Personality Test Questions Review

How to Pass a Personality Test

Welcome to Personality Test Answers That Get You Hired. I wrote this website after experiencing anxiety about having to take a personality test as part of a job application.

Since there is an extremely competitive job market these days, employers are enjoying a “buyers market.” There are many, many job candidates for every opening. To help them select the best candidate, they’re implementing the use of pre-employment personality tests, or psychological tests, as one of the tools they use to help distinguish the good job candidates from the rest during the job interview process.

If you’ve read the papers you know that unemployment is rising nationally, even getting close to 10% nationally. That means more and more job seekers are applying for the same job you are. How do you make yourself stand out from the rest? Chances are your prospective employer has 10-12 other very well qualified job candidates just like you.

Employers see most job applicants may have very similar qualifications. As a result, they want to get a deeper look into your personality beyond what standard job interview questions can provide. One of the tools employers use during the job interview process is the personality test.

So what is a personality test? It is a type of career test that aims to describe aspects of a person’s character that remain stable across different situations. In other words, by categorizing your personality traits, employers are using a personality questionnaire that claims to be able to predict which job candidates will fit best for any particular employment position. The companies that sell these pre-employment testing services will claim that personality tests are accurate. In reality however many managers will tell you they lost great candidates because those job applicants scored poorly on the personality test part of the job interview. Don’t let this happen to you.

One very popular personality test used by employers is the Myers Briggs Personality Test – a personality questionnaire designed to identify certain psychological differences according to the typological theories of Carl Jung. A growing company that offers employment testing for companies is Brainbench. Their growth is a direct result of employers increased interest in testing. Both the Myers Brigss personality test and the Brainbench personality test are often chosen by employers.

People willingly answer employer’s personality test questions as part of the job interview process. Later, they realize (when it’s too late) that they could have been a little better prepared. Hiring managers will closely scrutinize the analysis from the test. Even the slightest indication that you may not be a suitable job applicant could prevent you from receiving a job offer.

When you take a personality test during the job interview process, you’ll notice the test will ask the same personality question with slightly different wording many times. This type of questioning is designed to test your level of honesty, sincerity and integrity. It’s very common to answer a personality test question one way, then decide to answer the same type of question a different way after you second guess your first answer. Pretty soon you end up making yourself seem like a very indecisive employee, one who is trying to outsmart the pre-employment test. Those kind of interview answers can cost you the job offer.

There is something you can do to help increase the odds that your results will show you as “suitable” for the position you want.

If you ask around many people will advise you not to prepare but to just take the test. Don’t you want to feel prepared? By doing a little research, you’ll learn how to answer personality test questions that will show you’re the most suitable candidate for the job.

If this job interview a really good career opportunity for you, it’s important to be prepared. While you may be able to produce a satisfactory result without professional advice, you might answer just one or two questions “inappropriately” and cause your application to be disqualified. Is is worth it? Wouldn’t you feel better if you knew how employers are going to rate & interpret your interview answers?

Don’t risk questionable results from  the job interview pre-employment personality test.

If we were all the same, the personality test results wouldn’t matter. But of course we’re not. Every single person has a different personality, and therefore a different pre-employment personality test result.

Some personality types can be grouped into some general categories such as introverted, extroverted, etc. How will the test categorize you? This is important because certain types of personalities fit very specific jobs. Sales positions, for example, are looking for extroverted, high energy personality types. Even if your test results predict you to be a great employee, you may be categorized as the wrong type of employee for that type of job.

Executive hiring managers want to avoid risk.

Today a manager’s career can depend on his or her ability to select great employees during the job interview process. If you’re adding a new person to your “team” you want to be sure that you choose the best candidate for the job. The conservative corporate manager will take steps to better qualify each job candidate. The pre-employment personality test is just one tool during the job interview that helps them do this. In most cases employers likely put too much weight on the personality test. But no manager is going to want to risk challenging the results. If they hire you knowing you have a negative personality test profile, they risk getting fired or losing a promotion. As a result most managers choose the candidate that fits the profile and represents the least amount of risk.

Why personality tests can be unreliable:

• They only measure different attitudes about things from different people. Your attitude about something in general cannot be used to predict how you’ll react to different & distinct business situations.
• They cannot predict behavior because behavior is context sensitive. People act differently in different environments. If you’re in sales, and you’re way ahead of your quota, you will almost certainly handle price concession requests differently than if you were way behind quota.
• They associate success with specific personality types. In fact, personality requirements are different for different jobs. Rarely do any of the tests customize their recommendations by job type or environment. It’s simply “This person may (or may not) succeed.” This just doesn’t happen in real life.

