Verified by Acing a Job Test? Not So Fast...
Companies use trick questions in employment personality tests to weed out potential employee disasters that cost time and money.
By Rosemarie Ward published July 1, 2005 - last reviewed on June 9, 2016
Q.
I have never told a lie.
Do you:
A. Strongly disagree
B. Neither disagree nor agree
C. Strongly agree
If you think this sounds like a trick question, you're right.
On a personality test, such questions are designed
to trip up job applicants and discern whether you are telling the truth to a potential employer, say experts.
Many companies use these tests to weed through job applicants and screen out employee disasters in the making, which can cost thousands of dollars in hiring costs, severance pay and lost business. Some 2,000 personality tests are on the market.
Test designers know applicants want to portray themselves in the most positive light. So some test questions, like the one above, take a two-pronged approach to uncovering fakery.
First, they gauge whether you are telling the truth. Never, ever told a lie? Such assertions are a red flag. Secondly, some questions are part of a group of similar, but differently worded questions. Whether you answer consistently determines your score on the test's "lie scale."
The bottom line: Beware of your desire to portray yourself as the perfect applicant. Your best bet may be to follow Mom's old adage: Honesty is the best policy.
