sharpshooter2

MAKING IT HAPPEN!

Valued Contributor

What is your opinion on the personality and IQ tests to land a job?

Are you a fan of taking the tests?

Do you think they have merit?

Is it worth trying to study for a personality test?

Should these tests be the reason you do or don't get a job offer?

I have had a great round of interviews at a new company, the Director Sales said they want to make me an offer but I have to complete 2 tests prior to that happening.

I am not a fan of multiple choice and never have been, I tend to get bored with all the questions and speed through. I also am not good at the visual patterns, but stronger in the math portions. The first test is timed, he said it's 45 minutes long, and 50 questions.

Should I stall and see if the offer still arrives after meeting w/ the CEO? OR go ahead and just take it and not worry so much about my score?

https://wonderlic.com/ Wonderlic | The most trusted name in pre-employment assessment - Wonderlic RATED #1 ON G2 Identify talentother companies miss Hire based on potential,not a resume Boost retentionwith fewer bad hires Build more productive teams with the leader in pre-employment assessment. See WonScore Identify people with the most potential to become top performers in your organization. Roll the predictive power of cognitive ability, personality, and motivation assessments … Wonderlic | The most trusted name in pre-employment assessment Read More »

🎙 Interviews/Podcasts

🚀 Career Goals

20

29 comments

Sort by:

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

5

Bravado's Resident Asshole

I have only taken these types of tests outside of employment out of curiosity. Sometimes, they hold their truths to how you learn and how you work. On the flip side, very easily manipulated too.

sharpshooter2

Catalyst

0

MAKING IT HAPPEN!

Exactly, I was a bit surprised to hear they asked for this since this is not my first job!

SaaSam

Politicker

3

Account Executive

The only reason I think these things should come into play during the interview process is if the hiring manager is stuck on two candidates and needs to pick one. If they both stack up evenly from a performance perspective, take personality into account.

Outside of that, it's just wasting the candidates' time.

sharpshooter2

Catalyst

1

MAKING IT HAPPEN!

Thank you, I think I am going to wait until after my interview tomorrow and see if they bring it up again to get an offer. I have over 15 years work history and only worked at 5 places! So not sure exactly why they were requesting this as I also hold 3 degrees.

SaaSam

Politicker

1

Account Executive

No offense but the reality is your degrees don't really mean much in the world of sales outside of showing that you tend to commit to finishing things. Degree requirements for sales positions are super outdated and typically a red flag that the organization is not very forward thinking.

Emphasize your achievements as a sales professional. College degrees are more of a garnish on your resume and not at all the main dish.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

3

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Not a fan, but I've not yet ever been asked to take one, so what do I know?

jefe

Arsonist

1

🍁

Never?! That's shocking tbh

CuriousFox

WR Officer

3

🦊

No I'm not a fan and no I don't think they have any merit. You can game the system too, just sayin. 🤷‍♀️

jefe

Arsonist

1

🍁

They claim differently. I think many of the short/simple ones you can, but I've done some pretty massive ones that approach things so many damn angles it'd be REALLY tough.

jefe

Arsonist

2

🍁

I've been trying to find time to reply to this as I've worked for 2 companies that sold these.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan. They tend to oversimplify a lot of complexities to neatly categorize everyone into a bucket.

Both I worked for had personality as well as cognitive aptitude tests- NOT IQ tests. IQ isn't a big determiner of anything. But the cognitive side was to indicate how quickly only picks up new concepts, and ideally help companies hire people with a shorter learning curve that will ramp up higher.

I've also done several. I was helped by one earlier in my career, that nailed several things on the head, but also really missed the mark.

They're supposed to be highly validated from a psychological perspective, and thus accurate and not able to be gamed. Good ones are, apparently, too varied to allow the latter.

BUT I don't think they properly capture those that are neurodivergent, and I think they just try to make things too neat and pretty with their classifications.

The behavioural side's big use cases were fitting into a company culture, a team/department's culture, and providing a well rounded group of 'types' to allow the best performance. Additionally, they are supposed to help you understand how to coach and manage that individual.

In my opinion, they're rather outdated and take up a ton of time and add a lot of stress to the hiring process. Companies should be focusing on shortening that and reducing friction to hire, especially for sales.

They're too often used a crutch for inexperienced hiring managers with no EQ.

tl;dr - too simplistic and add unnecessary time and difficulty to the hiring process. Also IQ is BS

sharpshooter2

Catalyst

0

MAKING IT HAPPEN!

My last position I did take a test which they told me I scored among the highest they has ever seen. So not overly worried, I do well in math and pretty good with visual patterns. I wish I didn't need to take an unpaid hour to take it!

jefe

Arsonist

1

🍁

At least that probably made you feel good!