You Need To Know How Your Interview Answers Will Be Interpreted By Employers.

How would you answer the most common personality test question:

 “I have never told a lie.”

There is a very specific answer to this question that will indicate whether or not you are an honest person. It’s one of the most basic questions from the category “integrity.” The more you know about how to answer this question, the better your chances are of choosing the correct personality test answer, and landing the job. This question is actually from a whole category of personality test answers based upon integrity. Each question attempts to trip you up, to see if your really an honest person or not. Is that fair? Of course not. Of course you would say that you’ve told a lie once or twice in your life- right? Or maybe not. You’ll get this question and the appropriate answer in detail when you download the eBook.

You need to prepare, study, and understand the psychology behind career tests.

Why are so many employers using these tests during the job interview process?

The answer is simple. 

Companies use of the pre-employment screening test has increased over 300% in the last five years alone because of complex computer modeling that employs powerful mathematical algorithms, making the results seem far more accurate than ever before.

But the most important reason employers love these tests are simply because there is little else out there to evaluate you with.

Your previous employer will refrain from saying anything negative about you because they may risk litigation (getting sued).  Usually your previous employer will only confirm your dates of employment. This leaves employers with very few ways to evaluate you- your resume, which you wrote; your references, which you gave them; and your education- here they can at least verify your degree, and your GPA.

You may be asking yourself “Is it ethical to learn how to take these tests?”  Absolutely.  You’re not trying to trick the personality test. You’re just learning how your response will be interpreted. Most people will suggest you “just answer the personality test questions honestly.” But you’re only human. If you’re taking a test for a job interview that can really advance your career, you can’t help but be a little (a lot?) apprehensive when you take a personality test. It’s perfectly normal, but can have a very significant impact on your test results.

Just like practicing a speech, you’ll remove your apprehension and nervousness by knowing what to expect, the type of questions you’ll be asked, and how to answer the in a way that gives you the best chance at landing the job.

Let’s take a look at more personality test / career test questions.

We’ll begin by putting our questions into segments.  For demonstration purposes, let’s assume the segment is “reliability.”  Here’s some questions from this area:

• How thorough are you?
• Do you complete all your assignments? 
• Are you the type of employee who always arrives on time?
• How do you handle conflict?
• Are you persistent or do you give up easily?

These are typical personality test questions the employer will have about you. Don’t be surprised to see questions like this:

“Work is the most important thing in my life.”

How should you answer?  Agree or disagree? If you don’t know, it could cost you this job opportunity. Do you really want to risk it? You may be seen as a workaholic that doesn’t know when to quit. Or you may be viewed as someone with no personal life. Buy the eBook and you’ll know exactly how to answer this question.

Here’s another question:

“I would be interested in learning how people handle stress at work.”

This is a trick personality test question.  Do you want to tell the employer you are so bad at handling stress that you need help? Or that you’re a little on the arrogant side and you think you can handle any stressful situation? The eBook will tell you the most appropriate answer.

Like any other part of the job interview process, you need to do your homework. You’ve already selected a conservative outfit to wear during your interviews. You’ve spent hours and hours reading job interview preparation material, about the company you’re applying to, and researching personality tests. You know what job interview questions to expect, and how to respond. Your resume is polished and highlights all of your accomplishments beautifully. 

Why would you risk losing the job on the pre-employment personality test results? 

With this in mind, there’s no doubt that you should take the time to learn more about what a personality test can involve.

It can be as easy as downloading an eBook, and all it’ll take is a little research to start to understand how employers and managers interpret your answers to the personality test you will take during the job interview process.

You’ll go into the test feeling confident, and you’ll take the personality test without any intimidation whatsoever. Ever since I began to research these tests I’ve been amazed at how many people really don’t understand how personality tests work.

But don’t believe me, listen to this, from someone who had to take a personality test for a job application:

“I had an interview. Everything went great, but they told me I had to take their personality test. I was really nervous because a friend from school had taken the same test. He was so nervous that while taking the test he began to panic, and answered questions many different ways. They told him that his personality test results were ‘unfavorable’ and they ended the interview process. I bought an eBook on the matter and was able to read it in just a few hours, and it really clarified how these test work. Needless to say I got the job.”

Jonathan L.
New York, NY

You can’t go wrong. Get the information you need to have complete confidence when you take your job interview personality test- the one that can make or break your career. 

Looking for more? Check out our posts What are personality disorders, Personality types and Personality Characteristics