We’ve all taken them. Most of us know our types. But are these tests useful in the business world? Should a business use personality tests to stick their employees in their respective personality silo?

I thought these were out of style in the workplace until I performed an interview for a E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year Candidate. He was a CEO of an insurance company. One of the employee selection tactics was proudest of was that he gave a detailed personality test to every worker. He then used that to determine where he thought they would fit in best.

He even convinced me to take the test. Days later I received an email from his secretary with the test. I took it, emailed it back. A week later after it was analyzed he sent me the results. Turns out I would not make a good insurance salesmen on his team. Oh well.

Even in Canada personality tests for hiring are becoming more popular and are a major tool in hiring personnel:

Personality tests have been around for decades, but they fell out of favour after passage of the U.S. Civil Rights Act because companies feared they could be discriminatory.

Organizations are turning to standardized tests again, partly because previous employers seldom provide detailed references for former workers due to fear of lawsuits. They also use assessments to sift through thousands of resumes.

But are these exams fair? Should someone be judged on their “personality” according to a test. Here is researcher that that thinks personality tests may not be that efficient:

One criticism of personality tests, especially the self-report kind, is the potential for faked answers, which according to Frederick Morgeson of Michigan State University, is understandable because job candidates want to present themselves in the best way possible.

Despite substantial research devoted to techniques that will mitigate, or at least alleviate, the impact of faked answers, there have been no clear-cut methods developed to solve the problem, notes Champion.

Another personality test dissenter Annie Murphy Paul, author of “Cult of Personality” thinks the personality craze is merely mainstream pop psychology.

“The judgments of personality tests are not always imposed; often they are welcomed. And what, some will ask, is wrong with that? Human beings are complex creatures, and we need simple ways of grasping them to survive. But how we simplify–which shortcuts we take, which approximations we accept–demands close inspection, especially since these approximations so often stand in for the real thing.”

I personally relate personality tests to a fortune cookie or horoscope. That is, we want so badly for the horoscope to be true, that we see truth no matter the facts. We ignore the negative evidence and concentrate on the goal: fitting the prediction. The Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology Inc. lists this as a disadvantage of personality tests:

May lead to individuals responding in a way to create positive decision outcome rather than how they really are (i.e., they may try to positively manage their impression or even fake their response).

I say take these tests with a grain of salt. They may be fun, they may even fit you, but don’t let the results define you. If you didn’t fit the type you were looking for, don’t stress. Instead of trying to figure out your personality type why don’t you lay out your strengths and weaknesses. That’s going to help your career better than trying to figure out what personality types you work best with.