From Myers-Briggs to Buzzfeed quizzes, people rely on personality tests to learn more about themselves, validate strengths, and identify weaknesses.
Some personality tests have professional use cases, too — What career path would make you happiest? Are you the right fit for this job? How do you tend to communicate at work?
Humans are complicated, and the workplace is evolving, so there’s a need to evolve these personality tests as well. That’s where AI comes in.
Let’s explore some of the ways that AI is changing personality tests, and what those changes mean for candidates.
Why is there a need for better personality tests?
Taking personality tests can be difficult, especially when it’s for a job. Do you select your answers based on who you really are? Who you wish you were? Who you think the potential employer wants you to be?
Sometimes the answer choices themselves give too much away, so you can’t go with your first reaction.
Harry Potter fans, this example is for you: If a personality test asks you to choose your favorite animal and offers the options of a lion, a badger, an eagle, and a snake, you already know which option correlates to which Hogwarts house. No matter which animal you truly like most, you might choose a different answer based on the result you want to receive.
In other words, it’s hard to choose a truly honest, unbiased answer when you already know how it will affect your result.
How are AI personality tests different?
First, AI is changing personality tests by making them more accurate and detailed.
By asking more questions and comparing responses to millions of previously collected data points, AI produces more objective, accurate results and makes it more difficult for test-takers to “fake it.”
Additionally, AI provides opportunities to supplement personality tests with other personality assessments. For example, AI can use correlations between people’s personalities and their eye movements to predict personality, and machine learning can identify common traits through what we post on social media.
What does this mean for job candidates?
If you’re looking for a job, you might assume that AI making it more difficult to fake it on personality tests is bad news for you. But that’s not the case.
Imagine this scenario: You’re an experienced sales rep with an impressive resume, applying for a sales position with a new company. You’re asked to take a basic, traditional personality test, and the test results identify you as somewhat introverted.
Based on that aspect of your test results, the employer decides that you’re probably not very good at sales, and eliminates you from the list of candidates despite your other promising attributes.
Sadly, this happens all the time. Flawed personality assessments place people into a few stereotypical categories that don’t capture who they are as a whole person, and employers make judgments from there.
That’s why AI-enhanced personality tests are actually good news for job candidates — they can identify the unique traits that make you a strong candidate, and help potential employers see you for what makes you, you.