Don't Play Games with Who You Are

Headhunter Nick Corcodilos has expressed many contrarian opinions on matters related to career advancement. Not surprisingly, he sometimes ends up fielding interesting questions, such as one by a prospective job applicant who asks how a friend who "doesn't test well" could cheat on a personality screening test.

Corcodilos, who does not think such tests are very useful, nevertheless strongly urges this individual not to cheat.

There are about five issues of integrity in your question, but all I'll say about this in general is, don't lie, don't cheat, don't fake who you are. Even if you survive the guilt and even if you beat the risks, there's a good chance that the "payoff" might be that you'll "win" a job that's not right for you because you misrepresented yourself. Doesn't your friend understand that this is a big part of employment testing? It can be to her benefit as well as the employer's to do the test honestly. [emphasis changed from original]

As if that weren't enough, Corcodilos then goes on to discuss the many ways testing companies have come up with to catch cheating and notes that some testing companies will even flag people they suspect of cheating on future tests, including with other clients.

Many employers may adopt irrational standards or cut corners when evaluating candidates, but their failures are neither an excuse nor an incentive to do the same on one's own part. Honesty remains the best policy. In fact it starts with asking oneself whether a company that treats its employees like a collection of numbers is really the place to go -- rather than how to game some arbitrary system.

-- CAV