by Unknown
Always try to answer questions honestly. This will provide the employer with the most accurate picture of you as a person to see how well you would fit into the job and the organization. By describing yourself as you are, you give a true impression of yourself. If you believe you are suitable for the role, this should come across in your responses. Don’t worry about providing the odd response that may seem quite negative. The employer will be looking at the totality of your responses rather than the answers to specific questions.
Don’t try to guess what the employer is looking for. This can make responding difficult, and it is, in any case, unlikely to help you make a good impression for a number of reasons. First, you may be wrong and make yourself look unsuitable for the job when you are, in fact, exactly what the employer is looking for. It is difficult to predict what sort of responses an employer might be looking for, so you could be giving exactly the wrong impression. Second, questionnaires often contain checks on response patterns, and these can flag up inconsistent or unusual answers. Third, if you distort your answers you cannot be sure what impression you are creating. Last, the employer may want to discuss your results with you and contradictions between your profile and what you say at interview will become evident and be potentially embarrassing.
Some people do find it difficult to respond to questionnaires and agonize about what to say. They can think of times when the statement applies to them and times when it does not, or they agree with part of the statement and not with another part. If you are having difficulty responding to a question try the suggestions below.
Hints on answering questions
Answer quickly instead of thinking at length over a question. Your first response is likely to be your best answer and the one that reflects you most accurately. Brooding over a question may be what is leading to the confusion by raising too many possibilities. Questionnaires do not have fixed time limits, but it is better to work at a good pace than to spend a lot of time over individual questions.
Think about the question in a work-related context. What is important is how you behave at work. If the way you are at home with friends and family is different from the way you are at work, consider how you would behave on a typical work day.
If you do not have a job at the moment, think about previous jobs you have had. If you have never worked or if the jobs you have had are not really relevant, think about yourself in work-like situations. This might include studying in school, college or university, doing voluntary work for a charity or even completing tasks at home like housework. If you have a hobby that you spend time on or have worked with friends to organize an event, you can use this experience to think about how you behave when responding to questions.
Consider what you know about the organization or the job itself. This can narrow down the range of experience you need to think about. Does thinking about the question in this context help you decide how to answer?
Try to rule out some options so that you have fewer to choose from. For instance if you have to answer the following question:
I finish one task before moving onto the next.
a. Strongly agree
b. Agree
c. Neither agree nor disagree
d. Disagree
e. Strongly disagree
First, think whether you generally agree or generally disagree. For instance, if you decide that you generally disagree you can rule out options a, b and c. Now you need to decide between d and e. Is this something that you never do, option e, or do you sometimes finish things before moving on, option d? Alternatively, if you can’t decide whether you agree or disagree then you can rule out options a and e. Now think whether you are more likely to finish something before moving on, or more likely to move on immediately. Think about this in a work situation. Bring to mind a few occasions recently when you had to start a new task. Had you finished the previous one? Can you see a trend? If you still can’t see a trend then choose option c and move on.
Here is another example of a different type of question.
Select the word that most describes you and the one that least describes you.
MOST LIKE ME LEAST LIKE ME
Creative
Practical
Helpful
Obedient
First, think of what is most like you. Can you rule out any words that are not like you at all? Now consider the words left and compare them in pairs. For instance, are you more creative or more practical? It is often easier to decide between a pair of words than a whole list. Think about a work situation where you could choose between doing something creative, such as thinking up ideas to improve the way you work, or something practical, such as getting on with a task. If you are more practical than creative then creative is not most like you. Now compare practical with the next remaining option. Are you more practical or more helpful? If you find one of the pairs difficult to decide between leave it and go on to the next one. So if you can’t decide about practical and helpful, compare practical and obedient. Suppose you feel you are more obedient. Now you need to compare obedient and helpful. Which is more like you? If you still can’t decide between the last two words you can just choose one at random. You have already ruled out two words, so this is more than just a guess. Now you can do the same thing with the remaining words to find which one is least like you.
If you have a disability
Despite the protection of the Disability Discrimination Act, disabled people may still face discrimination from employers who overestimate the impact of the disability or feel that a disabled employee will be a burden. For this reason people with disabilities do not always want to disclose their disability to an employer early on in the selection process, and there is no requirement for them to do so. If there is any concern that the employer is not disability friendly, not disclosing is a sensible approach. Some disabilities are readily visible and will become evident as soon as you turn up to interview, but most are not and can remain hidden. However, if there is anything about your disability that could affect your performance at interview it is usually worthwhile to let an employer know. This will trigger your rights to adjustments and accommodations under the law.
