Kristen Finlayson

When applying for a job position most employers want you to complete some form of a career personality test and this can prove to be very daunting. To understand personalities I don't see why employers use a career personality test over enneagram testing to find out an individual's enneagram personality. The enneagram personality study is a dynamic and accurate tool to understand and at times predict an individual's behavioral traits as well as emotional states. This can be of tremendous assisting when placing someone for a certain position as allows the employer to become au fait with all aspects of the individual and not just the cognitive aspects.

A career personality test is generally very structured and although most are psychologically based they still tend to be very left brained and logical. Enneagram testing however also allows for the emotional understanding of each enneagram personality. This means that it allows for a far more comprehensive and holistic understanding of the person as well as where an individual may sit within the study and its levels of development. When determining someone for a certain position the enneagram personality system excels as it can delve into, with a great deal of accuracy, what particular types prefer what particular positions; some thing a career personality test ngenerally neglects.

People interact and react with other people and with a knowingness of a particular enneagram personality it can almost be predetermined who may assimilate with another in the workplace, unlike what a career personality test could achieve. I have observed that a career personality test was all the rage in the seventies, eighties and even the nineties of the last century and back then emotions and emotional conceptions were devalued in the workplace arena.

When most individuals take a career personality test they usually would feel nervous and even frightened of the outcome. The enneagram testing process for identifying the enneagram personality however, has intuitive allowances via the aforesaid nine levels of development. These levels assist when the individuals are answering questions as the individuals can comprehend that the enneagram testing is user friendly, so to speak, and as the questions are in plain English makes for a more lighted approach to the assessment.

To complete a career personality test under stress will, without question, have the participant nervous and being very distracted as a career personality test is just that; a test. The enneagram testing system, however, is more personalised and aims for the participant to discover its enneagram personality in order to move forward from there. The enneagram testing system is just that, a system that is non-threatening no matter what your enneagram personality and therefore for this reason alone should be in the forefront of employers thinking when considering any career personality test.