Recruiters love candidates who know themselves well. They appreciate candidates who can outline how they function in a team. It helps them to gauge whether you are a good fit for the open position.
Make it easy for the recruiter. Make it easy for you. Get to know yourself. Don‘t worry, no need to agonize about your life’s choices or stare into your soul’s abyss. The tools presented here are playful and fun to do.
The next step is to learn to talk about your personality. Even if you know yourself, it can be hard to find the right words in an interview. The results from the tools presented here help you to talk about your own personality. They also help you to describe how you interact with members of a team.
Take the DISC personality test to identify your personality type
The DISC test is probably the best-known personality test in the working world. It groups people in four major personality types with distinguishing characteristics. You might feel that this is an overly simplistic approach. But it is immensely helpful to understand your potential role in a larger team. The analysis also tells you about your work preferences and communication style. Both are popular topics in job interviews.
To get the results of the DISC personality test, you have to fill out a questionnaire. There are free online versions of the DISC personality test (here or here). But, commercial test providers such as Insights offer much more comprehensive results and analysis. Besides, they provide and extensive report. It is definitely worth taking the DISC personality test. Your university’s or company’s development program might even make the commercial version available to you.
Take the drivers test to find out what urges you on
The drivers test shows you what motivates you or drives you forward. According to this test, there are five drivers. The drivers are prompts such as “hurry up”, “be strong” or “be perfect”. It is useful to know which one or which ones tend to power your actions.
Taking the test is quick and easy. You just have to answer a free online questioner. Once you found out what your main driver is, read more about it here. Each driver can bring out positive and negative traits in each person. Thus you can reflect on your strengths and weaknesses. The results help you to put your strengths and weaknesses in word, when asked about them in an interview.
Use Fuel50 to take charge of your professional development
Fuel50 is a tool that was built primarily for career development purposes. Unlike the previous two tools, you are not assessed based on a questioner. You rather pick from a set of cards the ones that appeal to you. For instance, you pick from a set of value cards, the values that most resonate with you. Or you pick form a set of competencies the ones you are good at and the ones you want to develop. Over time you can adjust your selection, which makes this tool more dynamic than the other two. Based on your card selection, you can downloads reports, which put you choices in words.
Fuel50 is also a great tool to identify potential development routes. So, it is a tremendous help when asked about your long-term development plans in an interview.
Fuel50 is for companies and organizations and unfortunately not free. Check your company or university if they already use Fuel50 or if they want to try it. If so, make use of it.