Before I discuss the origins, claims, dubious utility of psychometric tests and unveil strategies to “pass” them, consider the following passage of a New York Times interview with Lawrence W. Kellner CEO of Continental Airlines.
Q. How do you hire?
A. I don’t believe — and I probably learned this through experience — that any one-hour or two-hour interview can let me figure out, “Yeah, that person is going to be really successful.” What I’ve found is that step one is, “O.K., have I worked with somebody who could fill this job who’s really good?” Because I’ve found my success rate is dramatically higher going that route. If not, the second step is to widen the net to people who I trust, and look for people they’ve worked with. Our third net is we try to find somebody we know and trust who knows the person we’re thinking of hiring. The best possible interview is minuscule in value compared to somebody who’s got even a couple of months of work experience with somebody, who’s actually watched how they work.
To paraphrase Mr Kellner, the best kind of hiring takes time; hiring decisions should aggregate months, if not years of combined knowledge of the candidate.
Set against this, are psychometric tests which were derived from a field of study called Psychometrics.
As a reminder, “Psychometrics is the field of study concerned with the theory and technique of educational and psychological measurement, which includes the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, and personality traits.”
Here are two claims made by two websites about psychometric tests:
The first comes from Psychometric Success.
Psychometric tests aim to measure attributes like intelligence, aptitude and personality. They provide a potential employer with an insight into how well you work with other people, how well you handle stress, and whether you will be able to cope with the intellectual demands of the job.
The second from WiseGeeks.
Psychometric testing is a tool used mainly in the recruitment process. It is recognized as an efficient way to gain insight into a person’s personality and psychological thinking. It can help develop team spirit in the workplace and assess an individual’s priorities.
…Once the test has been completed, it takes approximately 5-10 seconds to produce the results….
Unlike Continental’s CEO, the focus of psychometric testing is speed. Employers using this scheme hope to gain a presumably comprehensive insight into the candidates skills and character or personality aptitudes.
Skill tests are then further divided into two categories:
- Ability tests (numerical, verbal and logical reasoning, problem-solving skills, and the ability to identify mistakes accurately).
- Aptitude tests which aim to assess your ability to use specific job-related skills, and predict future performance.
Personality tests assess your general character. They seek to answer the question: “how would you behave at work?” The concept that employers aim at, is to match job requirements with certain characteristics for particular jobs. For a sales role, for example, they may want someone who is very agressive, organised and creative.
“Beat the test!”
1) Gather information about the company and its people. Start with the job description and pay particular attention to sentences such as:
The ideal candidate will have…
Responsibilities include…
2) Visit the company’s website. Find-out about its products, services, business objectives and what they stand for and core values. In general, you are trying to understand how the company perceives itself.
3) Find about the kind of people who work in the department you would be working in. (Use Linkedin and other professional networks).
4) Having done this, write down the key words you have gleaned under the three categories mentioned above:
Abilities–> e.g. C++, Copy Editing etc…
Aptitudes–> e.g. adapt to change, quick learner, manage multiple projects etc…
Personality–> e.g. introverted, creative, patient, risk-taker etc..
Once you have all this, you are pretty much ready to take the test. In terms of “abilities”, if you really don’t have that knowledge this job is not for you: either you know CSS or you don’t. In some cases, where you feel you could have that skill, find a course, get a book and train to acquire it. You might want to ask people who are at this job how much of that particular skill they use and how.
As for “Aptitudes” and “Personalities” it is now just a matter of thinking quickly and supplying the tester (and employer) with the answers it expects. Remember there are no exact answers, there are only answers that are good for that job description.
So how might you answer this?
Answer on a scale from 1 to 6
This is basically a question between “Selfless” on the left and “Selfish” on the right. What’s the right answer? It’s in the job description. Are you going for a stockbroker job or teaching position?
How about this one?
Answer on a scale from 1 to 6
“If I have a problem, I want to sort it out by myself”
or
“When I have a problem I seek the advice of others”
It’s simple, if the job description stated “self-starter” you would probably select 1 or 2 (i.e. “I sort it out by myself”). If the job description stated “collaborative” then you select 5 or 6.
A few more hints: be consistent in your answers. These tests are meant to confuse you. So you wont get 5 questions in a row about “selfish” versus “unselfish”. Each “trait” will be proposed to you, perhaps every 4th question. So question 1 will be about selfishness, question two about risk-taking, question 3 about creativity and question 4, again, on selfishness.
Final thoughts and take-away.
While it is true that not all companies can take the time to get to know all potential candidates intimately, they have to be aware of the fact that, as shown above, there is a way around these tests. These tests may inform, but well-purposed face-to-face interviews should be the cornerstone of your hiring process.
For candidates know that:
- the more you practice taking them, the better you will do.
- the answers to these tests are in the job-description.
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