Personality test for a job: how it works

A personality test for a job works differently from a logic test. Nobody marks your answers right or wrong, and there is no score to beat. The test describes how you tend to think, work and react, and the employer compares that with what the role calls for. This guide explains how the common tests are built, what the Big Five model is and how to answer well.

Personality tests in hiring

In a hiring process you often get two kinds of test. One is an ability test, with right and wrong answers and a time limit. The other is a personality test, where you rate statements about yourself. Many employers send both in the same invitation. In Sweden, for example, Nacka municipality uses Assessio’s Matrigma logic test together with the MAP personality test, and the staffing company Academic Work uses Alva Labs’ logic test together with Alva’s personality test.

That means you usually prepare in two ways. You can practice for the logic test. For the personality test, the goal is to know what is coming so you can answer calmly and honestly.

The Big Five model

Most personality tests used in hiring build on the five-factor model, better known as the Big Five. Assessio calls it the most researched and best-supported theory for describing personality. The model describes you with five broad traits:

• Conscientiousness: how organized, thorough and goal-oriented you are.
• Emotional stability: how you handle pressure, setbacks and worry.
• Openness: how curious you are about new ideas, ways of working and experiences.
• Extraversion: how much energy you get from other people and from taking up space.
• Agreeableness: how cooperative and considerate you are toward others.

Each trait is a scale. You land somewhere between two ends, and neither end is better than the other. A Big Five personality test you find online uses the same model, but it is a different test from the one an employer sends you.

MAP, Alva and other tests you may meet

Assessio’s MAP is the personality test you most often meet alongside Matrigma. It describes you on five scales, each with five subscales, and candidates get automatic feedback on their results. Our page about Assessio has more on the company and its tests.

Alva Labs’ personality test describes how you work, communicate and handle challenges, in five dimensions. It takes 12 to 15 minutes, and Alva’s own advice is that your first instinct is usually the most accurate.

Aon also supplies personality tests, often in the same assessment as its ability subtests. If your invitation comes from Aon, the Aon test guide covers the ability part.

Why there are no right answers

Candidates often ask Assessio whether some answers are better than others. Their answer is that it depends on the role. The test measures your natural personality, and different traits matter in different jobs. Someone who likes to take charge can be a great fit for a sales role and struggle in a job that calls for patience and calm, and the other way around.

That is why answering the way you think the employer wants rarely works. You seldom know which profile they are looking for, and if you do guess right, you may land a job that does not suit how you actually work.

How to answer honestly

Answering honestly sounds simple, but a few habits make it easier. Think about how you are on an ordinary workday, not on your best day. Go with your first reaction instead of weighing every word. Stay the same person all the way through, rather than cautious on one statement and bold on the next. And read each statement properly once, so you answer what it actually says.

The instructions for the IPIP questionnaire put it well: describe yourself as you generally are now, not as you wish to be in the future.

Try a free Big Five personality test

Our free personality test uses the IPIP-50, the 50-item Big-Five Factor Markers from the International Personality Item Pool. IPIP is a public domain item bank that researchers use. You see the statements in the original English and rate each one on a five-point scale from Very inaccurate to Very accurate. When you finish, you get your profile on five scales: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness. IPIP itself calls the fifth factor intellect or imagination.

The test does not compare you with a norm group. Your result shows where your answers place you on each scale, not how you rank against other people, so it is not the same as MAP or Alva’s test. Use it to get familiar with the format and to put words to how you tend to work. There is no time limit, no account, and your answers stay in your browser.

Ability tests work the other way. They have right answers, a time limit and task types you can learn to recognize, so practice makes a difference there. If both tests are coming up, spend most of your practice time on the logic part with our free logic test, and read about Matrigma if that is the test you were sent.