Personality assessments
Understand how someone tends to work: with people, with tasks and under pressure. Our personality questionnaires are based on the Big Five, the most widely researched model of personality.
- Time
- About 15 minutes
- Format
- Online questionnaire, no right or wrong answers
- Evidence for
- Languages
- Interface in 5 languages; each test lists its validated language versions
What the questionnaire measures
Openness
Curiosity, interest in new ideas and a preference for variety over routine.
Conscientiousness
Planning, care and persistence: how someone organises their work and follows it through.
Extraversion
Energy from contact with others, assertiveness and ease in groups.
Agreeableness
Cooperation, trust and consideration for others, also when interests differ.
Emotional stability
Staying calm under pressure, after setbacks and when criticised.
Work style
How the traits combine at work, for example in making decisions, working in a team and handling change.
How organisations use them
Selection
Compare a candidate's profile with the role profile and prepare interview questions on the largest gaps. Always next to an interview and, where relevant, an ability test.
Development
Give employees a profile for coaching, career talks or a leadership programme, in language they recognise.
Teams
Show how the people in a team differ, and talk about what that means for how they work together.
Reading the scores
Each trait is scored against a norm group, for example as a sten score from 1 to 10, with a confidence range. A high or a low score is not better in itself: what fits depends on the role. The Match Report shows the role profile next to the candidate's profile, trait by trait, and names the norm group.
The evidence behind each questionnaire
Every personality questionnaire on Match.hr gets a psychometric label that shows:
- the intended use: selection, development or both
- reliability per scale, such as internal consistency
- the size of the norm group, per country and language
- whether a fairness analysis has been done
- the date of the last analysis
Our review criteria follow the structure of the COTAN and EFPA test review models. Match.hr is not affiliated with or endorsed by either organisation.
Explore the LabNumerical reasoning
Example- Intended use
- Selection, development
- Reliability (ω)
- 0.89
- Norm sample
- 12,482
- Languages validated
- EN, NL, DE
- Fairness analysis
- Completed
- Last analysis
- October 2026
Example statements
These statements show the format. They are not taken from a live questionnaire, and there are no right answers.
Conscientiousness Example
When a deadline is still weeks away, I already plan my work in steps.
How this is scored
Agreeing counts towards conscientiousness. A scale is built from many statements like this one, so a single answer weighs little. There is no right answer: whether a high score suits the job is set in the role profile.
Extraversion Example
In a meeting with people I don't know yet, I'm often one of the first to speak.
How this is scored
Agreeing counts towards extraversion. Someone who disagrees is not less suitable: they may prefer to listen first. Both can fit a role, so there is no right answer.
Emotional stability Example
When plans change at the last minute, it takes me a while to settle down again.
How this is scored
This statement is reverse-scored: agreeing counts towards a lower score on emotional stability. Mixing statements in both directions makes it harder to answer on autopilot. Here too, there is no right answer.
Good to know
- Practice tests on Assessment-Training.com help candidates prepare. They are never used as selection tests.
- A personality profile describes preferences and typical behaviour, not ability or knowledge. On its own, it does not tell you who will perform best.
- Treat gaps with the role profile as questions for the interview, not as reasons to reject. A person makes the decision.
- Tell candidates beforehand that there are no right answers and what you will use the results for.
Frequently asked questions
Can candidates fake a personality questionnaire?
People can present themselves favourably, especially when a job is at stake, and some will. Clear instructions help: there are no right answers, and an unrealistic profile tends to show in the interview. That is why the profile is a starting point for questions about concrete behaviour, not a verdict. In development, where nothing is at stake, the incentive to fake is smaller.
Does the Big Five work across languages and cultures?
The five traits have been found in many languages and countries, but a translated questionnaire does not automatically measure the same thing. Each language version is analysed separately, and norm groups are built per country and language. When a candidate answers in a second language, keep that in mind when you read the scores.
How long does a result stay valid?
Personality in adults is fairly stable, but it changes slowly over the years and with new roles. For a new selection procedure we advise a fresh administration if the last one is more than about two years old, and always when the questionnaire version or the norm group has changed.
Why traits and not types?
Type indicators sort people into a few categories, while most people score somewhere in the middle of each trait. Trait scores keep that information: they show how strongly a trait is present compared with a norm group, which makes the comparison with a role profile more precise.
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