If you have any kind of disability that could affect your ability to complete a questionnaire you should let the employer know. This might include visual impairments of various kinds, dyslexia, difficulties in concentration or motor difficulties that affect writing or using a computer. It is a requirement of the Disability Discrimination Act that employers make reasonable adjustments to selection procedures to allow candidates with a disability to take part without being put at a disadvantage.
If you have a disability and have not received any information from the employer about the nature of the selection procedure, do contact them to check whether there will be anything in the selection process that might cause you difficulties. If you prefer this can be done without revealing your disability status: just ask if there will be any need to read or write during the selection day. However, if you do need some accommodation, you will need to reveal your disability to claim your rights. Employers are not required to make adjustments if they do not know about your disability. Even if you have ticked the box on the application form to say you have a disability, this is not sufficient to trigger an adjustment. The employer will still need further information to know if your disability is one that needs an adjustment or accommodation and, if so, what changes are needed.
The more information and the more notice you give the employer, the more you can expect to be done to accommodate you. For example, if you need quite a large font size to be able to read, you will need to let the employer know your needs in sufficient time for them to arrange to have an appropriate version of the questionnaire available. If you only mention this need on the day when you arrive, the employer will probably not have a suitable format available for you and you may have to struggle with an ordinary version. Employment tribunals do not expect employer’s to make adjustments if they have
not been notified with details of a person’s disability and needs. If the notification is at the last minute they will not expect employers to do as much as they could with proper notice.
If you feel that an employer has not made an appropriate adjustment for you or has discriminated against you in the selection process you can contact the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (www.cehr.org.uk) for advice and help in taking things further. Until 2008 providing this help is the responsibility of the Disability Rights Commission (www.drc-gb.org); thereafter it will be merged into the Commission for Equality and Human Rights.
If English is not your primary language
Questionnaires used in Britain are designed for use with people whose primary language is English. If English is not your first language consider whether you know enough English to understand and answer the questionnaire. Remember that questions may contain local idioms and metaphors. Look at the example questions in Chapter 4 to see if you can understand them easily. If you think your command of English may not be good enough to allow you to properly understand the questionnaire get in touch with the employer to discuss this problem. It may be possible to provide the questionnaire in other languages or to provide you with some help – a dictionary for example – so that you can complete the questionnaire in English.
After completing the questionnaire
After completing the questionnaire the employer will arrange for it to be scored. The results will be used alongside other information in making decisions about you. Depending on the stage in the selection process and the selection process itself, the employer may want to talk to you about your results, but this will not always happen. Many employers will not consider the results of the personality questionnaire at the interview but treat them separately. Employers who want to explore your results further may devote a whole interview to discussing them with you, but many will integrate a few specific points from your personality results into a general interview
The main purpose of an interview about the results of your personality questionnaire is to better understand your suitability for the job. The employer might have a few questions arising from your personality profile about your strengths and weakness in terms of the job requirements and want to explore these further with you. In addition, the employer will want to see if your behaviour at interview matches your personality profile.
If the employer wants to have this sort of discussion with you, you should prepare as you would for any other interview. Think about how well your approach and style would suit the job you are applying for. What are your strengths in this regard? Where are you likely to be particularly well suited? Think of some examples of how your personality style has helped you in other jobs or work-like situations. For instance, if you have a particularly organized approach, how has this helped you in your work? Has it made you more efficient and effective? Similarly, if you tend to do things spontaneously rather than in an organized way think about how this has helped you in your work. Has it made you more flexible and able to deal with unexpected situations?
You also need to think through areas where you have less fit to the job requirements and any aspects of your personality that might concern the employer. How will you make sure that this will not affect your performance? Try to think of occasions when you have shown that you can be effective despite a particular aspect of your personality. Suppose the job requires a person who is quite organized. If you have a tendency to be disorganized, does this mean you have a tendency to miss details or fail to meet deadlines? Can you show how you have overcome this in previous work? What is your track record in meeting important deadlines? Have you learned tools and techniques that help you to be more organized when this is important? Of course, if you really find it difficult to work in an organized manner, perhaps this role is not suitable for you and you should look for a job where this trait is not so important.
