How important is personality test for young people looking for a job?
As if overnight, social networks were swept away by the results of the MBTI test.
How do we view personality tests in the job search process, and how much can we trust the MBTI?
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In recent gatherings, the ice-breaking topic is no longer just constellations and zodiac signs, and the MBTI personality test has also been added to the group chat.
People who test ENTJ-A are bold, imaginative and strong-willed leaders; ESFJ-A people are extremely compassionate and helpful…
As if overnight, social networks were swept away by the results of the MBTI test.
This is by no means the only way to test personality. Enneagram tests, youth personality tests, etc. have been widely spread, and some have even become a necessary part of recruitment assessment.
When Si Si, who is now a company HR, first entered the workplace, the company must do a personality test when recruiting.
"At that time, a candidate's assessment results showed that he was in a state of severe anxiety. The candidate was very irritable after seeing the results: why do you use this result to define me? This is an insult to my personality!"
Ning Ying, a girl born in 1995, must take a personality test when she is looking for a job.
"I feel that I have figured out the routine, and I can answer 'what I want', and I can definitely show a perfect personality."
Wang Fan, a senior Internet practitioner, believes that information overload has prompted the widespread use of personality tests in recruitment, because it can give an answer about "matching".
So, do personality tests matter when young people are looking for jobs?
Test personality traits and job fit
Media person Li Ke can be called a "personality test maker". Since she started looking for a job as a senior, she has done at least 20 sets of personality tests.
From being serious at the beginning to being indifferent now, Li Ke said that he was already "numb".
For example, how do you feel when an urgent and complicated job disrupts your vacation plan?
Options include: Very Angry, Somewhat Angry, Fair, Somewhat Calm, Very Calm.
"This kind of question is a test of your attitude towards emergencies and how obvious the result is."
In a certain job search, Li Ke was eliminated after the "CEO interview". The reason given by HR was: you have strong work ability, but your personality is a little introverted. The president has some doubts about this.
Li Ke doesn't think that "introversion" can be used as a reason for rejection, but he can't do anything about the result of being brushed off.
Lian Chuande, a professor at Beijing Information Technology University, a national senior vocational instructor, and the first batch of certified supervisors of the Chinese Mental Health Association, introduced that there are two main methods of personality measurement in psychology: self-report scale method and projective test method. At present, many young job seekers Most of the tests encountered belong to the former - the subjects answer these questions one by one according to their actual situation, and the other party measures the degree of the subjects' performance on this personality trait according to the subjects' answers.
Lian Chuande said that the classic personality trait tests, including the Big Five Personalities, the Cartel 16PF test, etc., the popular MBTI test shows more abundant personality traits.
"From the perspective of the competency characteristics of recruiting people, the competency characteristics include ability factors, as well as personality factors, or personality factors." Psychological testing can help detect job applicants' "personality characteristics and job matching", but this is also a comprehensive the result of consideration.
"It doesn't mean that those who are extroverted can't do research and development, and those who are introverts can't do sales."
"People can't be expressed by a single personality. There may be three or four personalities in a person." Wang Fan, an Internet company operator who has many years of business interview experience, believes that personality type only means that a person is more prominent in a certain aspect, and has a certain aspect. Certain defects.
"But it's hard to say that this kind of prominence or deficiency necessarily means that you are competent or incompetent."
Personality tests should be stepping stones, not stumbling blocks
"The results of MBTI are not a stumbling block to hinder our development, but a stepping stone for us to better explore ourselves and understand ourselves." said Gao Yan, associate professor at the School of Education, Beijing Normal University Zhuhai Campus, MBTI does not emphasize the right and wrong of each dimension. That is, it emphasizes that each characteristic is present in everyone, but which one is more dominant. "On the contrary, it is more flexible to adopt appropriate behaviors in different situations, and it is possible to obtain better results. ".
Gao Yan believes that young people looking for a job "don't have to meet the needs of the job on the personality test".
"If you pass the screening and get an unsuitable position, it will not be good for long-term development. Expressing the most normal self, even if the other party screens you out, is not necessarily a bad thing." Gao Yan said.
From the perspective of employers, we should pay attention to the core value of MBTI - "it is better to use it in communication than in screening." Personality tests should help employers understand the style and characteristics of each job seeker, so as to find "teamwork" the most suitable scene".
Sisi, who has worked for nearly 10 years, now has experience in recruiting in many companies.
"According to different positions, the proportion of personality tests in the entry decision will be different." Si Si, for example, if the position is graphic design, editing, high-tech positions, the company will follow its past works and resumes. to decide.
If it is a position of public relations, assistant to the president, and the work ability and personality assessment results are strongly related, the company will increase the proportion of personality in the entry decision-making.
There is no good or bad character, "there is no company that completely rejects a person of a certain character".
Tian Yizhe is a human resources specialist of an Internet company who has just entered the workplace. Although the company has not carried out a personality test at present, it is in the process of advancing.
Tian Yizhe said that during the interview process, the company attaches great importance to the assessment of candidates' personality and three perspectives, accounting for about 40% of the entry decision-making.
Generally speaking, mature, optimistic, cheerful, outgoing people are more popular, and people with withdrawn, sensitive, lazy and other personalities will be more carefully considered by the company.
But this is not absolute. The company will not decide the result of employment just because of a person's personality. Whether to recruit or not needs to be analyzed in combination with the position.
Tian Yizhe said that the original intention of the personality test is to avoid risks, but also to be responsible to candidates.
"If the character is not suitable for the company or the position, the candidate will also feel pain after entering the job, and both parties will suffer."
Correct and scientific use of personality test "tools"
"Everyone has begun to pay attention to the personality factor, which is a good thing. Scores can only represent the ability factor, and ultimately it depends on whether the person can create value in society. This is very important." Lian Chuande also pointed out, "Scientifically tested "The personality test can have high validity and is suitable for use as a "tool" for selecting talents in the workplace, while "casual" questions and judgments are unfair.
Lian Chuande said: "It's understandable that companies use it (personality test) to recruit people. But it can't be measured accurately, it depends on the tool itself."
Regarding the questions of the personality test, Sisi suggested that the company should not use the questions that have been completely determined on the market and that everyone knows well to conduct the test.
"The company I have experienced before uses a relatively scientific evaluation method, which combines several test questions with different logical relationships. There is logic between the questions, and you can't clearly know which answer the company needs. Yes." Sisi said that before the evaluation, she will communicate with candidates and answer according to the real situation, and the company will also comprehensively look at the evaluation results when making an entry decision.
The original intention of the company to conduct personality tests is to comprehensively understand the situation of team members, so that the existing team members can form a model of "learning from each other's strengths and complementing their weaknesses".
"If everyone is introverted, then there needs to be an extroverted person to adjust. If the team members are rational, then a perceptive person is needed to cohere the team atmosphere." Si Si said.
Gao Yan said that when companies choose to use personality tests as one of the recruitment tools, they must pay attention to the training of test users.
Every personality test has its own context and criteria.
"If employer test takers are not trained, there may be problems with misuse, such as labeling a candidate 'introverted' or 'extroverted' based on a single score and outcome, which is likely to be similar to their Actual performance is very different.”
Gao Yan said: "Lifelong development theory believes that personality types develop gradually before the age of 25, and will tend to be stable around the age of 25, but it does not mean that they will never change. So the results of MBTI are only a certain part of people's life. A particular preference for time, it's not set in stone, and we don't need to be framed by it."
(At the request of the interviewee, Sisi, Wang Fan, Tian Yizhe, Li Ke, and Ning Ying are all pseudonyms)
China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily reporter Shen Jiequn Trainee reporter Li Danping