Personality Tests & Employment Questionnaires Information

These Tests are being used more as companies and organizations compete to recruit the most appropriate new employees. Despite the fact that many candidates abhor filling in these career questionnaires, the prospective employers are using Personality Tests or Psychometric Questionnaires to produce the sort of meaningful personal profile that will help them to get the right person. By this they are attempting to use personality psychology and job tests to understand the individual's personality and job aptitude.

This means that if you have not already experienced a career test, you are increasingly likely to do so.

One thing you must remember when looking for a new job - and keep this in mind when asked to do a test - the most important attribute in a new employee is the ability to fit into the organization. So what they want is someone who in many ways is like they are.

This page will help you sort out what Personality Tests are, which ones you might expect to come up against and what to do so you pass the test first time.

You are probably familiar with some of the names of the most popular career tests, psychometric questionnaires and assessments so you will recognize these names:

• Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ)
• Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
• 16PF (Sixteen Personality Factors)
• Personal Style Indicator (PSI)
• Personal Profile Analysis (PPA)
• McQuaig Word Survey
• People Maps Questionnaire
• and many others

As a Career Coach and Consultant, I have used many of these Personality Tests with my clients and I will give you my own personal opinion and insights which I hope will help you.

How Well Do You Know Yourself? Select from over 22 different tests and find out. Includes IQ, EQ, career, personality tests and other fun tests to help you find job fit and discover your true self. www.Assessment.com

People Maps Free personality Tests

People Maps provide one of the most useful career and employment questionnaires from the point of view of the job seeker.

Because you can get a free People Maps report, you may find out as much as you need without spending any money on expensive Personality Tests reports.

These are some of the areas you can find out about:

• Career Planner Report
• CVs & Interviews Report
• Ideal Job Report

Want to try one of these Personality Tests and get your free report?

Personal Style Indicator (PSI)

Would you like a clear way to assess your style and behavioral tendencies? The Personal Style Indicator (PSI) is a powerful communication and learning tool. Discover your personality and how it “fits” in the world around you. Determine your behaviors around tasks so you can be more effective in all areas of your life. Share the knowledge with your friends and family and impress them with the insights!

Now go to Personality Type to learn more about the ideal career for your personality because as in all other areas of your life, your personality plays a decisive role in the things you enjoy or don’t enjoy. It plays a role in why you are more successful in a particular area with less effort and why some areas might be more difficult for you and require more effort.

Identifying your skills, interests, personality type and workvalues will help you to find a more satisfying and rewarding career.

Continue to Describe Your Personality for help with your self-description; the answer to being asked to describe your personality should always be related to the job, so leave out words like "sexy" or "daring" or even "loving". Remember, although the employer is asking personal questions about you, they are still all related to the need to answer the interview question: "what can you bring to the company?" even if they didn't actually put that question into words.

Continue to Psychometric Tests for more ideas to help you get under way; In the UK, about 75% of medium to large sized organizations use psychometric tests as part of their selection procedure alongside interviews or other face-to-face techniques. Psychometrics Testing aims to understand your preferences as opposed to personality tests which aim to describe your personality.

It doesn’t mean that you should be worried; any feedback you receive will help you to understand and describe your personality better now and in the future.

You can get more information about Careers Questionnaires which may take many different forms because employers use them to assess your ability to do different tasks.

So you may come across questionnaires that are for numerical testing or for verbal reasoning tests or psychometric tests that aim to measure aspects of your personality.

Aptitude Tests and other career tests are amongst many different related tools that can help make the early part of your job-search manageable, and thus set you on a shorter path to your ultimate goals. These tests are essential tools in opening up new possibilities and helping you to make important career decisions at key points in your life. Most of these tests are used to provide an indication of which jobs match your particular abilities and which will provide maximum job satisfaction.

Free Example Questionnaires

At least 40% of major and many smaller employers now use some form of careers questionnaire or aptitude test, sometimes also psychometric tests, as part of their employee selection process.

This number appears to be rising because employers recognise that choosing candidates on the basis of a job interview alone is not always the most suitable way of making a recruitment decision based on a 45 minute face to face interview which is potentially subjective.

There are the following timed, careers questionnaires and free practice aptitude tests on the University of Kent web site which will help you, including answers and working out:

• Numerical Reasoning

• Numerical Reasoning: Graphs and Tables

• Letter Sequences (logical reasoning)

• Non-Verbal Reasoning (spatial ability / diagrammatic reasoning)

• Verbal Reasoning

• Verbal Reasoning (synonyms and antonyms)

• Vocabulary Test

• Spelling and punctuation test for applications not strictly a psychometric test, but will help with verbal skills.

• Lateral (Creative) Thinking Quiz

• Careers Explorer not strictly a test, but a quick and easy to use program to help you choose a career.

Careers tests are usually only part of the overall assessment procedure when you apply for a job. Employers will use them alongside face to face interviews, standardized application forms and other selection methods, so your numerical or verbal reasoning test results are not the only information considered.