According to latest studies, the first impression in made in 3 to 7 seconds. It takes that much time for some employers to decide whether to hire you or not. The remaining 20 minutes of the conversation is for confirming the first impression! This is the reason we insist on testing!

Prompted by many questions sent to www.selekcija.hr I will try to see this, in many aspects strenuous and painful (for the candidates) and demanding and expensive (for the employers) process from two perspectives (one of a psychologist who is doing the staff selection, but also of a candidate in the selection process).

Further on, based on my expert experience in candidate selection, I will try to explain to the candidates – competitors, how and why we choose certain candidates, and others not.

Namely, lately I have been getting a lot of e-mails from people who feel bad because they went through a couple of selection processes (or just testing) in smaller companies, but also in bigger ones in Croatia and who want to know what to do so that the same thing doesn’t happen again, so, to take the test, fail it, expect the answer they never get and feel bad again.

A question arises: why am I answering candidates that were tested by someone else? Well, here are a couple of answers:

1. As a psychologist I am becoming more and more aware that young people, after going through numerous selection processes, have their self-confidence shattered and they don’t believe in their own abilities and the need for help from an expert or support is often emphasized.
2. As a person or a candidate in the selection process, I know how I felt (in that role) and I didn’t look for an answer because I was angry, afraid, sad, vain or something else.
3. As an entrepreneur/expert who is thinking about his work in the future I know it is important to answer every inquiry and show respect to people who are trying to find an answer, but not succeeding in it.

Questions we received at www.selekcija.hr are as follows:

1. How can I get selection tests and other variations on this question, for example
   • Could you, please, send me the tests on the following address …
   • I’m working on my MA thesis, so I would kindly ask you to send me all the tests …
   • Send me the tests, I will pay for them …
2. How is it possible they did not send me the results of the tests?
3. Is it possible they use these kinds of tests for this position?
4. They didn’t give me anything to sign, how will I know where my results are going?
5. Why aren’t they telling me anything?
6. I’m sick of everything, I keep getting rejection letters and I feel bad, what am I suppose to do?
7. Could you send me a test or a questionnaire so I could select a good candidate for a school psychologist position?
8. Do you have some tests on which I can practice, I need it for work?
9. If I failed the test, what does that mean? That I’m not very intelligent?
10. Dear Sir, can I order the tests for a certain work? Also, I am also interested in the technique of conducting the tests and analyzing results.
11. I have a degree from Law school and I applied for a job of a legal assistant in a company. I am interested in what type of test are conducted at such occasions, I heard they are personality tests and IQ tests, but I want to know something more about this.

In the previously listed questions we can see insecurity, uncertainty, need for control, fear of failure, hopelessness, sadness and disappointment. I answered all of these questions, sometimes even with a long e-mail, but usually like this:

• I apologized because I am obliged by law to keep the tests a secret,
• Alongside support because of disappointment or sadness I recommended some sort of counseling,
• I expressed my support to colleagues who did the test and explained the procedure,
• I expressed my support for the candidates because of the medieval selection methods they (unfortunately) participated in …

I would like to use this opportunity to ask other HR experts who are taking part in the selection processes, to use their answers to help candidates who are feeling confused and sad and don’t trust themselves, because this sometimes leads to depression!

You have to know the following on selecting the candidates:

