Psychological testing can benefit job seeker

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When a company is seeking a candidate to fill a key position, it may take extra precautions to ensure a sound hiring decision.

These precautions frequently include sending the top candidate(s) to a psychologist for an evaluation. Some companies would rather shell out the cash for these tests (ranging from $300-$500 in the Midwest) than run the risk of hiring a person who may prove to be an expensive or embarrassing mistake.

Psychological evaluations, when done by a qualified, impartial third party, can provide important insights that interviews and observation by less trained personnel cannot uncover. They can also confirm an employer's impression of a candidate or provide new data that needs to be explored.

Dear Joan:
I am a manager in the public relations field, and I have been interviewing with several corporations in the Midwest. I have been told by one company that they may want to send me to a psychologist for an evaluation before they make their final decision. My question is, "How can I prepare for an evaluation like this?"

Answer:
Contrary to what you may expect, an evaluation of this type can be an interesting, beneficial experience. As Kelly Conrad, consulting-organizational psychologist with Humber, Mundle and McClary, points out, "Most people are surprised to learn that the evaluation is a positive experience because one of its purposes is to help the individual and the company capitalize on their strengths rather than just to screen them out."

In many cases, the content of a job is adjusted to obtain a good match with a candidate's capabilities.

There is some preparation you can do for an evaluation of this type. The advice offered by the psychologists I questioned was to approach the evaluation like any other interview.

Bill Henderson, manager of human resources planning and development for Allen-Bradley, recommends that you get plenty of rest, review your accomplishments and do an analysis of your goals and values to identify how they relate to the position for which you are being considered.
Psychologists are much more concerned about your motivations, achievement orientation, and how well prepared you are for the job than your scores on a batter of test.

"Your best bet is to relax and be yourself," according to Burton Silberglith, clinical psychologist in private practice, "because who you are inside will emerge anyway, so why preoccupy yourself with weighing each word? It's the only way a psychologist can determine if the job is a good match for you."

Companies use evaluations like these to explore areas that are difficult to observe in an interview but are critical to success on this job.

Psychologists are only interested in the psychological factors as they related to the job, not your technical qualifications. Such factors include an analysis of certain "dimensions" of managerial performance. To give you a better idea of what these dimensions encompass, I've outlined some of them for you.

Intelligence
This is a measure of how you use your learning and reasoning skills to solve problems, not a measure of your IQ or your level of education.
You may be asked to complete a timed test to see how stress affects your performance. Remember, you wouldn't be this far along in the interview process if the company didn't think you were intelligent.

Communication Capability
Many technically specialized managers have weaknesses in some facet of communication, and psychologists will provide companies with strategies to develop the chosen candidate. Because communication skills are so important in the public relations field, you are likely to be closely examined and tested in this area.

Emotional Organization
This dimension is evaluated in such terms as your level of self-confidence, self-control, etc. Your "achievement motivation" is strongly linked to projected success on the job. Be positive and enthusiastic.

Human Relationships
Sometimes a short questionnaire is used as a springboard for questioning candidates in both work-oriented and non-work relationships. Depending on the job, your effectiveness in working with teams or one-on-one may be explored.

Work Motivation
Psychologists consult with the company to determine what kinds of work the candidate will be expected to do. For a good match to be achieved, your motivations must suit the responsibilities, relationships and reward system of the job. The psychologist will be examining the job satisfactions that motivate you to give a top performance.

Leadership
If you will be supervising others, this becomes an area of focus for the examiners. They may ask you to talk through some of your most successful and or difficult leadership experiences to determine your predominant style of dealing with others.

Goals and Aspirations
Here, too, you can do some preparation. As one psychologist put it, "One thing most good managers have in common is the ability to do long-range thinking. If they haven't considered how this job fits into their long-term plans, they will appear weaker in this area." In the end, the hiring decision still rests with the company. Psychologists will rarely tell a company not to hire a candidate.

Do you need answers to tough job hunting questions?  Are you looking for some added punch to help you stand out from the crowd?  Joan Lloyd’s has developed job hunting tools that can help you to maximize your job search:

Savvy Negotiation Strategies to Get Paid What You’re Worth on a New Job (Detailed, special report)
Easy, Step-by-step Guide to Using the Internet to Land a Great Job (Detailed, special report)
The Resume that Gets Results and the Interview that Gets the Job (37 page, detailed instructions)