He discussed my longer-term career prospects and plans and made suggestions that I hadn't otherwise considered. I was slightly worried the tests might show him that I was an employment basket case - or worse. In fact the news was largely positive and quite insightful. As it happens I got the job, but that's another story. Going purely on my personal experience, I can see some merit in the ideas behind this kind of testing.
Personality is the most important factor when hiring an executive.
It's more important than skills and experience and as important as aptitude. It's good to establish objective benchmarks that go beyond the kind of human prejudices we can all be, even unwittingly, guilty of. However, I have two major concerns. First, despite what the professionals say, it is possible for people to learn how to answer psychometric tests in a way that portrays them in a favourable light. A decade ago I interviewed John Wareham a New Zealand-born recruitment guru who helped develop these tests, he said the trick people learn is to avoid the extremes.