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• Top Personality Tests Page 3

AFTER MANY YEARS in the world of publishing,

joining TheLadders has been a great chance to shake off the cobwebs and learn new things: creating new products, working in a dynamic start-up environment, and collaborat-ing with a very different set of professionals from the editors and publishers of my earlier career.

One important tool in this process of self-assessment:

TheLadders has periodically offered my colleagues and me the opportunity to take stan-dardized tests that measure our personality traits and how best we handle challenges.

Not too surprisingly, my tests reveal that I’m wired for em-pathy; I’m highly sensitive to the feelings of individuals and groups, and I seek solutions that people can relate to emo-tionally as well as intellectually. That’s a pretty good descrip-

tion of the kind of work I do — finding answers to questions that vex our readers — and it’s stimulating to bring those skills to the table when work-ing with colleagues who are driven more by logic, process or other factors.

In this week’s package, Debra Donston-Miller takes a look at employers’ increasing use of personality testing to quantify the fit between a job seeker and an open position.

She spoke to a variety of pro-fessionals who administer these tests, and she presents their ad-vice on how best to approach a personality assessment.

Among its other uses, it’s a great way to understand more clearly how others may see you — including your fu-ture boss. The clearer your view in the mirror, the more effectively you can polish your personal brand.

Reading My Own Tea LeavesBy Matthew Rothenberg, Editor-in-Chief, TheLadders.com

IN THIS PACKAGE:

DQuestioning& Skeptical

Fast Paced& Outspoken

Cautious& Reflective

Accepting& Warm

i

C S

Dominance Influence

SteadinessConscientiousnessIn a tight job market, employers want to know what makes a candi-date tick. Personality assessments are one way to predict how you’ll fit; here’s what to expect if you’re put to the test.

Personality Tests on the Job Search

By Debra Donston-Miller

See PERSONALITY Page 2

JOB SEARCH

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Personality Tests on the Job SearchJOB SEARCH

WHEN YOU ARE BEING CONSIDERED FOR A JOB, your potential employer evaluates myriad factors: your

education, your experience and your successes, to name just a few. How about your personality?

Increasingly, organizations are turning to personality as-sessments to hire more effectively and avoid expensive and potentially embarrassing hiring errors, especially at the executive level.

“Testing is the application of science to the prediction of fit and success to the job,” said John Fennig, a licensed psycholo-gist and managing partner of DRI Consulting, a management and organization consulting firm that administers pre- and post-hire testing. “There are two issues: Is the person the best fit, ideally, to the pool of other candidates — and how likely are they going to succeed at the job?”

Fennig said that in today’s tight job market, job seekers can expect closer scrutiny in the form of personality testing, as well as behavioral and cognitive testing. “Especially with the pools being bigger — it’s a buyer’s market, not a seller’s mar-ket, right now — job seekers are going to see more scrutiny, and they have to be cool with that.”

Tony D. Deblauwe, a workplace expert and founder of consulting firm HR-4Change, said there are certain types of jobs that lend themselves to personality testing, including sales and customer-service positions — jobs that tend to draw on personality as well as a certain skill set. Companies often administer personality tests for positions that re-quire strategic thinking and complex

decision-making.

According to experts interviewed for this article, some of the most commonly used tests on the hiring side of the house are the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF); Domi-nance, Influence, Steadiness, Conscientiousness (DISC); Cali-per Profile and California Psychological Inventory. (See Top Personality Tests on Page 3.) Myers-Briggs, one of the most well-known personality tests, is rarely used by hiring profes-sionals, they said.

The overall point of performing these tests and others like them, Deblauwe said, is to go deeper than any job interview ever could. “If I can map exactly what I know is the gold stan-dard for the position and what this company needs to have done against where you the candidate naturally lean, it’s an-other point in the decision-making process.”

And few if any rely solely on psychological tests to survey a job applicant. It is just one of several data points used to make a hiring decision.

“Testing should never weigh more than a third in the hiring process — it is being mis-used if it is pass/fail,” Fennig said. “What you (the job hunter) have control over is two-thirds of the process — namely, your resume, your work history, your interviewing skills and the performance skills the interviewing panel may put you through to show your stuff.”

Gaming the tests

Up against stiff competition for a position, job seekers may be tempted to try and “beat the test” to optimize their results.

That’s the wrong thing to do, according to the experts inter-viewed for this story.

“There’s really no way to beat the test, or any of these tests,” said Justin Tobin, a psychotherapist in private practice in Chicago. “You just have to be yourself. It’s not just one question that’s going to figure out who you are. There are a lot of questions and a lot of information embedded in these questions. So you may not even be picking up on what the question is trying to get at.”

There’s actually very little people can do before taking a validated, reliable as-sessment, said Connie Kernen, business development manager at recruiting and research firm JMJ Phillip.

“The best advice is, and always has been, to simply answer the questions as candidly and as openly as possible,” Kernen said. “Generally, the first an-swer which ‘pops’ into the candidate’s mind is the best answer. Lying or exaggerating on an assessment can potentially result in two things applicants want to avoid: being dropped from consideration or ending up in a job they hate.”

Many tests are designed to pick up on dishonesty or disin-genuousness. And even if you do game a test, you’re not nec-essarily doing yourself any favors.

