It is commonly believed myth that personality testing instruments can measure your personality and predict your future behaviors. The pre-employment testing mechanism has been following this creed without any solid evidence. The testing industry claims all out validity. The educational institutions and employer organizations use them for screening purposes. Their transparency and equity has even convinced the courts of law.
But it is still an unresolved riddle; what do they test?
Do they test personality? What is personality then? What is its nature? How does it come into existence? Is it outcome of evolution? Does matter has capability to generate a personality? Why animals don’t have a personality? Does it remain the same during whole of your life? And many more questions.
It is like peeling off an onion. Every strip leads to many more. Finally you get a heap of onion strips. Where is the onion?
But personality is not an onion…
Allport has recorded hundreds of different definitions. Most of the psychologists equate it to your style, behaviors and reactions. They have devised instruments to measure these main areas. The collected data about your behaviors and temperaments help them to decide your career. You may organize your behaviors in future but you may never be able to go for a career of your passion.
Why?
Experts like to predict. They predict weather. They predict political situations. They predict economic conditions. They predict your future with signs, numbers, cards or palms. And they predict your future performance with the help of personality testing instruments.
What’s Your Personality? ———————–
It is well recognized fact that every human being has a personality. It is not merely your physical body. It is not merely your consciousness. It is not merely your ego. It is not merely your behaviors. It is not merely your physical expression. It is not merely your style. It is not merely your temperament.
But they all and many other characteristics are expressions of your personality.
I don’t find it wise to define personality. Admittedly it is an abstract reality. You get it with your birth. You can either develop it or disintegrate. Your style, behaviors and reactions are expressions of your developed, undeveloped or under-developed personality.
How do you look? How do you react? How do you talk? How do you live? How do you think? They all are expressions of your personality. The psychometrics measures these expressions and not your personality.
The abstract nature of personality can neither be measured nor be analyzed with any scientific or non-scientific tool. It can only be visualized. It can be developed. It can be disintegrated. Your thinking and doing makes all out the difference. A developed personality gives better style, behaviors and reactions than an undeveloped one.
Why Psychometrics are Getting Popular? —————————————
The very first reason is that every one wants to know who he is.
But bigger reason of their massive use is just a desire of the employers to avoid bad-hire. They get hundreds of applications for a single situation. They are the only available tools to avoid idiosyncrasies.
They don’t have alternatives for psychometrics.
Tests are going to stay. Whether you are trying to be admitted for a specific discipline or looking for your dream job, you are going to encounter psychometrics at one stage or the others. You need to prepare before encountering them.
How to Prepare for Personality Testing Sessions? ———————————————–
Keep in mind…
Personality is an amazing entity. You can think. You can visualize. You can discover. You can express. You can plan. You can create. You have unlimited hidden potentials. But your selected options on paper are going to decide your future.
You should practice offline and online personality tests before encountering a real session. Your practice shall not only make them familiar to you but also generate a list of your strengths and weaknesses. You can improve them with your conscious effort.
However, it is much more important to learn how different personality and aptitude tests measure expressions of your personality. What theories are working behind them? How do they relate different jobs with different types? This knowledge shall make it a lot easier to encounter psychometrics.
I have been cursed with depression most of my adult life. I especially remember that my bouts of depression would center around the delivery cycle of The Mother Earth News magazine. It came every two months and I would read it from cover to cover and then, usually fall into a blue period which would sometimes turn into depression. I figured that it was because the magazine caused me to dream of freedom and a different lifestyle which was very different from the one I was living. I didn’t feel there was a way to live the life I longed for, that I was stuck, so I became depressed.
As time went on, I noticed that when I was under a lot of stress, my depression cycle deepened. When I sold books door to door, the job was very stressful and I would be able to work at selling for two weeks and then each third week, I would be unable to face the world and stayed in bed for a week. Then I would feel ready to face things again, sell for another two weeks and retreat to sleep for another week. This was not a healthy cycle, it really put a strain on relationships with others. I was lucky that Jeanne was able to cope with my ups and downs.
When I faced a crisis of sorts about the age of 28 and irrationally moved to Missouri without any job or prospects (following the Mother Earth News lifestyle) I found that depression left me for a long period of time. My stress levels were lower, and I was living a life that was closer to the one I desired. My cycle was still there, I still had a tendency to get a little down, but it was dip in my mood, rather than a full depression. So I had a few pretty good years. I started a stained glass business and rented videos from the three stores I started, things were pretty good.
