How the Reflector Big Five Personality works
The questionnaire has 144 statements about possible behaviour at work. They are written in the third person, as descriptions rather than "I" sentences, because PiCompany found that form gives the most objective self-rating. For each one you say how far the description applies to you, on a five-point scale.
Your answers are compared with a norm group of working adults and turned into scores on the Big Five factors and 24 underlying facets. GITP sells it on its own and as the personality measure inside Talent Match, which always includes it.
The report has two parts: a description of the five factors and their facets, and a competence section on how easily you could show or develop each competence. PiCompany is clear that the second part does not say whether you have a competence, only how well it fits your profile.
How to answer
There is nothing to solve, but how you answer still shapes the report:
- Answer for how you behave at work. That is PiCompany’s own instruction, even if you are different at home.
- Where your behaviour varies, choose what you do in most situations.
- Use the whole scale. A profile built from middle answers says little about you.
- Read every statement to the end. One word, such as rarely or always, can change what it describes.
- Describe yourself, not the person you think the job wants. The employer reads the profile against the role, and a false fit helps nobody.
Example statement
A statement in the third-person style, written by us: "Checks work twice before handing it in." Someone who nearly always does would choose the top of the scale; someone who rarely does would choose the bottom. A statement like this feeds the conscientiousness factor.
Tips for the real questionnaire
- Set aside about 20 minutes somewhere quiet. There is no clock, but answering in one go keeps your frame of reference steady.
- Go with your first honest reaction. Long deliberation tends to drift towards the answer that sounds better.
- Know the factors before you start, so the report is easy to read: stability, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.
- Do not expect the factor score to be the average of its facets. PiCompany predicts each factor from the whole pattern of facet scores.
Practise the Reflector Big Five on CogniPrep
Our version gives you 144 third-person statements, six for each of the 24 facets as in the real one, written by us. You rate each from untrue (-2) to true (+2), one statement at a time with no going back and no clock. The result is a profile of the five factors and 24 facets with no overall score, describing your answers rather than comparing you with GITP’s norm group.