“Be honest when you’re taking (these tests),” said Abby Ko-hut, president and staffing consultant with Staffing Symphony. “If you try to fool the test or to make the test think that you’re something other than what you are, you’re not going to fool the

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Tobin

Deblauwe

Kernen

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Personality Tests on the Job SearchJOB SEARCH

test because the test is smart.” Worse, even if you were able to beat the test and receive a job offer, you might end up in a job for which you aren’t suited.

Know thyself, relax thyself

Recruiters and human-resources managers generally prefer to perform psychological tests early in the selec-

tion process, and many are now conducted online, before an initial interview.

But no matter where or when you take a test, taking stock of yourself before you answer the first question will help you re-lax and present yourself as honestly and effectively as possible, psychotherapist Tobin said.

“Before you take one of these tests, the most important thing is to know who you are and to be in touch with your own core values, your own strengths, your own limitations,” he said.

“That can make you feel more comfortable taking the test and more confident to just be in the moment. A lot of these tests take you to hypothetical questions, like, what would you do if someone was yelling at you in the middle of a store? Don’t try and overanalyze what you think the answer is supposed to be. Just go with what you would really do in that situation.”

While experts say that you shouldn’t — and really can’t — study for a personality test, some recommend using the results from sample tests online or from past testing to add weight and balance to discussions about your strengths and weaknesses.

“Self-awareness is one of the elements of good leadership,” Fennig said. “Take assessments: One, (you’ll) be comfort-able with the process of taking assessments; and two, more importantly, to know yourself will make people more in-formed job hunters. There’s probably no downside (to taking a sample test).”

See PERSONALITY Next Page

ACCORDING TO EXPERTS interviewed by TheLadders,

some of the most commonly used pre-employment personality assess-ments are:

The Sixteen Personality Factor (16PF) Questionnaire

The 16PF is a personality inven-tory that measures the 16 normal-range personality traits identified by psychologist Raymond B. Cattell and fellow researchers. Later, five global (or second-order) factors were discovered. The 16PF assess-ment scores both the broader, sec-ond-order traits as well as the more specific and precise primary traits. The assessment is commonly used

in the workplace but also in academ-ic and counseling settings.

Dominance, Influence, Steadi-ness, Conscientiousness (DISC)

The DISC assessment is based on a four-quadrant behavioral mod-el identified by William Moulton Marston. The test assesses the be-havior of individuals within certain situations. Behavior is grouped into four major personality styles, each of which tends to exhibit specific characteristics common to that particular style.

Caliper Profile

The Caliper Profile is a commer-cial assessment that measures 25

personality traits related to job per-formance. The instrument is used for hiring, performance improve-ment and team building and is de-signed to provide information on an individual’s strengths, limitations, motivation and potential.

California Psychological Inventory

The items on the California Psy-chological Inventory produce scores for 18 scales divided into four class-es designed to measure social skills, intellectual flexibility and interests. Each of the 18 scales is designed to determine what the test-taker will say or do under certain conditions.

Top Personality TestsThe most common psychological exams used by HR managers to review job applications.

By Debra Donston-Miller

Kohut

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Personality Tests on the Job SearchJOB SEARCH

What type of test to expect?

Just as there are many different kinds of tests, regulation of pre-employment testing varies across states and industries. In gener-al, employment law in most states requires that testing be relevant to a position, and must be administered consistently across all candidates. Most states also require that the test meet professional standards. Un-like background checks, there are no laws entitling a job seeker to view the results of a psychological exam, but some employers and some tests in particular give job seekers access to the results.

DRI Consulting, for instance, gives all applicants copies of their results, plus graphed reports, and invites them to comment before the report is sent to the hiring organization.

“It’s like a good performance review; you get to read and sign off on the accuracy of it,” Fennig said. “(Candidates) can’t change the numbers, but they can add stuff, they can comment, and then we submit that ver-batim to the hiring organization. This has been hugely, hugely popular and effective.”

Fennig added that the testing is seen as informing not just the hiring organiza-tion but also the candidate about how and where they fit: “It helps the job seeker to say, ‘Oh, you know, maybe I’m not cut out to manage, and this is a management job.’ ... The hope is that the testing informs in both directions.”

If test results are not supplied to you au-tomatically, as they are with DRI Consult-ing, it’s a good idea to ask for them anyway, as it shows you are engaged and proactive every step of the process, Fennig said.

“The best candidates are clued into the decision path, and they know where they stand at each point,” he said. “So knowing that is a sign of leadership, a sign of power, a sign of confidence.”

First refusal

Can you refuse to take a personality test? Yes, said Deblauwe, and he’s seen it done, but just saying no is not a good idea if you really want the job.

The law is different in every state. Gener-ally, however, if the test meets the profes-sional standards defined by the state and is relevant to the job in question, it is permis-sible to make it a mandatory part of the job application, according to the American Psychological Association.

While it’s not likely to be told that you didn’t get a job because you refused to take a test, “unless you’re really, really good, the last thing recruiters, HR people, etc. want is someone who is going to be creating blocks for them. Good economy, bad economy — play ball,” he said.

Fennig agreed, adding, “Most execs who we work with have come to expect to be tested. They appreciate being tested because they are able to put their better foot forward.”

The best candidates are clued into the decision path, and they know where they stand at each point. So knowing that is a sign of leader-ship, a sign of power, a sign of confidence.

“

”— John Fennig

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