• Personality tests are becoming popular as the likes of Amazon, Meta and Microsoft hone in on high-performance talent. An expert on these assessments reveals the few beloved traits that hiring managers are looking for.

Job-seekers already have to jump through flaming hoops to land a gig, navigating dinner tests and a mountain of ‘ghost’ postings. Now they’re being handed personality tests.

Prospective workers describe being given online personality assessments during their job interview rounds, and how uneasy it can make them feel. The tests can range from questionnaires that are based on peer-reviewed research, to sleek-looking assessments without much psychological backing. ‘Passing’ the test—or hitting the personality traits the hiring manager is looking for—can be very ambiguous. It’s given some job-seekers pause.

“I’ve gotten some really weird questions,” Nick Malik, a job-hunter who has received several personality tests while applying to senior-level engineering roles, told The Wall Street Journal. “I understand the desire to know a little bit about your applicants, but I don’t think running their answers by a bot is very effective.”

Candidates have reason to be skeptical of the assessments. But Ryne Sherman, chief science officer at performance personality testing company Hogan Assessments, told Fortune that the tests can help a hiring manager get the bigger picture of an applicant. He said that resumes can show how good a person’s technical skills are, and interviews provide better insight into how someone answers questions on the spot. But it’s harder to pick up on more abstract qualities—that’s where these tests come in.

“Are they going to be easy to get along with? Are they going to work hard? Can they pick up on new skills quickly?” Sherman said. “Those are the kinds of things you can pick up with a personality test that you don't really see on a resume.”

Why are personality tests trending in the hiring process?

Personality tests aren’t some new-age obscure tool that hiring managers are forcing upon applicants.

Sherman said that personality assessments have long been commonplace in corporate America; his company has been handing out these tests since the late 1980’s. But they really came into popularity after the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the founding of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Sherman said at that time, employers were using cognitive IQ tests which showed group differences and discriminated by race. Personality tests leveled the playing field in assessing workers—there are no character differences between identities.

Personality tests are currently trending again as bosses double down on quality over quantity when it comes to talent. Many employers are strategizing in the name of efficiency——Meta and Microsoft have both recently culled employees based on performance. “At Microsoft we focus on high-performance talent,” the company said. Meanwhile, Ford is tightening the purse strings on bonuses in the name of "driving a high-performance culture".

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