I took the original IPIP-NEO inventory containing 300 items. Please see the below summary of my results as they relate to the five (5) dimensions of personality.
Extraversion. My score was high at 82, indicating that I am social, outgoing, and like to be around other people
Agreeableness. My score was high at 91, indicating that I have a strong interest in others’ needs and well-being. I am also pleasant, sympathetic, and cooperative.
Conscientiousness. My score was high at 93, indicating that I set clear goals and go after them with determination. I am regarded as reliable and hard working.
Neuroticism. My score was very low at 6, indicating that I am emotionally calm, composed, and unflappable. I am able to be very calm in situations that others would find very stressful.
Openness. My score was average at 54, indicating I am traditional but like to try new things. This also notes that to others I appear to be well educated, but not regarded as an intellectual.
A potential employer could use my results to try to determine my weaknesses and strengths. A strength that I believe my results show is that I am a team player with high scores in agreeableness and conscientiousness. I also think that I show that I am friendly and want to meet new people with my above-average score in extraversion. While an employer may think that I would be a good customer-facing person given this score, I truly thrive in the behind-the-scenes work. I am not comfortable with significant attention put on me. They may see my average score of openness as a weakness in embracing change or accepting new things. However, I thrive in change and embrace new ideas and approaches.
This is why I do not believe you can gain a fully accurate picture of an employee from a personality test.
3 responses to “Week 7 – IPIP Results & Reactions”
Hi Christian,
Thanks for sharing the results of your IPIP test.
I agree, I’m not certain that organizations should use the results of an applicant’s personality test as a singular, or dominate, assessment in the hiring process. Hopefully, it’s just one of multiple elements an organization considers in their assessment.
I also believe that how an individual ranks in each of the personality dimensions could be viewed as either a positive or negative indicator of job performance based on the organization’s business/industry model and the specific job they are hiring for. If organization’s use personality tests in the hiring process, hopefully they are also taking this into consideration.
Hi Christian –
After finally having time to go through all the lectures today, I feel like what you reported was what I would find very attractive in a potential employee… at least based on this test. My neuroticism score was substantially higher than yours (though I took the condensed version of the test) and I know I am calm in extremely stressful situations… having been a large animal emergency surgeon for many years I’ve seen a multitude of crazy and dangerous scenarios. But this fits with your (and my) ultimate determination that the personality test is not an accurate predictor of job performance.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
Hey Christian!
Overall, great blog and thank you for sharing your results from your test! To say the least I feel as if we had very similiar scores from the 5 sections within the test. Throughout my test the first 3 segments were all very high much like yours. However, in the Neuroticism section you had a very low score much like myself. Being “emotionally calm, composed, and unflappable” is a very solid trait and can lead to being a great leader. It may be hard and many people struggle with it, but I am glad we are similar in this aspect and it is truly a great trait to have! Nonetheless, great work Christian!