The big five personality test troubles me because employers are prone to using it, particularly on online applications. I'm troubled because I believe it would be natural to ween out anyone who scored high or moderately high on neuroticism (which correlates to being reactive, prone to depression, having a low self esteem, as well as any emotional or psychological struggles), or low or moderately low on conscientiousness or agreeableness (which can indicate that a person is "defiant," or can reveal adhd or dyslexia or trauma), or extroversion (which can indicate that a person is friendly and gregarious, essentially pinning introverts with the reverse labels). Essentially, the test could very easily be used in most jobs to select only from a very limited slice of the population as "ideally hirable," and reject a large swath (anyone who doesn't have a compliant outgoing hard-working gregarious thoughtful sweet self-perception/self-expression), a trend that is obvious in the mass of entry level job positions looking for 5 years experience or all your licenses (which, for many, is nearly the same thing).
Additionally, someone's test-scores do not correlate to actual behavior, and perception of any person varies widly based on who's perceiving them. eg: I had an employer who was incensed by my tendency to be five minutes late to work (I have ADHD, timeliness is a constant challenge) and would become angry if I exhibited nervous behaviors around her (which I had a tendency to do given I'm highly self-critical and she was highly critical of me). She would have scored me very low on conscientiousness and agreeableness and high on neuroticism. She probably would have scored me high on openness and high on extroversion. Now, contrast that with my next employer, who didn't care if I was 5 minutes late, or 10, getting there before the clients and being prepared was all that mattered to him. He knew I tended to be self-critical so in response he was encouraging. He saw me as very empathetic and very accommodating. He would have scored me moderately on neuroticism, high on conscientiousness and agreeableness, moderate on extroversion, and high on openness. If both of them had seen my actual test scores (moderately high on neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness, moderate on extroversion, and moderately low on conscientiousness they would perceive that person very differently, and would not perceive me in person like they would my score). To finish my anecdote, my fiance scored fairly low on conscientiousness, and extroversion. He is an INTP, and one of the the most conscientious people I know. He thinks of me and others, he tries to accommodate, he is polite, he is loving and affectionate with those he's close to, he is rarely rude, rarely aggressive in any way, and he is quick to apologize. I love him to bits. He's also a hard worker, straight forward, very logical, doesn't care about other people's drama, and generally does his own thing. The Big 5 may be reliable in regards to his self-image but it doesn't give an accurate picture of him.
Thoughts?