Verbal and numerical tests are used in selecting graduates for a wide range of jobs including most business and management functions. Personality questionnaires Are concerned not with what you can do but how you do things. Success in a job often depends as much on intelligence. While many employers do not use personality questionnaires to recruit to a particular type, they may look for warning signs to discuss in more detail at an interview. For example, if your responses to a personality questionnaire suggest that you do not take criticism well, you might expect this to raise alarm bells at an interview for a sales job, where coping with rejections is a core requirement.
Employers use tests at different stages in the recruitment process.
If they are used at an assessment centre they may play a much smaller part in recruitment decisions, especially if you have performed well in the other exercises. They are used because they appear to be more objective than procedures such as an interview. A reliable and well validated test can provide a more accurate indication of future job success in particular tasks. Many employers now provide candidates with examples of the sorts of question you may meet in their aptitude tests. Look at these and see if you have become rusty in the us of the skills necessary to give your best performance under timed conditions.