KEY questions answered by the experts.

Q: I’VE heard about companies asking potential candidates to complete personality or aptitude tests. What do these involve?

A: Psychometric tests involve personality profiling – covering motivation, interests and values as well as behaviour and attitudes. Aptitude tests involve verbal evaluation and interpreting numerical data as these give insight into capability in basic skills.

These tests are used ahead of the formal interview so that employers can find candidates best-suited to the position. Employers are keen to keep time and costs spent on recruitment to a minimum and using psychometric and aptitude testing enables a large pool of applicants to be narrowed down at an early stage.

The popularity of these tests means that candidates must be well prepared before attending interviews. An assessment centre on the Monster website is partnered with SHL – a publisher of psychometric tests. Users can practise the type of questions commonly used by employers. Visit www.monster.co.uk.

Jenny Ungless, life coach for Monster UK