Then I made some “responsible” choices, going to college and joining the regular workforce and slowly my depression cycle returned. I think the cycle is a naturally occurring ebb and flow that we all have and that the deep depression was my subconscious minds’ way of trying to deal with life choices it didn’t agree with. As I struggled with employment issues and dealing with teenaged children my depression really became a monster that sometimes completely stopped me in my tracks. I would find myself unable to do the simplest tasks. I began visiting a depression treatment center, encouraged by a councilor to figure out what was wrong so that I could be over this once and for all. That was one of the worst times of my life, because I had no way to get out of the cycle of depression. I wasn’t working, so didn’t get that positive lift to my ego. The medications seemed to do little to help. And the kids weren’t making life any easier.
Eventually, I just went back to work and forgot all the depression center nonsense and my mood immediately rose. They say men derive self esteem from work and women derive self esteem from their relationships. That may be true because I certainly began to feel better being back at work. Still the cycle continued, at least I found that anytime I got a cold, I stayed sick longer than normal. A cold that would cause a normal person to miss a day of work would knock me out for a week. This effects your reputation at work and has a negative impact on your career. I began to suspect that I might have allergies that were causing me to be physically overwhelmed and thereby affecting my mental state.
Good theory, but when I finally learned that I had type 2 diabetes (in 2003) I finally understood why I had these lingering illnesses. Diabetics typically have symptoms three times longer than others. Their systems abilities to fight off colds and flu are less, so they need to be careful to avoid sickness. And being sick opens the door to depression, mental states are lower and your ability to cope goes down when you feel helpless.
My depression cycle still continued, but since I knew why I was unable to give good consistent work to an employer, I determined to go back to stained glass full time. It had been part time from the day I sold my business back in 1984, now it’s full time again. One of the benefits of being self employed is that if I’m having a bad day, I can go to work later. I can adjust my work hours to go along with how I’m feeling. Some days I’m only up to 3 or 4 hours of work and some days I’m up to putting in 10 or 12 hours of work. Depression is not as much of an issue any longer because I’m doing what I love and so my stress levels are at a level I can handle.
But occasionally, the monster of the “artistic temperament” raises its’ head and I have to deal with it. I have found a few ways of coping with depression over the years.
First, when you find yourself getting down, try to look inside and see what is causing the additional stress. Getting down is normal, it’s when you start to not be able to deal with it that you have a problem, so look inside and see what’s going on. Are you facing moral issues that weigh heavily on you? Is your life not tracking where you want it to? What is it that seems to be trapping you? Once you find your answers, you can begin to dream of ways to bring your life back into control, which will lessen your feelings of helplessness. It may be something as simple as starting a savings account for a vacation that you want to take, or starting a plan to get out of debt. Your problems won’t disappear, but your attitude towards them will make them feel less threatening.
Second, make sure that the little voice in your head is positive and not negative. Write yourself a little commercial that you read to yourself everyday and throughout the day. It should be positive and state what a winner you are and how successful you are, it should reflect your dreams and state them as if they are already a reality. This little recitation to yourself will turn away the negative that can grind you down and allow you to get to a place where you can handle things again. When I can’t work up the energy to even read my affirmation, I sing a little song which I made up (patterned on one they taught when I was selling):
It’s a great day to be a glass man,
Best Thing I know,
It’s a great day to be a glass man,
Everywhere I go, go, go, go
Cut my own pieces,
Put them back together,
It’s a great, great day to be a glass man,
No matter what the weather.
It’s a very dopey song, but I find that no matter how down I am, I can mumble this and it raises my attitude enough to croak it and then to sing it and then to believe it. And if I believe I’m happy, then I am.
Third, and most important, I have to let God into my life. When I’m down, I don’t believe in anything, not God and not Jeanne and not my own abilities. But if I can open up just a little and talk to God and ask for help, he always helps in some way. He didn’t give us life so we can suffer, we’re here to have joy and get out of ourselves and look around us and see the good in life and enjoy it and see the suffering around us and reach out to help relieve that suffering that others are experiencing.
Depression is a natural event, in my life anyway. So I figure it must be a natural event in your life as well. It’s neither good or bad, it just is. How we deal with it, that’s what determines the difference between those whose lives work and those whose lives don’t work.
