Personality questionnaires measure aspects of behavior and temperament. The questionnaires are usually untimed, but you will be asked to put down your first reaction to the questions and not spend time pondering over their meaning. Typically, organizations are interested in an individual's style of working, their relationships with others and aspects of motivation.
Some of the most widely used personality questions used in recruitment in the UK include 16PF, OPQ and 15FQ.
Emotional intelligence (EI) is increasingly being used by employers in selection. There are five defined competences of EI as follows:
- Self-awareness;
- Emotional control;
- Self-motivation;
- Empathy;
- Handling relationships.
There are EI assessments available on the internet should you wish to pursue this further at ase-solutions.co.uk.
Here are some tips:
- Read the instructions thoroughly;
- Do not try to second guess exactly what personal qualities the selectors are looking for. Be honest to yourself. Think of the type of person you are. The questionnaires have scales designed to detect wherever you are 'managing' the impression you are presenting, and the output may not reflect your true attributes and strengths. You may be asked to think of examples at interview to qualify your responses;
- Keep your work hat on. Approach each question as if it were work related as you may have differently out of that context;
- There are no right or wrong answers. There is no such thing as a good or bad profile;
- Feel free to change your answers. However, do not change too many as you should have confidence in your gut feelings.
There may be checks within the questionnaire to detect whether you are giving a false picture of yourself. The best advice is probably to 'be yourself'.
