Why You Should Get Your Own Psychometric Assessment Before Searching for a Job

Psychometric assessments like Myers-Briggs' MBTI have been around in the human resources space for a long time. Relative newcomers like the Core Values Index (CVI) have taken the concept to new heights with unprecedented reliability and ease-of-use (and low cost).

Most people's experience with psychometric assessments occurs when they are a job applicant and the hiring employer administers the assessment as part of the screening process. This can also occur when being considered for a promotion, most often when ascending to executive or even C-suite levels.

Does it make sense to take the CVI or other psychometric assessment on your own? There are many free personality tests on the internet and most aren't even worth the [free] cost. But what about investing in a commercial psychometric assessment on your own dime? Can spending $50 before you begin your job search actually help you land a job?

In two words, probably not. But the right assessment can help you find the job that is right for you.

If you want to travel somewhere, it helps to not only know where you're going but where you're currently at as well. Taking a psychometric assessment before your job search works the same way. Here's how:

How it Works

Psychologists have determined that we spend up to 95% of our time dwelling and operating within the subconscious and unconscious mind. Frequently, our conscious and willful mind takes our unconscious thoughts and skews or even ignores them, yielding decisions and actions that are less than ideal.

"I should have trusted my gut instinct," is a frequent lament when this happens.

How do you identify and harness your subconscious gut instinct to produce your best decisions possible?

Psychometric assessments work to quantify and qualify your subconscious mind. Most will do an adequate job, but some such as the Core Values Index are significantly better at it than others. And there is no correlation between cost and quality, either. The Core Values Index costs less than $50 yet has the highest repeat reliability rating of any psychometric assessment on the market (97.7%), it only takes 8 minutes to complete, and its results are super easy to understand.

Once you've taken the CVI, something profound happens: you gain a significant understanding of what makes you happy and what doesn't. A very common response we get from customers after they've read their CVI report is, "How does it know me so well?"

When you understand your subconscious and unconscious mind, quantified and qualified into easy to grasp terms, you are able to discern what career or job path makes the most sense for you. If you are an analytical and fact-based person, pursuing a career in on-stage entertainment may not be the best choice. If your subsconscious mind is happiest when you are leading and motivating others, working on an assembly line doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

"Why am I doing this?"

It is shocking how many people find themselves well into their career, unhappy and unfulfilled, yet completely unaware of how they got there. "I am so unhappy. Why am I doing this?" they ask themselves.

If you find yourself asking the same question, you're not alone. According to research by occupational psychologists, up to two thirds of workers think about other jobs once every second. That is profound, and it is a testament to how easy it is to fall into a job or career that is unfulfilling and out of alignment with who you really are.

Investing in a quality psychometric assessment may not get you a job. But is any job what you really want? More likely what you want is The Job. Understanding yourself by learning what makes you happy and what kind of challenges bring you the most fulfillment just might be the single most impactful thing you can do toward finding that position where you say, "This is what I was meant to do."