So the owner of my company is absolutely slavishly devoted to the "tool" called The Predictive Index (PI). It is used to determine "who is a good fit" for the company by allegedly defining a person's personality.

Note that my present company has an absolutely horrible track record of hiring senior executives who end up being miserable failures despite the fact that they are hired in accord with Predictive Index guidelines.

Anyway I was drafted to take over one of the departments about a year ago and have spiffied it up pretty well. But we need to hire more workers... nearly every candidate who comes to us is rejected by Personnel because they have "a Low D" as per the PI process. It's nuts.

I finally broke the logjam by confronting our president and advising him that according to the PI, I have one of the "lowest D's" in the company and, as such, could never be considered to work in the department I am running!  ;D. It was like a scene out of The Office.

Has anybody here had to deal with the "PI"? ???

I've never even heard of that, but it boils down to being too lazy to bother really getting to know someone. As long as a person is hardworking and can get along with people, I don't see what the problem is. Nobody is perfect.

Nobody is perfect.


Oh that's the best part. One of our executives was expounding upon the virtues of the Personality Index earlier this week. Towards the end of his speech, which sounded almost like a religious revival, he proclaimed "just so you do not misunderstand, there is no such thing as a bad PI. Everybody's PI is PERFECT for them!!!"  ::)

Geeze Louise.  I was waiting for either Mister Rogers or Barney the Dinosaur to make an appearance after that. I had to duck out of the room because I was busting with laughter.  ;D

Geeze Louise.  I was waiting for either Mister Rogers or Barney the Dinosaur to make an appearance after that. I had to duck out of the room because I was busting with laughter.  ;D


These are all BS.  Someone sold your execs a bill of goods -- and since somebody's career depends on it not being a load of bunk, everyone has to pretend that the Emperor has the bigliest, yugest, awesomest clothes for a bit.

The best career option for anyone facing this sort of crap is to lie.  Just be sure to lie consistently when taking the test.  Figure out what your boss wants to see, and be that person, even if just for a few seconds per question. 

For what it's worth, none of the studies exist, and if they do, they're so old as to be irrelevant.  The PI dates back to the 50s.  It's a 4-factor model analagous to the debunked MBTI that got replaced by the (still BS, but for different reasons) Big Five personality traits.

If you want to really advance your career -- convince the imbeciles in management that they're using old-and-busted PI, and that they need to get with the Big Five.  Start with the HR person.  No company that matters uses PI or MBTI, they're all on Big Five.  (Don't tell the HR person that Big Five is also BS - just tell the HR person that FIVE factors is better than FOUR and that BIGGER MORE SUCCESSFUL COMPANIES ARE USING IT so WHY AREN'T WE? -- and if you really wanna advance your career?  Tell the HR person's boss that -- if you play that right, the HR person should be dumped and you'll get the cushy job of HR director, and all for changing one bogus personality test for another!)

Figure out what your boss wants to see, and be that person, even if just for a few seconds per question. 



Well in my case I am probably the one employee who has openly ridiculed PI, and that includes to our President and owner. The reason, I suppose, that I get away with it is because for some inexplicable reason, several of our largest customers consider me some sort of guru and dispenser of wisdom (if only they knew...). I got my job on the recommendation of our biggest customer, and I didn't even apply for it!