and meticulous." Answer yes. Result - "this person is very meticulous and detail oriented."

Great, you didn't need to wrap it up into a personality model, even if the actual traits measured have a good amount of scientific base under them. Fascinating story actually... psychologists asked people from a few dozen various cultures, from North America to Africa to Korea, to write words other people use to describe them. Then, they did factor analysis on the results, and found that descriptions broadly fall into one of five different axes. Openness to experience (inventive/curious vs. consistent/cautious), conscientiousness (efficient/organized vs. easy-going/careless), extroversion vs introversion (obvious), agreeableness (friendly/compassionate vs. challenging/detached). Descriptions in brackets from wikipedia.