At this stage, you probably have a really good idea about the battery of SHL tests that you might encounter within your career, and how to overcome some of these problems, challenges, and issues. Most of the tests are cognitive and are grounded in reality, as well as skills and concrete things that you can learn. But what about the personality traits, or other aspects that you absolutely cannot quantify? This is one of the aspects that is not talked about very often. In fact, when it comes to the SHL personality test, many different people are absolutely unprepared, and most websites just don’t prepare you for it.
After all, how are you supposed to prepare for a test that looks at your personality, and examines you on such a personal level? Many people think that personality tests are impossible to study for, or that studying is akin to cheating, but that couldn’t be further from the truth! In fact, the SHL personality test is a test that has been around for ages.
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It’s called the OPQ the occupational personality questionnaire, and it is referred to as the SHL’s personality test, because of the initials of the test authors. The SHL Test takes a look at your personality in relation to your job-relevant actions, traits, and behaviors. For example, the test is not interested in ow you behave when you are off the job! They don’t really care how you interact with your children or grocer, for example.
They are looking specifically at how you are on the job. How would you deal with a challenging client or a difficult team member? How do you feel when someone else gets a promotion? Do you handle it well? Are you ambitious and fit for leadership, or is that just not in the cards for you?
As you can probably tell, the SHL personality test is absolutely critical for determining whether or not someone is a good fit for a corporate role. It’s vital that you understand where the test questions are coming from, why they are important and what each question is actually answering.
What is arguably more important is discovering your work personality and how you fit into a corporate culture. What is your work personality? What do your values really look like and how can you tap into them and really showcase them come test day?
What does your employer value as important and do you align with their goals and needs for their company? Knowing the answers to these questions can make or break your interactions with your potential new boss!
Test Layout
The SHL Personality test looks at a large range of personality traits. In fact, it tests 32 different personality traits, to make sure that it has a full and complete understanding of your work style and behavioral style at work. This test is also often administered before you even get to the interview stage of an application. Having this knowledge on hand helps a lot when it comes to approaching the test in a measured and careful way.
You will be asked to make forced choices, where you have to rate your most important trait, all the way to your least important trait (what is most like you and least like you). It is specially formulated this way to make sure that you aren’t giving half-answers, or simply picking the best traits every time. In fact, most of the choices are good and are necessary when demonstrating your strengths and weaknesses to the fullest possible extent.
The personality traits will be measured and then grouped into the following categories:
- Relationships
- Sociability
- Influence
- Empathy
- Thinking
This test is extremely robust, physiologically speaking, as it is created in such a way that it is very hard to fake your answers! That means that answering honestly and in a considered manner is the best way to approach the test, as you will be able to pass this score and still look good when it comes to application-reviewing time.
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So, why bother preparing for this test at all? After all, if everything needs to be answered honestly, then there is no point in reviewing content in a way that could make it look like you’re faking, right?
Well, no! Actually, you need to make sure you understand the test in-depth, so you don’t get frozen on test day and make the wrong choice. You need to hone your understanding of the questions, so you can reflect your personality accurately and clearly without getting caught up in all of the specifics and bogged down!
