“I am an “Eagle”! The aptitude test I took today tells me that I should be a brand manager” says Ajay a grade XII student at a city school in Chennai. Aptitude tests or personality tests like these are gaining in popularity. However, do these tests provide the right output for people to base their career decisions upon?
First, what is personality? Personality is the combination of qualities that make an individual. This is an area that has a large amount of literature written about it — and experts still disagree often about its various facets. The question is, how accurate are these personality or aptitude tests? Are they really helpful in selecting a career?
Let’s take this experiment. Imagine lining up all the successful doctors in your city or town and administering a personality test. Typically, you will find that equally successful doctors have different personality profiles. Some are very quiet, do not socialise a lot and are introverted. Others talk a lot and love social activities. The common thread between the two sets of successful doctors is that they all have the skills required to succeed in their chosen professions. For a surgeon, these skills include excellent hand-eye coordination, patience and the ability to stay calm under pressure. It does not matter if you laugh a lot or little! Another example - take Warren Buffet and Bill Gates – they are both tremendously successful CEOs, but with totally different personalities.
Second, personality testing as it is typically done is often inaccurate. Usually, they take the form of written paper tests. These tests treat each person as a “static” individual — what you are today is what you will forever be. The reality is that people can change. You can learn new things. You may not be good at public speaking now and may even think that you do not like it — but, until you try it you will not know. And if you practise this skill, you can certainly be good at it.
Last, the responsibilities and duties at an entry level position in many careers/roles are often different from that of a tenured professional. For example, an entry level management consultant is expected to do analysis and research (which demands sitting in front of a computer for most of the day) while a five year tenured consultant is expected to meet clients and sell work and be on the road. So when we are testing personality or aptitude, are we testing this for year 1 (entry level) or for year 5 (senior level)?
So, how should one ideally use the personality or aptitude test? What is unarguable is that there are indeed different types of personalities. At the Pathways Programme, we recommend that you use the personality or aptitude test to identify career options that you may not have considered. You should not use a personality test to narrow down on your career options. You should understand what each particular career or role involves and what skills are required to succeed in that particular role. If you can develop the skills required, then you will be successful, no matter what your personality profile is. The final choice of your career has to be made by you consciously, with a full understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of each career profile.
The author is a director at the Pathways Program. He is a former management consultant and surgeon and holds an MBA from INSEAD, France and FRCS from the UK.
E-mail: Vikram@thinkingpalm.com . www.pathwaysprogram.in
