There is nothing in the world that can make an applicant feel happier than knowing than passing the pre-employment test of a job or company that they so desperately want after weeks, if not months of preparation.
Unfortunately, these hopes are almost immediately dashed when they are told that they have to take and pass the Wonderlic Personality Test.
More often than not, a lot of otherwise competent and excellent would-be employees are given less priority or outright rejected because their Wonderlic Personal Characteristics Inventory (PCI) does not match the profile that their would-be employer had in mind for the position that they are applying for.
That’s right! Even with the best of credentials and an impressive resume or interview, highly ‘qualified’ applicants are turned away just because they didn’t do well in this Wonderlic test.
So, if you have to take this very particular personality test, know that you should do it right the first time because it may as well be the only thing that’s stopping you from landing that job compared to other candidates.
That being said, let’s take at a few things that can help you pass the Wonderlic Personality Test.
Research the ‘motto’ of the company!
Source: aston.ac.uk
“There are actually a lot of good ‘applicants’ out there, but there are only a handful of people that can show that they can be an employee of ‘ours’”
That is usually the response of various hiring managers’ answers when asked why they have to turn down ‘incompatible’ candidates.
In essence, although they can see that the applicant has a lot of skill and experience, their Wonderlic personality test results, if they were terrible, would warn them that said applicant would not fit both the company culture and the desired employee attitude for the position that they are applying for.
This can range from the person having a Wonderlic personality test result showing that they are too standoffish for a position that that requires them to be highly sociable and have good interpersonal skills or being too lackadaisical or having a ‘good enough’ outlook when it comes to their workmanship when the job requires them to be highly meticulous to prevent any mistakes or unacceptable quality to go through the production line.
Believe it or not, you’d be surprised to discover that a lot of companies are forced to turn away highly competent or qualified candidates who could have succeeded and grow with them through the years but failed to show their compatibility with their core values.
The main reasoning behind this is that they wouldn’t want to risk hiring an applicant with a terrible attitude or work ethic as doing so may affect both their operations and reputation in the long run.
As a result, it will be very vital for you to do cursory research on their mission, vision, and core values.
Such things are usually available online or displayed at the office or reception’s area of the company. Keep these things in mind and you will be able to triangulate which qualities they are looking for in a candidate when you take the personality test.
Do not believe the advice that ‘there are no right/wrong answers’
When applicants are made to take the Wonderlic personality test, they are briefed by the interviewer or the hiring manager that they should answer: as honestly as possible, pick the choices that come to mind, or that there are no right or wrong answers in the test.
Although these stipulations are technically ‘correct’, this is far from the truth.
In conjunction with the first tip that we have provided, while there are no right or wrong answers in the exam, your personality profile results will all depend on your answers, and each statement can either house a ‘preferred’ trait or an ‘unwanted’ trait as defined by the company.
So if you answered in the affirmative in statements containing the ‘unwanted’ trait/s, you can be sure that your application will be ignored or given less preference over another applicant’s.
Given the nature of the Wonderlic personality assessment, where you have to do a survey-type exam with a likert-like scale format, it is virtually impossible for you to know which are the exact ‘correct’ answers.
However, by taking a look into the motto of the company that you are interested in, you can deduce what sort of personality traits they’re looking for in an employee while paying close attention to the job listing’s requirements and what duties they entail can
Avoid picking too many ‘extreme’ choices and statements.
Source: pexels.com
Although this may vary from company to company and how they configure their preferred profile, one thing that you should be wary of is selecting too many ‘extreme’ choices or statements.
Let’s take a look at two good examples:
“I am known to always arrive at least an hour before a meeting”“I am a very punctual person”
For simplicity’s sake, let’s say that you got the “yes/no” format of the Wonderlic Personality Test instead of the likert scale format.
Now, from those two statements, let’s say that you answered ‘yes’ to both, because they both aim to show that you are someone that can come to work early and won’t miss important meetings, right?
While this may be your intention, once your prospective employer takes a look at your results and checks which statements you agree with, there is without a doubt that their thoughts will be: “You’re someone that’s very punctual and ALWAYS arrive AT LEAST an hour early before a meeting?”
From here, you can see that they can easily misunderstand that you are someone that’s purposefully trying to make themselves look better by manipulating your answers to only show positive ones or if you are purposefully avoiding all the negative ones.
Source: czechuniversities.com
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t choose ‘extreme’ statements at all, however, only ones that may produce an exaggeration of one’s qualities.
Alternatively, this also applies for ‘neutral’ choices, especially in the likert-scale format of the assessment.
Should you choose too many neutral choices, your would-be employer will be warned by the algorithm of the exam that you are possibly playing it too safe and that you cannot be trusted.
In summary, this personality test, while tricky to land the first time you encounter it, is still something that everyone can overcome with a bit of hard work, diligence, and lots of practice. If you want to be more familiar and prepared, you can get more information about the Wonderlic Personality Test at WonderlicTestPrep.
