5 ms·

I once aced an interview before and been told they'd make an offer after this one little Big Five personality test, I think it was called. Fail with no feedback

I once aced an interview before and been told they'd make an offer after this one little Big Five personality test, I think it was called. Fail with no feedback. That's not constructive or actionable. Is that test any better than phrenology or palmistry in practice?

varispeed 4y ago
I wonder why personality tests are not illegal? This is essentially screening for neurodivergent people and facilitation of discrimination based on disabilities.
- jtwaleson 4y ago
  Complicated issue, you also want a diverse, balanced team with different personalities.
- drewcoo 4y ago
  My guess would be not enough lawsuits yet. Until risk to the business increases, a possibly worthless speedbump on the hiring path doesn't hurt hiring and effectively makes more work for the HR manager's team, which means team growth - HR win!
prettyStandard 4y ago
Probably the big 5 personality matrix/dimensions. It's based on statistics to cluster personality questions and answers that tend to cluster together. The acronym most used to remember those dimensions is OCEAN. Openness - how easily you are willing to accept new ideas Conscientiousness - how careful and how hard working you are Extraversion - how quickly you are to engage with the outside world Agreeableness - how quickly you are to agree versus disagree Neuroticism - easily experienced negative emotions Most people aren't a point on the spectrums, they have a range. For example a lawyer might be very disagreeable at work when talking with opposing counsel, but very agreeable when dealing with their children.
- Arch-TK 4y ago
  Most people, without practice, are not a range as wide as "very disagreeable" to "very agreeable", most people are flexible around a point, to a lesser extent if they've never paid attention to how they behave and never tried to directly practice behaving differently.
  - prettyStandard 4y ago
    Agreed. I was just trying to raise the point that people reading my comment should consider their range and the range of others.
  - actsasbuffoon 4y ago
    Sure, though I certainly see pretty wide variances in myself based on my environment. If I’m happy and in a good environment then I tend to be very agreeable. As my stress and unhappiness go up, I tend to get pretty disagreeable. I had one job that was absolutely awful, and to be brutally honest my attitude sucked. I wasn’t as nice to my coworkers as I wish I had been. I wasn’t a complete asshole or anything, and my behavior was never raised with me as being problematic, but I’m not proud of how I acted through that time. But over the course of a fairly long career I’ve gotten a lot of comments about how laid back and friendly I am, and how I tend to go out of my way help people. I like to think that’s who I really am, but I can definitely be unpleasant if I’m miserable.
  - imglorp 4y ago
    This is my question about tests. First, the trait examined is a range and is also situational. Second, your self knowledge of your ranges and situations is also variable and introduces more error. Third, the test introduces more error, it seems. Nobody on this thread has given any evidence this is a useful hiring tool. My impression is hiring is difficult and there's no shortage of companies pretending to solve it with science, but it's not solved and it's not science.
    - prettyStandard 4y ago
      This test addresses some of those problems by not only posing the personality questions to just the person you're trying to study the personality of but also friends and co-workers that know them. You can capture that range there. If you're always a jerk at work but nice at home this would capture that You just have to dig into the details.
jacquesm 4y ago
I love those tests. Any company that administers them automatically fails.
- ubercore 4y ago
  Here in Norway they seem endemic. That ship has sailed, unfortunately.
bitwize 4y ago
Don't forget to Strongly Agree with everything your boss would want to hear and Strongly Disagree with anything that suggests you're a functional human being with goals outside the company's.
- qikInNdOutReply 4y ago
  "I was let go due to resisting a workaholic intervention by my old team."
lotsofpulp 4y ago
> Is that test any better than phrenology or palmistry in practice? As a rule of thumb, if it involves psychology, the answer is always no. Humans do not have the ability to do valid experiments to verify claims, so it is all BS.

varispeed 4y ago

I wonder why personality tests are not illegal? This is essentially screening for neurodivergent people and facilitation of discrimination based on disabilities.

jtwaleson 4y ago
Complicated issue, you also want a diverse, balanced team with different personalities.
drewcoo 4y ago
My guess would be not enough lawsuits yet. Until risk to the business increases, a possibly worthless speedbump on the hiring path doesn't hurt hiring and effectively makes more work for the HR manager's team, which means team growth - HR win!

prettyStandard 4y ago

Probably the big 5 personality matrix/dimensions. It's based on statistics to cluster personality questions and answers that tend to cluster together. The acronym most used to remember those dimensions is OCEAN. Openness - how easily you are willing to accept new ideas Conscientiousness - how careful and how hard working you are Extraversion - how quickly you are to engage with the outside world Agreeableness - how quickly you are to agree versus disagree Neuroticism - easily experienced negative emotions Most people aren't a point on the spectrums, they have a range. For example a lawyer might be very disagreeable at work when talking with opposing counsel, but very agreeable when dealing with their children.

Arch-TK 4y ago
Most people, without practice, are not a range as wide as "very disagreeable" to "very agreeable", most people are flexible around a point, to a lesser extent if they've never paid attention to how they behave and never tried to directly practice behaving differently.
- prettyStandard 4y ago
  Agreed. I was just trying to raise the point that people reading my comment should consider their range and the range of others.
- actsasbuffoon 4y ago
  Sure, though I certainly see pretty wide variances in myself based on my environment. If I’m happy and in a good environment then I tend to be very agreeable. As my stress and unhappiness go up, I tend to get pretty disagreeable. I had one job that was absolutely awful, and to be brutally honest my attitude sucked. I wasn’t as nice to my coworkers as I wish I had been. I wasn’t a complete asshole or anything, and my behavior was never raised with me as being problematic, but I’m not proud of how I acted through that time. But over the course of a fairly long career I’ve gotten a lot of comments about how laid back and friendly I am, and how I tend to go out of my way help people. I like to think that’s who I really am, but I can definitely be unpleasant if I’m miserable.
- imglorp 4y ago
  This is my question about tests. First, the trait examined is a range and is also situational. Second, your self knowledge of your ranges and situations is also variable and introduces more error. Third, the test introduces more error, it seems. Nobody on this thread has given any evidence this is a useful hiring tool. My impression is hiring is difficult and there's no shortage of companies pretending to solve it with science, but it's not solved and it's not science.
  - prettyStandard 4y ago
    This test addresses some of those problems by not only posing the personality questions to just the person you're trying to study the personality of but also friends and co-workers that know them. You can capture that range there. If you're always a jerk at work but nice at home this would capture that You just have to dig into the details.

jacquesm 4y ago

I love those tests. Any company that administers them automatically fails.

ubercore 4y ago
Here in Norway they seem endemic. That ship has sailed, unfortunately.

bitwize 4y ago

Don't forget to Strongly Agree with everything your boss would want to hear and Strongly Disagree with anything that suggests you're a functional human being with goals outside the company's.

qikInNdOutReply 4y ago
"I was let go due to resisting a workaholic intervention by my old team."

lotsofpulp 4y ago

> Is that test any better than phrenology or palmistry in practice? As a rule of thumb, if it involves psychology, the answer is always no. Humans do not have the ability to do valid experiments to verify claims, so it is all BS.