Personality For Hire
Psychological tests for hiring purposes — what do they really measure?
A number of years ago, I was looking for my first job. I had given my CV to about a dozen retail stores with no luck, until finally, one store called me for a “preliminary interview.” Elated, I put on my best blazer (and by best, I mean the one I got at Forever 21 for $23.70), and headed in for my interview. Now, I don’t want to name names, so let’s just call this store American Eagle. When I arrived, the manager greeted me, we chatted for a few minutes, and she explained that the first step in their hiring process was a short personality test. Surprised, but not about to question my first real chance at a job, I followed her to a computer in their backroom, where I sat and was told to follow the onscreen instructions. While I can’t remember every detail of the test, I distinctly remember two significant questions: first, “What qualities do you think define a good employee?”, and second, “Which of the following qualities best describe you?” To answer each question, I was asked to go through a checklist of about 100 items and select all the ones that I felt applied. The listed qualities included terms such as “easygoing,” “punctual,” “closed-minded,” “absent-minded,” and “organized.” I was baffled. How on earth was this useful or informative? Unless you think employers like stubborn, perpetually late, and argumentative staff, you could easily select all of the best qualities off of the list, presenting the perfect picture of yourself, regardless of its accuracy. And that, of course, is exactly what I did — even better, since I didn’t even have to list the qualities myself, I was able to select several descriptors that I wouldn’t have thought of on my own, but that I knew would paint me in a favourable light.
Now, 6 or so years later, and 3 years into a psychology undergraduate degree, I can explain in more technical terms the major problem I saw in American Eagle’s personality test — the test essentially had too much face validity. Their questions were so transparent that anyone with a shred of common sense would know how to answer them and tell them exactly what they wanted to hear. I find myself wondering what, if any, research the company used when deciding to implement these tests into their hiring procedures. While the positive qualities on the list may have been shown to correlate with job performance, the self-report nature of the questions made the answers virtually meaningless.
Perhaps American Eagle was looking to thin the herd of applicants, weeding out those who so naively believe that honesty really is the best policy in the job hunt. My glowing (and definitely 100% accurate) personality report got me the interview, but sadly, I never got the coveted call for the job — although whether that’s because I failed to live up to my supposedly perfect character or because of my grand total of zero years of experience, we’ll never know.