1. According to latest studies, the first impression in made in 3 to 7 seconds. It takes that much time for some employers to decide whether to hire you or not. The remaining 20 minutes of the conversation is for confirming the first impression! This is the reason we insist on testing!
2. Every day I test from ten to twenty people. And every day there are times when I make a mistake in assessing the abilities of certain people. And I believe I am one of the best people in my line of business! This is the reason I find funny employers who believe they can assess the intelligence (for example, of their candidates) who make mistakes according to their assessments. And you think you’re not smart enough?
3. A great number of employers finished the interview in 2 to 3 minutes, because they don’t know what to ask their candidates or they don’t know how to conduct an interview! Not because they competently assessed that you are not fit for the job position! Sometimes all the employers know is that they need a good worker, but the often don’t know how to define one!
4. A large number of employers finish the interview in 2 to 3 minutes, because they have extremely conservative or rigid attitudes or beliefs.
   For example, one of the employers automatically dismissed all the candidates whose CVs were not aligned, because for him this was a reflection of the candidates’ untidiness! One of employers dismissed female candidates with long finger nails and other male candidates with long hair!
5. Most of the employers select the candidates based on their own preferences – having nothing to do with professional assessments, but rather with personal experiences and defined patterns of people they knew in life… So, what often happens is that you get dismissed because (unconsciously) in you they recognize a person they had unpleasant experiences with or they don’t trust.
6. Sometimes employers ask pointless questions having nothing to do with a quality assessments and the candidates believe there is something important in this! Catch 22?!
7. There was a case when selekcija.hr was hired in order to cover up (political) connections in the employment. Unfortunately, we only found out about this after doing our job and recommending the most suitable candidates, who, of course, were not accepted! A bad feeling.
8. Sometimes genius people (both intelligent and with amazing personality traits) apply for the job, but they are completely not motivated for the job they applied for. They want this position because they believe they can overcome the current state of affairs, while they actually want something better/more. This can be easily spotted. And every time a contract is terminated (no matter who initiated it) the employer loses money, so we cannot play with it… we have to be serious. – both parties have to!
9. Sometimes genius people (both intelligent and with amazing personality traits) apply for the job, but they are not prepared for the interview at all. It is very important to get all the information on the company and work place, to know how to present yourself – both verbally and nonverbally. …
10. Sometimes people who are perfect in every way apply for the job, but they don’t know how to use the computer and the Internet! Even in this day and age? Yes.
11. Sometimes quality people apply for the job, but they are simply not fit for that specific position. I know that later they are mad, sad, they regret and complain, but that decisions was made for their own good, which probably sounds completely absurd to them while they are reading the rejection letter!

For example, one extremely extraverted candidate (person focused onto company and who easily approaches people he doesn’t know, a person who likes to be the centre of attention) applied for a position where he would have to spend 10 days in the office, with a huge stack of files, alone! But he was extremely intelligent!

How explain to such a man that he cannot get the job – but that he should be persistent and that he will find a suitable workplace!? How would you explain to a person who is nice and smart that he would simply burn out at a job without people who are extremely important to him (because of his personality)? How to explain this? Because, whatever you say to them the seed of doubt remains, not trusting your own abilities remains, sadness, disappointment…

Take me as an example, I (at the beginning of my career) was angry and sad, I even sent a complaint to one company where a person got the job because of connections, and now, after a lot of time, I am grateful I didn’t get that job! By the way, a colleague who is working there is burning out on the job, talks about mobbing, sick competition within the company and so on.

I had a similar experience with two other job positions I applied for and got into the inner circle and now I am happy I didn’t get the job, because of the life I had, the job I created and which I enjoy and in which I thrive. Or to put it simply: „Every cloud has a silver lining…“

At the end of this post, if you are unemployed, with all my heart I wish that you quickly find a good job in which your potential will be set free, which will make you happy and in which you will thrive professionally.

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…cognitive test give information on what people can do, and personality test tell us what people want to do …

In the practice of selection cognitive tests and personality tests are most commonly used. Using cognitive test psychologists test the intelligence – whether it is general, or its factors (for example, spatial, verbal, numerical). With personality test we test how a person behaves in a certain situation.

In the 1980’s American military services examines the process of selection within the framework of the biggest and most expensive research on this topic. The results showed that cognitive tests give us information on what people can do, and personality test show what people will do (Cook and Cripps 2009).

Cognitive tests can be divided into general cognitive ability tests and specific ability tests. This group of tests is good at predicting work efficiency and is thus used regularly in the selection process.

General cognitive ability test can almost always be included into the selection process. The application is fast and simple, and analyzing the results easy. Type of questions are usually logical reasoning, finding out the rule behind the sequence, finding out differences and similarities. This type of tests is best at predicting whether the person will be successful at the workplace where the tasks cannot be performed routinely, but rather where one needs to adjust to new tasks all the time. But, there are exceptions in the application of this type of cognitive test. It’s in the case when all the candidates’ abilities are similar (for example, all the candidates have advanced vocational training), so this type of test actually does not have any value.

Also, when there is the chance of a person being biased towards an ethnic group or other sub-group of the population, general cognitive ability test is not the best solution. Actually, studies show that people from certain minorities got lower scores on these types of tests. This is also the case with people from certain socio-economical groups (according to Cooper and Robertson, 2007). However, it is important to emphasize the following – despite the possible unfavorable effect of the test to some groups of people, the test is fair if it predicts job performance of all the groups the same.

Examples of specific ability tests are tests that measure perceptive, spatial, verbal and numerical factors. The test measuring the perceptive factor refers to the measure of the ability to quickly and accurately identify a shape. The test measuring the spatial factor refers to measuring the ability to depict and envisaging the layout of a certain area and objects in 2 or 3 dimensions. Numerical tests measure the ability to perform simple numerical operations which do not require thinking and the verbal ones measure the scope of one’s vocabulary and the identification of antonyms and synonyms.