But such a waste of time.

Gasty

Notable Contributor

2

War Room Community Manager

@sharpshooter2: I once heard about a research claiming that job interviews (especially for a manager+ position) are absolutely useless. Probability of success/failure of the manager has nothing to do with how well/unwell they did in the interview. I have a keen interest in human psychology and truly believe the Big 5 personality trait model is as close to accurate as anything could be.

sharpshooter2

Catalyst

0

MAKING IT HAPPEN!

so true!

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

1

Sales Rep

I am not a fan of those, they vary so much on the mood you are in and only tells you who you want to be not who you really are.

sharpshooter2

Catalyst

0

MAKING IT HAPPEN!

I agree, I am taking the test today since the last interview went well and I do see myself working here long term.

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

1

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

Unless this is a huge corporate and they are looking for vetting reasons, it doesn’t matter. These test are a way to push people out of the process that someone doesn’t like for whatever reason.

NotCreativeEnough

Big Shot

1

Professional Day Ruiner

dumbest thing in their world. If the recruiter at a company asks you to do it, its a pretty good sign either they or the hiring manager have no idea how to hire, so they add extra steps into the process as a way to give off the impression that they have some awesome method for hiring only the best candidates.

The worst ones are the ones who say "this has no impact on whether or not you're hired".... then why do I have to do it as part of the interview process?

Anything other than an interview, and maybe a mock demo or presentation, makes me think that you're just bad at your job as a hiring manager and clueless on how to actually find good candidates

sharpshooter2

Catalyst

0

MAKING IT HAPPEN!

It was rather shocking since this is for an AE position with another sales partner. The product is very applicable to the market and they are doing really well for a small company.

draculina

Fire Starter

0

process development specialist

I took one while I was fresh out of depths of depression. It was like “put these in order from the most applicable to the least applicable”. If i found it applicable the most, i put it in the bottom. They didn’t suspect a thing.

One question was, and i vividly remember, “nothing i do at work matters”. I remember, because it was the exact same phrase i used to describe my experience at my then-current place.

HappyGilmore

Politicker

0

Account Executive

I think these types of tests are good for understanding personality traits on a personal level and doing this out of natural curiosity, but don't think they have any merit or place when it comes to interviewing for a job.

GDO

Politicker

0

BDM

Huge hocuspocus

sharpshooter2

Catalyst

0

MAKING IT HAPPEN!

I agree!! No test can sum up a person with just 50 questions.

Pachacuti

Politicker

0

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

My last company made me take those types of tests. Kinda pointless. I was told (after I was hired) they use the tests to make sure they don’t hire certain types of people. But only very rarely did they not hire someone based on those tests.

Angusmacg

Valued Contributor

0

Territory Account Mgr.

Every single one I took I never got the job. I now refuse to complete one until and offer is on the table

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

0

Rolling 20's all day

Personality plays into how you get along with the team and organization, but I don't think an IQ test would be appropriate.

Kirby

Politicker

0

Sales Representative

I’ve never made it past one of those lol. I suck at the visual-spatial quizzes. I’m smart but not with geometry and math, which are both fucking irrelevant to sales. Okay, I might be dumb, but I can still sell.

Cabbie

Good Citizen

0

AE (Account Executive)

Hey mate, Psychology grad here - personality psych studies are notoriously difficult to replicate, and should only ever be used in controlled studies to measure specific trends. Even then with a grain of salt.

The only reasonable explanation I can think of for organisations to use them is that they get a huge volume of candidates and need to arbitrarily cull some.

I imagine IQ tests have even less to do with anything sales-related; unless you're selling yourself as a stand-in for other people taking IQ tests.

Until next time! *whooshes off into the sunset*

kelvin26

Fire Starter

0

administrative manager

Invest and earn weekly by staking bitcoin assets with timebrook investment. Take your time to verify their credibility before investing
https://timebrookinvestment.com/u/sign_up?r=kryptotitan

https://t.me/+L_3GDbXlz904MDg0

Bravado is a community of trusted sales professionals endorsed by their customers.

Products

The War Room Jobs Salary Guide Tech Sales U

Company

About Us How It Works Blog Bug Bounty

Contact

© 2024 Bravado Inc. All rights reserved.

Privacy Policy Legal and Privacy Center Sales Jobs

If you are hired as a contract sales rep by a Bravado customer, we may ask you to prove access to the employee email account provided to you by that customer. This data will be shared with customers to track your sales productivity; customers can use this data to confirm you meet the minimum activity requirements to pay out your ramp stipend and commission.