David Gomm started building stained glass windows professionally back in 1983 and has become an expert at many aspects of stained glass building, design and repair. He writes a monthly newsletter at his better stained glass website.
Astarte Suites is a 5 star hotel in Santorini, located in Kaldera Akrotiri, Santorini
Welcome to Astarte! Astarte is a luxurious 9-room complex, each with its own personal style and vision.
Astarte comprises nine suites—Junior,Senior, Executive and Honeymoon—each of which is individually decorated and offers the finest amenities.
Junior Suites each feature on bedroom, a separate sitting area, a bathroom with walk-in shower, a heated indoor Jacuzzi-pool and a private veranda featuring a designated sitting area and spectacular volcano and caldera views.
Senior suites are slightly larger and boast the same features as Junior Suites.
Larger still are the Executive Suites, which, in addition to the amenities of the Junior and Senior Suites, also feature a separate dining area and a large outdoor lounge.
The most luxurious choice, the Honeymoon Suite, features a small private pool and additional bathroom,as well as more living space.
Magic is in the details at Astarte, beginning with the twinkling Swarovski stones that adorn the ceiling above each suite’s Jacuzzi-pool, and ending with the personalized service each guest enjoys. Surroundedby soothing shades of white and stone, guestsare sure to find bliss here. During their precious down time, guests can relax and unwind next to Astarte’s stunning turquoise swimming pool, which overlooks the Aegean Sea’s tranquil blue waters and nearby rocky cliffs.
For delectable dining, Astarte offers discreet room service, which most guests enjoy in the privacy of their own balcony. The Morning Starpool bar offers light fare and a variety of refreshing drinks. Leisure and cultural options abound nearby,such as in Akrotiri, an ancient city buried and preserved by volcanic ash—known as the Pompeii of the Greek islands—and at Red Beach and White Beach, the ultimate locales for a spectacular day of fun in the sun.
Breakfast, Taxes and Service are included in the Rates.
Room Facilities: All suites have volcano and caldera view even from the interior of suites. Heated indoor Jacuzzi-pool, air conditioning, satellite TV, isoclima window glasses, direct dial phone, mini bar, safe deposit boxes, bathrobes, hair dryer, slippers, Hermes cosmetics and other comfort amenities.
Guest Services: Champagne and fruits upon arrival, transfer for guests’ arrival and departure, room service, breakfast is served at guests’ veranda or terrace (they may order their breakfast from our catalogue), assistance on our guests’ life on the island, travel and excursion arrangements, car rental service, maid service, fax service, in house laundry and pressing. Upon request massage parlour.
Hotel Facilities: Large pool with Jacuzzi, pool bar, snack bar, sunbathing deck, ‘LAVA’ lounge cafe-bar (above the pool).
Distance from the airport: 20 minutes
Distance from the port: 15 minutes
Free shuttle service from/to the airport and the port
Fully air-conditioned rooms
Satellite TV reception in all rooms
Internet access
All major credit cards accepted
Other than AccommodationZ.com, our network also includes Reserver.it (where we list more than 2500 Hotels in Italy with secure online reservation) and Siteseeings.com, where you can make reservations for sightseeings in Italy, tours in Rome and also in the Amalfi Coast.
Understand, the fact that your boss, like yourself, is a human
being. Like everyone else, bosses come in all shapes and sizes.
Like you, he has ambitions, aspirations, and dreams. Some he
will achieve, others he won’t. Some bosses are good managers,
others bad, but most fall somewhere in the middle range.
Unless you’re working for a very small company, your boss
probably has superiors of his own - that no doubt can, and do,
drive him crazy at times. What it boils down to more than
anything else is, how well you and your boss can deal with the
emotional roller coaster of everyday life, and perhaps most
importantly, how each of you view your job.
To get along with you boss, or other people for that matter, you
have to know how to understand and react to personality traits,
get inside your boss’s head. In short, you need to develop your
human relations skills.
This does not mean becoming a “”yes” man and always siding with
your boss no matter how dumb a mistake he makes, or how big a
fool he makes of himself. Your boss may appreciate such blind
devotion, but unless you are willing to drop anchor and never
advance up the corporate ladder, you also need to know when to
put some distance between you immediate supervisor, and the
powers that be, because if your boss really goofs-up - you may
be shown the door at the same time your boss is!
