One thing about personality questions is that they are tricky to answer. The employer will ask one thing but the answer will reveal a certain personality trait about the applicant. When the question for instance is: “If you made a mistake, would you admit it even if nobody noticed?” ,and the applicant says no, the employer is most likely to conclude that the applicant is not always honest or that his entries in his resume requires a bit of cross checking.
One technique to make sure you don’t make mistakes in answering these types of questions is to not over-analyse them. When it takes the applicant too much time to answer a question, the employer may take that to mean hesitation which has a negative impact on the application.
Three of the most common Personality Questions are:
- Would you report a fellow employee if they were breaking the rules? — This obviously measures the applicant’s integrity.
- How thorough are you? / Do you complete all your assignments? — This measures an applicant’s reliability
- Is work the most important thing in your life? — Remember that a workaholic can be a liability, but a lazy person is also a liability. So, it is always best for the applicant to think first (not over analysed) before he gives an answer.
Personality Questions were designed to gain insights about the character of the applicant. They also determine whether the applicant is reading the questions carefully. Sometimes, the same Personality Questions are asked over and over again using different sentences, and if the applicant does not read the questions properly, he ends up giving confusing and mismatching answers. Thus Personality Questions measure consistency because consistency gives a positive impression.
