OPUSBOB: Can you fool a personality profile?

Our topic today is talking about whether or not an individual can fool a personality profile tool. Here is how this topic came up. I received a call from one of my clients, it was a VP of Sales, and he said to me, I was just talking to a candidate that I think I like for a sales position in our organization and I told him that I wanted him to take the OPUS personality profile. The candidate said, “well don’t waste your money on that because I know how to fool those things. I can have that turnout to be exactly the way you want a sales person to be.” So Bob, what should I do? So I said to the manager, “here is exactly what I want you to do. I want you to go tell that candidate to fill out the personality profile, so that it is exactly like they think a terrific sales candidate for your company would be. Don’t worry about what they really are, just fill it out so they think that they are filling it out like a perfect candidate would fill it out. And then wait 10 minutes and then fill it out to be exactly the truth, tell us how they really think they are.”
So let me ask you a question. Do you think that the results would be significantly different because in one case the person thinks they are a good candidate and they are filling it out the way a good candidate would be and then they are filling it out for themself? The answer is the two results were very, very consistent. And oh by the way neither one looked anything like a top performing candidate for this particular company. Its interesting to know that what a person fills in when they think it’s the right candidate is in fact their perception of what right is and what wrong is. So even when somebody is deliberately trying to fool a personality-profiling tool, it still comes out reflecting their values. Thanks for your time. I look forward to speaking with you again soon.