Can you fake your way into a job?
Career Analysts - 27/06/2006
Can you fake your way into a job?
The answer is yes. It has been happening for years.
All you have to do is pretend to be someone you are not, embellish your CV, lie at job interviews, get your referees to lie about you and manipulate the personality test and aptitude tests. But hang on…. manipulate a personality test and aptitude test? Can psychometric tests really be beaten? Can the tests detect liars? How accurate are these tests anyway?
Employers are becoming increasingly savvy to the fact that candidates may fake their way into a job. However sometimes even when employees aren’t faking it employers will employ the wrong candidate for the job - WHY?
The most widely used selection technique is undoubtedly the interview. However, either the candidate or the interviewer can influence the accuracy of these processes due to false representation. Candidates may only present their good side and some interviewers can be influenced because of perceptual biases or faulty decision-making due to factors irrelevant to the job (gender, ethnicity, physical appearance). Moreover, reference checking, while useful and should not be overlooked, tends to be one of the least valid selection techniques. Who would you list to be your verbal referee? People who will say nice things about you – right?
More robust recruitment techniques utilise psychometric testing. This helps to counter some of the biases that can result from the interview process, increasing the accuracy of decision-making by adding additional and objective information. Indeed, research shows that (statistically speaking) psychometric tests are one of the more reliable forms for revealing whether or not a candidate is suitable for a job. They are, however, just one tool among many and should always be used in conjunction with traditional assessments as interviews or reference checking.
But are all psychometric tests created equal?
The two most common types of psychometric tests used in selection are, the personality test and critical reasoning tests (including numerical, verbal and abstract reasoning). Critical reasoning tests are an objective assessment of an individual’s ability to reason with words and numbers.
The abstract reasoning test looks at an individual’s ability to comprehend information that they have not previously encountered. It gives some indication of how quickly an individual will learn and conceptualise. Unlike personality tests, critical reasoning tests are virtually impossible to fake. However, many test producers themselves agree that it is quite possible to fake personality tests. This is because they are self-report measures and can be manipulated by the candidate to produce a profile that is more favourable to the job.
But manipulation of personality tests is not easy, particularly with the more robust tests such as those used by most reputable test providers. In general personality tests tend to provide an accurate and useful representation of the candidate which can be used for recruitment and selection as well and coaching and developing that individual once they have entered the role. Frog Recruitment use a range of psychometrically proven and robust tests. Tests such as these are validated by extensive statistical research and authenticated against candidate’s behaviour.
This is another reason why it is important to have a trained professional administer the test, so that questions can be used to probe the respondent's reactions and the consistency of answers can be examined. For example many tests guard against candidate manipulation by posing the same question more than once but wording it differently and/or using ‘lie scales’ that are designed to detect social desirability (the desire to present oneself in a positive light).
These scales will alert the test interpreter to the fact that the test may not be measuring what it was designed to measure. Tests normally consist of approximately 200 questions, with numerous questions designed to measure a single concept. So trying to manipulate the test by faking consistency between these questions would be a very time consuming task requiring a lot of concentration and a very good memory. Moreover, the reason why numerous questions are used to measure single concepts is because single questions are not typically a good basis on which to make assumptions.
Ultimately occupational psychometric testing is aimed at assisting organisations and people to create a better match between skills and jobs. The bottom line is that to get the best out of psychometric tests (and ensure that they are not being ‘faked’) either a psychologist should administer the test or some one trained and accredited in test delivery and interpretation.
