With the influx of college graduates and experienced workers flooding the job market, employers have to look at new methods for effectively evaluating and examining applicants for potential careers within a company. The most fashionable of these methods is called psychometric assessments. This type of testing measures an individual’s personality and ability to find the most suitable person for a particular occupation. This assessment tool can also be used to do the opposite and find the most compatible career for a particular individual. Employers can find this process most useful for recent graduates and for people who have recently made a career change.

A psychometric assessment is a measurement of a person’s personality or individual ability. By asking questions related to preferences, ethics, likes, and dislikes, it can give an employer an insight into the person’s hidden psychology. Also, the assessment can ask questions to test a person’s knowledge and can measure manual dexterity and speed. Psychometric assessment is not a pass/fail test but rather an assessment of a person’s strengths and weaknesses with respect to their personality and ability. The assessment can also be used to measure how a person would act under a particular circumstance or in a given situation.

Employers can use psychometric assessments for a number of reasons. Basically, if two applicants are equally comparable for a particular job, it would be beneficial to those hiring to give a psychometric assessment and decide which of the two is most compatible. Psychometric assessments can also be a tool used when eliminating applicants from a group of people applying for a particular position. If their personalities do not match, or if their abilities are not up to par, employers may look to the results of the assessment to help aid their decision. Although the assessment is not the determining factor when looking to hire, it can be used as a valuable instrument in their evaluation of applicants.

Employers may use personality assessments as means to evaluating a person’s true character. For high-profile jobs or jobs which require plenty of customer or client interaction, a personality assessment may be used to determine whether or not an applicant is of compatible character for the desired position. For other types of jobs, manual dexterity and speed may be important or general knowledge may completely outweigh their desires for a person of a particular personality. In this case, an ability assessment may be issued. This can tell an employer what strengths and weaknesses an applicant possesses and whether or not their general ability and aptitude makes this person a worthy candidate.

Many employers are also using psychometric assessment as a tool for graduate recruiting. This is especially beneficial for employers because often graduates are inexperienced and unsure of their future career goals. Personality and ability assessments in this sense would show the employer many things. First, the graduate’s personality is generally compatible for the job and the graduate would probably not be interested in a career switch later down the road. Second, the graduate’s abilities may be those required by the particular profession and an investment in the graduate would not necessarily be unrewarded.

Employers also find psychometric assessment valuable for applicants who have recently had a drastic career switch. This type of employee may seem to the employer as fickle or unsure of their professional ambitions. It is also possible that such a person may be a liability to the company if the company decides to invest in the person and the applicant decides again that this is not the career for them. In this case, it is beneficial to both the applicant and the employer for the applicant to undergo psychometric assessment process. If the applicant is truly compatible to the job, the results of the assessment may help aid the employer in making their decision to hire.

Psychometric assessments are used by the employer to benefit the company. However, it can actually be beneficial to the applicant as well if the employer is having doubts about their ability to commit and their compatibility. Personality and ability assessments are valuable instruments to a company or business when deciding which of two or more applicants is compatible and the best match for a job.