Psychometric tests

Aptitude tests (sometimes just called psychometric tests) may be set by an employer to determine your skillset, knowledge and ability in particular areas.

Personality questionnaires ask questions about your interests, values and motivations, through which recruiters can analyse if your personality fits in well with the ethos, service area and cause of the organisation.

It is likely that you will complete these tests at home at your own computer early on in the recruitment process, although you may also be required to complete them at an assessment centre. These are generally made up of lots of very short statements where you are required to indicate how strongly you agree with each one. There are no right or wrong answers, and you are unlikely to be strictly timed.

The employer will gain an insight into your personality to see if it matches what they are looking for in an employee. However, do not try and tailor your responses to what you think will be favourable. It is impossible to tell what employers are looking for in candidates on this level, and there are built-in checks to ensure your answers are consistent (you may notice that similar questions come up multiple times) – these tests can be a clever way to judge your integrity, as well as your personality. An employer is trying to work out how you do things, not how well.

In preparation, you can familiarise yourself with the format, but as the tests are entirely based on your honest responses, you don’t need to practice to improve your chances of being successful.

Another personality measure is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and similar tests. Although there is growing scepticism about their usefulness, an employer may ask you to complete a test like this.

Situational Judgement Tests (SJTs)

SJTs are multiple-choice tests which give an employer an idea of how you behave under certain circumstances, where you will be presented with a scenario and multiple possible responses.

These tests are usually done online. They will usually occur early in the recruitment process, often from your own home computer as part of the application form. On the web page, you will be presented with a scenario and multiple possible responses.

You may be asked to select the one response which most fits in with your working style, or to rank the responses in order of your own personal preference, or mark which you would be most and least likely to do.

As with personality tests, you cannot practice for this in the same way you would a verbal or numerical test as there are no strict right and wrong answers but it is objective. Be as truthful as possible – if you do not score highly, this may usefully indicate that you would not enjoy the role, so it is best to be honest. However, you can see online examples at Assessment Day.