Back to getting along with the boss, you of course need to get
on and stay on his “good side,” in short become a team player
That means becoming the type of an employee everyone would like
to have work for them. Someone with a positive outlook, someone
who’s also friendly, loyal, tolerant, compassionate,
understanding, courteous and supportive. Someone who can take,
and follow orders. Someone who can get the job done. Someone who
knows when to speak-up, and when to keep his mouth shut.
Regardless of what you think of your boss, the first thing you
should learn, is his style of supervising. The two extremes of
management style, are a boss who enjoys playing the part of a
military leader, where he, or she barks orders that must be
followed exactly without question, or the boss who maintains a
very low profile, giving employees broad guidelines and then
disappearing. Fortunately, most bosses fall somewhere in between
the two extremes, or little actual work would ever get done!
If you have the type of personality that demands you must have
very specific orders or you’re “afraid you won’t do it right,”
you better have a boss who is willing to spend the time watching
your every step.
On the other hand, if you must be left to your own devices to
make things work to get the job done and resent the boss looking
over your shoulder or constantly “picking on you,” you better
have the type of boss who is willing to give you enough room to
do your own thing.
Either way, if you are stuck with the “wrong kind” of boss it
will be a real source of irritation that frequently ends in you
not seeing eye to eye with your supervisor.
If you can’t change, or at least try, you would be better off
finding employment elsewhere - because the boss isn’t going to
change his management style to please you!
It also pays dividends to learn what your boss likes and
dislikes, and then adapt what you do to suit his personality and
management style. All bosses expect their workers to know how to
do their job, and to get it do it correctly, and on time, but
problems are bound to come up in any business. One thing that
can really “set off” your boss is not handling problems like “he
thinks” they should be handled.
Remember, he’s the boss, so be sure to learn how he wants you to
communicate problems. Does he prefer you put it in writing,
arrange a meeting, or just drop-in his office anytime you have a
question? Use common sense. If the boss is in a bad mood, or
otherwise having a bad day, he’s probably not in the proper
frame of mind to listen to any new suggestions, or for you to
ask to go home early, take a day off, or get a raise.
Besides consideration for the boss’s mood, and receptiveness on
any particular day to listen to new ideas, the employee who
thinks he has a good idea for changing an operating procedure,
should always re-think his idea through from every angle before
presenting it to the boss.
You should give your boss the feeling of confidence that you’re
a team player and you want to be the one he or she can depend on
to make his or her job easier. You should try to figure out what
your boss’s goals are, then help him to reach those goals
through your contributions as a good employee.
Basically, the good employee is the one who is ready and in the
mood to go to work at the designated time.
- A good employee knows his job, inside and out, and if faced with
something new, puts in the necessary time on his own, to try and
figure things out, then presents options to the boss, who
decides if any changes in policy or procedures are needed.
- A good employee doesn’t take time off except for real illness or
emergencies. He’s the one who does his work, gets the job done,
and is proud of his contribution to the overall success of the
company he works for. He’s one who’s ready to help a fellow
employee or newcomer without having to be asked to do so.
- A good employee lets the boss know that he’s completed his work,
and is free to assist him or her with special projects. He’s the
one who doesn’t camp out at the water cooler or coffee machine
engaging his fellow workers in idle gossip. He’s the one who
sets up his work area either for the person on the next shift,
or so that he’ll be ale to go right to work when he comes in the
next day.
All of these things and more, are the basic ingredients to the
definition of a good employee, and being a good employee is the
best way of getting along with the boss! The practice of good
human relations and displaying the virtues of the ideal
employee, requires the constant use of one’s common sense for
ultimate success. On needs to be aware of the boss’s
sensitivities, and eccentricities. If he bristles at any hint of
criticism of how he does things, he needs a subordinate who’ll
be willing to work under less then ideal conditions.
So, the bottom-line to getting along with any boss is first be a
good employee yourself. Master human relations. Understand that
your boss is a human being just like yourself - with a job to
do, and bosses of his own to answer to. So do everything you can
to make his or her job easier. It will go a long way to making
your job easier and having a good working relationship with the
boss!
If you can master the all important “people skills,” someday you
may enjoy the power and prestige of being the boss, and enjoying
all the perks and other trappings of being in charge!
About the Author
Article by Jay Harris of IMI Concepts. Visit his website http://www.home-job-alert.com
