You can prepare yourself for employment personality tests by working through as many practice questions and tests as time permits. Practice personality tests are available at various online sites and in several books. Sample personality test resources and test questions appear below.
Practice personality tests
You can find practice personality tests online at such test publisher Web sites as:
Additionally, find practice tests — and leads to others — in a number of books, including the following:
Employment Personality Tests Decoded by Anne Hart with George Sheldon (Career Press, 2007)
*How to Master Psychometric Tests by Mark Parkinson (Kogan Page, UK, 2004)
*Ace the Corporate Personality Test by Edward Hoffman (McGraw-Hill, 2002)
Sample personality test questions
Questions on all types of tests may require uncomfortable yes/no answers. Here are some examples:
Do you believe that children or spouses are far more important than anything?
(Will your family life interfere with your job?)
Do you exercise regularly?
(Are you likely to be a high risk for health insurance?)
Do you still maintain close contact with friends from high school?
(Do you get along with people for long periods of time?)
Have you thought of trying to get even with someone who hurt you?
(Are you vindictive, or can you put hurts behind you?)
Some questions require specific answers, rather than yes or no:
How often do you make your bed?
(Do you clean up after yourself? Are you obsessive about it?)
On average, how often during the week do you go to parties?
(Will you frequently come to work hungover?)
Describe how you see work.
(Do you see work as mandatory or as a way to obtain rewards?)
When you’ve taken a personality test but you weren’t invited to an interview, move on to your next opportunity. Although you’ll probably never learn your test scores or even hear anything back from the employer, your results may have hurt your chances of being hired for the position. If so, the only return you’ll get on your investment of 50 minutes or more of your time is experience gained.