Re: Using the Predictive Index for Job Candidates - Your Thoughts?
Hello, I just got thrown a curve by a company considering me for a QA Manager position. They are requesting that I complete a Predictive Index questionnaire prior to the interview. (See
www.piworldwide.com for some general background info.) After a run-around with an organization last year where I jumped through more hoops than I like to think about with psychological/behavioral testing I'm extremely leary regarding another brush with it.
Has anyone run across this particular testing tool/organization, and if so how would you describe your experience/satisfaction.
Thanks for your feedback.
I am very familiar with this testing concept. The questionnaire can be "gamed." The question you should have in mind when deciding whether to participate in this exercise is whether you know enough about the organization and its culture to decide whether to give true
(and thus possibly disqualifying) answers to the questionnaire or to attack the questionnaire with the idea of "giving the answers they want to hear."
I can give you lots of arguments on either side of the decision - ultimately, you need a feel for "WHY?" this organization is going to the expense and trouble of administering and scoring such a questionnaire.
Any discussion of the probative value of such a questionnaire requires knowing whether ALL the existing staff of the organization have taken such an exam and, more importantly, whether THEY gave truthful answers or "gamed" the questionnaire based on some foreknowledge of what the top honchos expected them to answer.
Personally, I am against the concept of having the homogeneous work force such questionnaires promise explicitly or implicitly to bring about. I equate homogeneous with stale and moribund. I prefer a diverse workforce with conflicts the parties work out among themselves, hopefully with a joint goal of creating a more energetic, vibrant, and ultimately growing, successful workplace.
There are, however, many, many people who prefer to work in a calm, no conflict atmosphere, plugging along day-by-day until retirement. For folks like that, the questionnaire and the companies that use the questionnaire can be an excellent fit.