Engineering Psychometric Tests: Personality & Assessment Centre Preparation

Many engineering employers will ask you to undertake a series of assessments during your recruitment process. Along with engineering aptitude tests, you may be expected to take a personality test, a mechanical reasoning test, give a presentation, a case study or written exercise. Note: The assessments will depend on your engineering career and the employer you are applying to.

There are a number of engineering sectors, each of which contains a range of different jobs. The table lists some of the engineering groups you could belong to:

Psychometric tests for engineers include a wide range of exercises, all aimed at assessing your work-styles and in-work decision making. Some psychometric tests will be online tests, others will take place at your local engineering assessment centre.

Examples of psychometric tests you may encounter as part of your engineering recruitment process include:

• Personality test - This test assesses the match up between your personality, work styles, the job description and company values.
• Situational judgement test - An SJT looks at how you respond in work situations. You are given a written scenario based on a situation you can expect to experience in this job and asked to choose the best course of action based on a list of options.
• Case study exercise - In a case study you are usually given a set of documents as background. You are then generally asked to prepare either a written or verbal brief (presentation) on the information you have just read. The case study is based on a piece of work you may need to do in your job. This exercise may require you to make maths calculations, use your technical knowledge, write or present key points using English skills and analyse the material to create your argument.
• Role playing exercises - Role playing exercises ask you to act out your response to a work scenario that you could expect in your job. The aim of role play is for you to slip into work mode and use your judgement to present your solution to the scenario.

Preparation is key for any psychometric test. By preparing, you will be able to put yourself into the work persona of the role you are applying to. This will help you enhance the impression that you make on the assessors. Find out more about preparing for these assessments with JobTestPrep.