Predictive Index

May 4, 2007 5:12 AM

A recruiter who has an opportunity for me has asked me to fill-out the Arnold S. Daniels "Predictive Index..."

...basically two identical pages of adjectives; one page each for "How you are expected to act by others" and "Words that you yourself believe really describe you."

It looks too easy. I think I should avoid the "negative" words like "self-centered" and "conventional," and stick to the "positive" words like "dynamic" and "persevering." I think the two lists should match, too.

Am I missing something? Anyone else have any experience with this employer survey?

posted by ZenMasterThis to work & money (4 comments total)

I think it's all about being honest with yourself. While in an ideal world we all would act exactly as expected, in reality this is never the case. There must be some of the adjectives where the ideal doesn't exactly match how you act.

Although to be fair, I'm guilty of wanting the lists to match too. And of the many times I've taken similar tests/indexes/etc. I've been told on several occasions that I somehow gamed the test and that they couldn't learn a thing about me from it.

Of course, I think that in itself is telling, but I didn't let them know that.
posted by langeNU at 6:02 AM on May 4, 2007

This sounds a lot like the DISC inventory, which shows your projected self, your private self, and the composite of the two. There is always a difference between projected (how we think others want us to act) and our private self (how we act under pressure). Sometimes with these tests, they don't want to write you off as much as learn how to manage you.

LangeNU is right on this one. Just be yourself.
posted by 4ster at 6:29 AM on May 4, 2007

I took the Predictive Index for the first time a few weeks ago, in connection with a job application. Like you, I was concerned about how to answer it, but tried to be honest in my responses.

The recruiter sent me a narrative summary of the survey, and the results were so accurate it was scary! It had observations that were not what I would say about myself, and that may have been a bit overstated, but were completely right. It baffled me - how could this work so well? I doubt an interviewer could have gained the same insights. The PI may have taken me out of the running for this particular job, but for valid reasons.
posted by Snerd at 9:32 AM on May 4, 2007

As a Predictive Index consultant I'm glad to hear both the results and the skepticism about the assessment. We should all be skeptical of any testing. As for PI, we use it because it has 50 years of validity testing behind it. We can actually map a PI pattern to a particular metric such as sales results and predict who will likely succeed in helping the company grow that number.

Think of the words like an ink blot test. The way you reacted to them tells us things about you. It may feel odd to have someone know that much about you so quickly, but the truth is that you gave them the information in the test. Many people find it to be insightful to see their own report since it gives them a third-part look at themselves.

We only cover Florida, but if any of you would like information on PI I'm happy to provide it. I don't sell to individuals so I'm not selling anything here. You can also learn more at www.predictiveresults.com.

Steve Waterhouse
[e-mail]
posted by SWaterhouse at 6:21 PM on November 3, 2007