Personality Tests

I had to take a personality test for an assignment. These are AWFUL! I understand their logic but they are stripping responsibility from actual managers and employers. Also they often make NO sense. They require people to say whether they strongly disagree, disagree, agree or strongly agree on statements with NO contextual background. Theyr’re emotional cold readings and nothing more. Here are some of the questions I was asked followed by my thoughts:

You take things as they come, rather than think ahead a lot
Well that depends, Mr. Psychologist. What is the situation? Is someone laying dead and bleeding in front of me? Sorry, I have no time to think and I’ll just start reacting. Am I trying to figure out how to simplify a complex situation? I’ll take my time to figure out the best approach on that one. Each situation will give me different outputs. And, since these tests do not take into consideration past performance or experiences so you don’t know if I am someone who is constantly surrounded by crisis or someone who is removed from situations.

You do what you want, no matter what others think
Well that depends. As an aristt: Yes, I do what the fuck i want. As an employer: yes, I do what is right for the company. As an Employee: No, I do not. As an entrepreneur: Yes and No. If my customers said “We want Gobbidy Gooks” but I knew that “Coocoos” were better for them in the long run, I would ignore what they were saying and push the Coocoos, even though educating my customer would require me to force something on my customer and may make my customer feel stressed for a moment.

You have a forceful personality
That depends. Everyone has a degree of forcefulness. But to which degree am I forceful and in which circumstances? I don’t go to the circus and force them to change the acts to appease me, but I do get my way when I want a project to go a certain way. It is relative.

Right now, you care more about having fun than being serious at school or work
Wait, so I can’t have fun AND be serious? When did we enter a world without combination? Let me rephrase this question: Right now, you care more about having cheese than having sauce on your pizza

You hold back from talking a lot in a group
Again, that depends. Yesterday I went to meet some friends at a gallery. I lead the group talk for some time, but let it drop when I wanted to listen to everyone else. Assuming you’re a leader: you spend a lot of time leading groups but you also listen. So there is no “right way” of reading this UNLESS you understand someone’s true background. And, even then, you should be looking at the overall success, interests and motivations of someone before asking something like this.

You have always had good behavior in school or work
No one is perfect. And everyone rebels somewhere. And real leaders have ALWAYS had trouble with authority (otherwise we wouldn’t be leading since everyone would already be in the right spot doing the right things). But, as leaders, you know when to say certain things in certain situations. Saying “I fucked around in school” is not something a potential employer wants to hear (unless you can say “I fucked around a lot to make the place more efficient). Leaders KNOW authority would like to hear someone say “I never get in trouble” but these are NOT the people they REALLY want to hire. I usually hire people with disabilities for simpler tasks and hire rebels for everything else. The rebels have always kept my organizations growing and ahead of the game. And, when I was inherited submissive people, I trained them to behave in rebellious ways. The fact is: you can be a good-natured rebel

You work best at a slow but steady speed
This REALLY depends on the project. Seriously, why is this question in here?

You are careful not to offend people
Who are the people? Am I laying people off? Or am I not offending an employee/employer who has their head up their ass? Negativity is often destroyed through brute effort coupled with offensive actions.

You are more relaxed than strict about finishing things on time
Sigh…. I’m sure you can see where I am going with this.

The fact is: I did the test and I don’t really care how I scored. I decided that I would NEVER take one of these tests again. I would rather die than have to be treated like a computer in a vacuum. My advice to employers: ditch these mechanisms and start trusting your employees more. You’ll get better employers and retain them much longer of you do.