Not all jobs require an organized approach. For some work it is more important to be flexible and adapt to changing circumstances than to follow plans and have a structured approach. If you tend to be very structured in your approach how do you manage when circumstances change and you need to adapt or when you have to work in rather disorganized surroundings? If you would really hate working in this kind of environment, a job that requires it is probably not for you, but if you think you would like the job nevertheless, think how you would cope with a workplace that may be disorderly and constantly in flux. Can you think of an example when you have faced this kind of situation and coped well? Do you have strategies and techniques for dealing with this kind of situation? How would you persuade an employer that, despite your natural tendencies, you would be effective in the muddle surrounding you?
Do not feel downcast because the personality questionnaire might have revealed some areas where you have a less good fit to the job requirements than others. The employer will be looking for a variety of things from candidates. As well as some aspects of personal style and fit with the organization, there will be skills, abilities, knowledge and experience. It is rare to meet a candidate who fits the job requirements perfectly. Most candidates have some areas of good match against the required specification and some areas of poor match. The purpose of the selection process is to find out about the candidate’s match to the job requirements. In making a decision the employer will be balancing the different sets of strengths and weaknesses of the various candidates, and they might have to decide between someone who had exactly the right sort of experience but a poor attitude to work and someone who had very little experience but seemed exactly the sort of person to fit in to the organization. If you can show how you can overcome areas where your match is less than perfect you still have a good chance of being successful.
Requesting feedback
Even if the employer does not want to discuss your personality questionnaire results with you as part of the selection process you may be offered feedback on your results separately. It is considered good practice for employers to offer feedback whenever they use psychometric testing. Feedback may be offered in a number of ways. You may be provided with a written report about your results, the employer may give a telephone number you can call to receive feedback from someone, or you may be able to receive feedback face to face, either during the interview or at another time during the assessment day. Successful candidates may be able to receive feedback after they start work. An example of what a feedback report might look like is included in Chapter 5.
If you are offered the opportunity it is worth taking it up because you can use feedback from a personality questionnaire as a development opportunity. People pay substantial fees to have their personality profiled and to receive feedback, and you have the opportunity to do this at no cost to yourself. There are a number of benefits from receiving feedback on your results. First, you may find the feedback interesting in itself. In one sense the personality questionnaire should not tell you anything you don’t know about yourself – it is based on the information you provided about yourself through your responses – but the way the information is organized and presented may give you a perspective on yourself and your behaviour that provides you with a new insight about yourself.
In addition to your understanding of yourself, the feedback report may also help you appreciate how you might be seen by other people, particularly prospective employers. The report might include some of the implications of your behavioural style for how you work, and you should use this information to consider how you might present yourself more effectively for jobs. The information can also help you appreciate what types of jobs and organizations you might be most suited to. Think about where your personality style contributes positively to your performance but also where it might sometimes obstruct you in doing your job. What could you do to get round the difficulty? How could you show a new employer that you can cope well with the situations and tasks that suit you less well? How can you present your strengths most effectively?
Your personality profile
also has implications for how you approach being a job applicant, how you respond at interview and whether you find the process difficult or exciting. Chapter 4 discussed the implications of some personality traits for behaviour as a job candidate. You might be able to use the information about your own personality profile to understand your strengths and development needs for the role of job candidate. If there are areas where you behavioural style is detracting from your effectiveness in selling yourself, you could look at ways of developing a better approach. For example, introverts could practise singing their own praises, and people low on emotional stability could look at stress-management techniques.
You can also use the feedback to think about your own development more generally. Remember that there are no right or wrong personalities, and it is not that one person has a better personality than another. Rather, it is a matter of the suitability of a behavioural style for a particular field of performance. You can use your personality feedback to think about your behavioural style and how you can use it to best advantage. Are there aspects of your personality that you do not have the opportunity to express in your current line of work? Are there requirements of your current work that your personality makes you less comfortable with? Someone who was quite unsociable and disliked interacting with people would be less comfortable with a job that required a lot of team work or working with people in other ways. An example of a personality trait making a role less convivial for someone might be a computer technician with low sociability whose role included training people to use their computers and providing support when there were computer problems. Such a person might find it quite draining having to work with people a lot of the time and prefer a role where there was more technical work with machines and less with people. On the other hand, an example of an unused personality trait might be a more sociable and friendly computer technician who finds their people skills are little used as they spend all day working with machines.
