Plum Discovery Survey FAQs

If you require support while taking the assessment, please take a look at our Plum Candidate Support - FAQ

What is Plum, and why is the employer asking me to take the Plum Discovery Survey?

Plum helps to reveal the unique potential in every individual by measuring Talents. Talents are your recurring patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior - more commonly known as soft skills. Talents can be, for example, the ability to adapt, to innovate, or to communicate. Your Talents come naturally to you, and when you use them at work, you feel a sense of energy and fulfillment. Plum reveals your Talents by measuring personality, social intelligence and problem-solving ability using the Plum Discovery Survey.

Your Talents greatly impact the tasks that energize you, your career goals, and the type of work environments in which you thrive. With Plum, the employer can better understand what kind of activities drive you and which drain you so that they can match you to a role where you’ll flourish.

What is the Discovery Survey?

To measure your Talents, we use the Plum Discovery Survey. This assessment looks at your personality, your ability to solve problems as well as your social intelligence. To learn more, read our article What does the Discovery Survey measure?

What value does this provide me?

When you complete the Plum Discovery Survey, you will instantly receive your personalized Plum Profile.

Your Plum Profile gives you powerful self-insights that will help you understand what drives you and what drains you in the workplace so that you are equipped to make the best career decisions for yourself. At Plum, we believe that Talents are truly what makes you stand apart and are key to unlocking your unique potential.

Your Plum Profile will unlock:

A comprehensive overview of your 10 Talents, complete with a breakdown of the competencies that drive and drain you within each one
Insights into your work style and the types of roles that are most likely to fulfill you
Access to Plum’s resource library, curated to strengthen your Top Talents
A personalized Focus-On plan to help guide your growth journey

How long does the Discovery Survey take to complete?

The Plum Discovery Survey takes around 25 minutes to complete.

Is the Discovery Survey timed?

No, the Plum Discovery Survey is not timed. There will be no record of how long it took to complete it.

The amount of time you take to complete the assessment has no impact on your results, so there's no need to rush.

What questions are asked on the Plum Discovery Survey?

The Plum Discovery Survey has five sections.

Sections 1 and 3 of the Plum Discovery Survey assess your personality. You will be asked to select which statements and adjectives are the most and least like you.
Sections 2 and 4 of the Discovery Survey comprise a short puzzle series that assesses your problem-solving skills. You will be asked to select the missing puzzle piece in a sequence.
Finally, section 5 assesses your behavior in the workplace. You will be presented with questions on workplace situations for which you will need to decide which statements are the most effective or the least effective.
Learn more about the Discovery Survey here: What does the Discovery Survey measure?

Is the Plum discovery survery based on science?

Yes. The Plum Discovery Survey is based on the science of Industrial/Organizational Psychology. To learn more about the science behind Plum, check out this section of our Help Center.

What if the available answers don't describe me at all?

Plum’s Discovery Survey was created to better understand what people truly prioritize. There may be times in the assessment where you must select options that are "most like you" or "least like you", yet none of them seem to fit. This is a normal reaction to taking the Discovery Survey because the assessment is forced choice. To learn more, check out this article here.

Can I review my responses at the end of the Discovery Survey?

Yes. When you complete the last question, you can review all your answers. Please note that should you choose to review your answers, you will be taken back to the very beginning of the assessment and will have to review all answers until the end to be able to submit your results.

What setup is needed for the assessment?

Language settings. Make sure to set your preferred language before starting the assessment.

No speaker and no microphone. None of the Discovery Survey questions or examples involves any sound. Therefore, you do not need any speakers or microphones to complete the assessment.
No calculator needed. The assessment does not contain any component that requires mathematical calculations.
Large screen. Although our assessment is optimized for mobile devices, we recommend using a device with a large screen, such as a laptop.
Back Button. Only use the back button within the Discovery Survey. Avoid using the back button on your browser.
Browser. The Plum platform performs best with Google Chrome as the browser. Alternatively, you may try a different internet browser (Safari, Edge, or Firefox). Please note that Plum is not supported by Internet Explorer. Older browser versions or different browsers than the ones recommended are often the reason for technical difficulties.
Please note plugins or add-ons to your browser may also affect the Plum platform's performance. We recommend deleting the browser history and cache and closing all your browser windows. Then, attempt the assessment with a fresh window. You may also try accessing Plum using an incognito window, which will turn off most browser add-ons.
Internet connection. Ensure you have a stable and reliable internet connection. Poor internet performance will generate issues with the assessment.
Javascript. Ensure JavaScript is active.

What do I do if I have technical issues during the assessment?

We invite you to read the following troubleshooting articles:

Can I pause the Discovery Survey and/or complete it over multiple sessions?

You can complete the assessment in as many sessions and as much time as needed. You can exit the Discovery Survey at any time and come back later. Your previous answers will be saved, and you will be able to continue where you left off.

Some employers may set a deadline by which you must complete the assessment for their recruitment process. This deadline is typically specified in the communication sent by the employer before you take the Plum assessment.

If you require a delay or accommodation, check out this section of our Help Center.

At the beginning of the assessment, an email will be sent to you with directions on how to log back in later. You can also log back in to complete the assessment at any time at http://secure.plum.io/.

How can I do my best on the Plum Discovery Survey?

Doing “well” or “poorly” on the assessment is more a matter of how much of a fit a person is for a particular opportunity they are applying to. For example, while a person may not be a good fit for one role, they can be compared to a different role with different job requirements and may prove to be a great fit – even though their Plum Discovery Survey Results stayed the same. Sections 1 and 3 of the Survey are a personality test – therefore, there are no right or wrong answers. Be yourself and be honest. The goal is to give you a Plum Profile that is as accurate as possible.

Answer with the responses that you believe are the closest to who you are. Plum wants to get an idea of your priorities. Since there is limited time in a day, everyone prioritizes some things over others. That is what the Survey is measuring.

Here are a few tips:

Take your time. The assessment is not timed, so there is no need to rush.
Ensure you are well rested, have eaten recently, and are in a quiet environment, away from distractions and interruptions.
Provide honest answers to reveal the most useful results.

To learn more, check out our blog post: How to Beat the Plum Assessment

Why am I finding certain problem-solving questions (Section 2 or 4) challenging?

Our Discovery Survey aims to uncover your unique Talent profile, which is calculated based on your personality traits, problem-solving abilities, and social intelligence. To do so, we need to differentiate your unique drivers and drainers from others through individual differences. This means our survey must be able to produce a wide range of scores.

Thus, to create variation in problem-solving abilities, these sections contain questions of all difficulty levels, including some particularly challenging puzzles. If a question is a challenge for you, there is a good chance others have also found it difficult. Your answers are compared to our database, meaning the final score used to create your profile is reflective of your performance compared to the larger population.

I have a disability that prevents me from taking the assessment. How do I request an accommodation?

Please review our Help Center section on Accessibility and Accommodation.

How will my profile be used?

Your Plum Profile helps provide a more complete picture of you. We invite you to read our article here to learn more about how your results will be used.

Related to

Assessment: Plum Discovery Survey