Question 1

What are psychometric tests and what do employers use them for?

Accepted Answer

**Psychometric tests** are standardised assessments measuring cognitive ability or personality traits, used to compare candidates on a consistent basis rather than on interview impressions.

**The two broad families:**

**Aptitude and ability tests.** These have right answers and are timed.

**Numerical reasoning** — interpreting data in tables and charts under time pressure. Note that this tests interpretation and speed, not mathematics.

**Verbal reasoning** — drawing conclusions from passages, typically true / false / cannot say. The **"cannot say"** option is where most candidates lose marks, because it requires judging strictly from the passage rather than from what is plausibly true.

**Logical, inductive and diagrammatic reasoning** — identifying patterns in abstract sequences.

**Situational judgement tests**, presenting workplace scenarios and asking what you would do. These assess fit with the organisation's expectations.

**Personality questionnaires.** These have **no right answers** in principle, measuring traits and preferences. The most defensible are based on the **Big Five** model — openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism — which has substantial research support.

**On validity, honestly:** structured ability tests, particularly general cognitive ability, are among the better-evidenced predictors of job performance in the selection literature, though effect sizes have been revised down in recent reanalyses. Personality measures predict less strongly, with conscientiousness the most consistent. **Some popular instruments, notably MBTI, have weak psychometric support** and are not recommended for selection despite continued commercial use.

**Why employers use them:** they reduce reliance on unstructured interviews, which predict poorly; they handle large applicant volumes cheaply; and they are legally defensible if properly validated.

**Practical advice:** practise the format, since familiarity genuinely improves scores on timed tests; read instructions on how marking works, including negative marking; answer personality questionnaires **consistently rather than strategically**, since most contain consistency checks; and request adjustments if you have a disability — employers are obliged to consider them.

Question 2

What is a competency interview, and what is the STAR method?

Accepted Answer

A competency — or behavioural — interview asks about things you have actually done, on the premise that past behaviour predicts future behaviour better than hypothetical answers do. STAR is the

Question 3

What is a job evaluation scheme?

Accepted Answer

A structured method for determining the relative size of jobs within an organisation, so that pay can be set on a consistent basis rather than through individual negotiation — and it is the main

Question 4

What are common interview questions I should prepare for?

Accepted Answer

Common interview questions include personal background inquiries, work experience scenarios, behavioral questions, motivation assessments, and technical skill evaluations. Preparing for these can improve interview performance.

Question 5

What happens at an assessment centre?

Accepted Answer

An assessment centre is a structured selection event, usually half a day to two days, where candidates complete several different exercises while being observed by trained assessors. It is common for

Question 6

What is the difference between a job description and a person specification?

Accepted Answer

The job description describes the role; the person specification describes the person who could do it. They answer different questions, and reading them as one document is why applications miss the

Question 7

How to prepare for a behavioral interview?

Accepted Answer

Preparing for a behavioral interview involves understanding the question format, using the STAR method, reflecting on experiences, and practicing responses.

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