The “popular” bias of specific tests refer to sex. Everybody knows that the results women get are in average higher on those tests measuring verbal skills, while the results men get are higher on those measuring spatial skills. Even the titles of various books on the differences between sexes talk about his (for example: „Why men don’t listen and women cannot read maps? “). We have to emphasize that the fact that women get higher scores at verbal tests and men at spatial tests does not mean that all women are better at verbal skills and all men are better at spatial skills. The distribution of results for every sex are overlapping and a man’s above-average result measuring verbal factor is far better than an average result by a woman on such a test.

It is true that cognitive abilities are extremely important, but not good enough for job efficiency. Terman’s study refers to the connection of intelligence and efficacy in life in general. He and his associates observed 1500 children whose IQ was over 140 and studied them for 40 years. The study showed that, when the children from the group grew up, although they were superior when looking at the average, not everyone succeeded in life, because of differences in personality, motivation and social adjustment. This study showed exactly how important personality is.

There are many personality tests, but a few of them are created to be applied in the area of organizational psychology. Also, there are different ways of assessing personality and the most popular ones are questionnaires and they are used in selection process. A questionnaire comprises of questions or claims on thoughts, feeling and behavior.

Personality questionnaires can be a source of important information on job candidates, but a person who uses them should have the necessary knowledge on the job position the candidates are applying to. It is good to base the knowledge on work analysis (on which you can read more in the article “Work analysis“ on this webpage). Without a clear idea on the demands of the position and what kind of traits does the candidate have to possess in order to meet the demands, using personality tests with selection purposes loses its meaning. So, using personality tests uncritically with the premise that this way we will discover some important information on the potential employer does not contribute to choosing the best person for the job and is a waste of time.

Further on, a psychologist who is using a personality test must use the manual for the test. Test manuals comprise of data how the test was developed, how to use it, they have the exact instructions to give the candidates before starting to fill out the questionnaire, instructions on how to test the questionnaire and other data needed for interpretation of results. Using manuals is not limited only to personality test, but it is also necessary to use manuals no matter what kind of psychological test you use. According to this, the same can apply to using cognitive tests.

Different personality theories talk about different number of personality traits. Currently the Big Five model is the most accurate representation of personality traits. According to this model there are 5 main personality traits – extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, openness to experiences and agreeableness and studies show that conscientiousness usually predicts job performance the best. Other 4 traits mentioned generally do not predict job performance, but they can help us predict how successful will people be in certain professions. So agreeableness and openness to experiences are better at predicting how one will be successful at service activities and extraversion in management and sales. Low neuroticism, that is emotional stability predicts successfulness in police and manual labor. (Cook and Cripps 2009).

Personality questionnaires are limited when it comes to predicting job performance. They are better at predicting other aspects of work behavior, for example perseverance (Cook and Cripps 2009). But, sometimes this is exactly what the employer needs. In fact, the costs of hiring a worker are pretty high. The whole selection process costs as the eventual training of the hired candidate. The point is that it is not worth to the employer to hire someone just because this person got the best score at the cognitive ability test, if this candidate probably won’t stay at that job. That’s the reason the employer is looking for an employee who suits him the best with his personality. The costs the employer has to pay for the employee who will not stay at the job can exceed the profit made from high work efficiency in a short time period.

The problem with the personality tests lies in cheating. In fact, the answers can be false. It is logical that a person wants to, through the selection process, make themselves look the best in order to get the job. The solution to this problem lies in making scales to find out if a person is lying which are a component of most of the personality tests. So, this is a recommendation to all, be honest while filling out a personality test because it is possible that you will not get a job because you cheated! There’s another problem connected with personality tests – even if the candidate is not honest, it is questionable how well he or she knows themselves.

Considering the fact that the psychological tests with their numerous qualities also have good traits, it is not good to base your selection decisions only on the test results! In practice this is not done!! Psychological testing is usually conducted alongside an interview.

In the end it is important to emphasize that the psychologist’s professional ethics commits him to keep the results of test a secret. This means that after a test psychologist must not tell his colleagues, boss or manager what result did a candidate get on a cognitive test and what the candidate’s IQ is or discuss how the candidate answered a particular question in the test. A psychologist gives his opinion in a form of a report at the very end of a selection process. The psychologist keeps the test through a certain time period and the test is kept in a locked place, so unauthorized people cannot see it.

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