Test me! Fix me! oh, nevermind. FAIL.
November 3, 2009 3:01 PM   Subscribe

I cannot find another post about this. What is it and what is involved in a Birkman Assessment?

It has been presented to me by my (ex)company as a career assessment/personality test. Apparently I can take this test(?) and find out what color my umbrella is and in what direction I should consider heading. Any experiences? Cautions? I have used the GOOGLE but I need need more.
posted by futz to Work & Money (5 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: I had one of these done once, as part of a career advice / consultancy service.

Speaking as an amateur fan of any kind of personality testing, this one seemed very good to me.

It involved something like 100-150 online multiple choice questions. From memory, these involved perceptions-of-self and perceptions-of-others, I think using the exact same questions.

The results seemed to describe me with an almost frightening level of accuracy, and - strangely - did not relate directly to the questions asked, if that makes any sense.

eg it wasn't all "do you like solving technical problems? - Maybe you should think about becoming an engineer!" There must've been a lot more back-end correlation between answers & career preferences. Apparently, it's based on data from hundreds of thousands (?) of people who've taken the test over quite some time.

Anyway, it ended up with an analysis broken down along lines like:

- personality traits & drivers (eg esteem, acceptance, structure, authority etc)

- areas of interest (eg social service, scientific, numerical, literary etc)

- professional strengths (eg technology v marketing v admin/fiscal v design/strategy)

- how you react when your preferences are satisfied, versus stress reactions when you're forced into a role you don't like

- what kinds of needs you have (eg what types of co-workers or managers you respond best to)

- how your personality correlates with that of people working in different kinds of fields (eg my responses align strongly with knowledge specialists, legal, educational, social service/counselling & artistic careers)

- plus a whole lot more.

In short, it was a very interesting, multifaceted & multidimensional way of looking at myself.
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:59 PM on November 3, 2009


Best answer: (oh, and if you're doing this as part of some kind of outplacement service, i can thoroughly recommend it as a way of opening your mind to other kinds of career choices that might be suitable for you, and which you may never have considered...based on your personality & preferences rather than on specific skills or experience)
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:04 PM on November 3, 2009


Wow. I need this. Does anyone have a recommendation for an online source?
posted by SebastianKnight at 2:50 PM on November 4, 2009


I'm not sure if you'd find one. The consultancy people said something about how they were licenced & accredited to administer the test, so it might be proprietary.

Part of the process was apparently hooking into a huge database of past responses, and I'm guessing that kind of intellectual property comes at a cost.
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:59 PM on November 4, 2009


Response by poster: I think that their website indicates that the test costs up to $400ish. I don't have time to check right now. UbuRoivas, your answer was concise and informative. I hope that I have the same experience. I guess I have nothing to lose! I always knew I was in the wrong profession but it paid well blah blah blah. Maybe now I will find some direction as to what I am supposed to be when I grow up, even though I am "grown up". In dog years I am about 6. Woof.
posted by futz at 3:25 PM on November 4, 2009


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