Sure Fire Winning Tip
We’ll be giving you some of our expert advice in this article on how to ace your pre-employment personality test but upfront we just want to put it out there…the most obvious route to success is to…BE YOURSELF!! You’re amazing, unique, exciting, adventurous –feel free to add in any brilliant personal characteristics of your beautiful self to the list. That being said, let’s look at how to bring all of your wonderful character traits to the fore in your “test.”
The Right Type
Sometimes employers are looking for a very particular personality type to suit the requirements of a specific job. They might be looking for an extrovert, outgoing person to fulfill a sales position and the test allows them to find a suitable match. It doesn’t mean your personality didn’t make it –your strengths could just be in another field which you would be much more suited to in the long run. Research which character traits are most aligned with the job you are applying for and look to yourself to find where in your life you most accurately inhabit those qualities.
The Pre-Test Test
You can’t study for these tests, unfortunately, but you can practice with sample tests to give you an idea where your strengths are residing and where your challenges are hiding. Make sure you always answer every question honestly. You don’t want to give elaborate, extreme answers to every question –it’s too much and totally unnecessary. You’re looking to display the most appropriate aspect of your personality that matches the question. Your answers must truly reflect your personality because if you get a job based on false information you might find that you are not able to meet the demands of the job.
Alien Invasion?
If you try to give the “right” answer to every question it might indicate to the employer that you are trying to fake it until you make it. Their deception detection alarms will go off and the test will have beaten you. Sometimes the same question will be reworded and disguised slightly for the simple purpose of revealing untruthful answers. These are the tricky control questions. You must remember you are a human being so if you say you have never experienced envy you might be seen either as a robot, alien from outer space or untruthful. Consider the test failed.
Forget Woody Allen
Leave your over-analyzing Woody Allen brain at home. Overthinking answers by overanalyzing questions is going to leave you muddled and confused. The word “test” can unseat the most confident of souls and send your head racing into panicked thought spirals:
- “Will I come across as crazy?”
- “I am really nervous will this affect my score?”
- “Will I understand all of the questions?”
These fear-based revolving questions must be banished quickly so you don’t drown in your own negative thinking. You have passed many tests in your life –that is why you are sitting in the interview in the first place. Remember who you are, and be true to the glorious human being you have become.
Test The Waters
Before you get to the personality test make sure you have asked the employer questions about the company, the position, the type of person they see fulfilling the job and then show them the character traits you actually possess that meet their criteria. If you discover that the type of person, they are looking for is too far removed from your own personality then you will have uncovered that you might not actually want to do the job.
You are also conducting your own “test” of the company. The more you know about a company, from doing your research online, the more of an advantage you will have when it comes to questions about company culture. You will already have some idea of their workplace environment and can prepare to answer questions where you can match your relevant traits to the company culture.
Marathon Preparation
Just be prepared that some of the forced choice tests (multiple choice) can be very long, many are over 100 questions. So be prepared for it. Make sure you arrive fresh, wide awake and clear headed. There are also free-choice assessments which give you the freedom to select the number of behavioral descriptors you like based on your personal preference. What you end up choosing is part of the “test.”
Honesty Policy
Whatever you do, don’t fake it. You really don’t want to land a job based on untruths. It’s not the greatest trampoline to jump to success. You are not going to be able to adapt your behavior to the imaginary person you presented in the faked answers. Bet on yourself every step of the way.
Give Your Résumé a Little More Personality
Before you can get to the stage of interviews and personality tests you have to first create a résumé that honestly reflects your personality, expertise, experience and skill set to make a powerful first impression. We can help you to bring out all of your most wonderful character traits in your well-worded résumé. Speak with one of our Résumé Experts today by submitting an inquiry here – we would love to hear from you.
Respected Résumés has 20 years’ experience in the field, producing more than 100,000 résumés. We have a 93% success rate in obtaining interviews.