This is the 3rd and final part of my experience undergoing a Birkman personal inventory assessment. Parts 1 and 2 discuss the process of answering the inventory questions and the initial evaluation tabulated to provide scores across 11 behavioral components. These preliminary steps could be used for multiple purposes. I had asked for an evaluation representative of a person trying to identify future career options. Here is the final evaluation of how the assessment translated into the best career options for me.
This part of the evaluation, Career Management Report, had two main sections titled “Organizational Focus: Professional Strengths” and “Job Families/Job Titles.”
First, my evaluation was mapped onto 4-box multi-color grids based on two axes. For example, the first mark, an Asterisk, was used to describe the activities people prefer. Activities towards the top of the Grid emphasize direct involvement (with a task or with people). Activities towards the left of the Grid emphasize the task rather than the people who do the task. A similar approach was used to depict my usual styles, the support/motivation I need to show my usual style, and my stress behavior.
A BLUE Asterisk (activities I prefer) showed that I like to:
focus on planning
have a variety of interests
spend time working in different areas
have opportunities to work in areas of secondary interest and influence people indirectly
A BLUE Diamond (my usual styles) showed that I am generally:
insightful
optimistic
thoughtful
selectively sociable
A BLUE Circle (the support/motivation I need to show my usual style) shows I am most comfortable when people around me:
show they appreciate me
are interested in feelings as well as logic
give me time for complex decisions
give me time alone or with one or two others
don’t over-schedule me
A BLUE Square showed that my stress behavior may include being:
withdrawing
fatigued
indecisive
pessimistic
sensitive to criticism
As with the earlier components of the evaluation, I initially disagreed with the stress behavoirs. These were not me. These were the opposite of how I see myself. Bill took me back to our initial conversation about the stress behaviors, when he warned that they tend not to be very pretty, and that nobody likes to admit to them. Under stress, we tend to become more of what we usually are or go to the extreme. If you are generally quiet, under stress you might become loud or even more quiet. The more I thought about what he was saying, the more I realized that these are some of the behaviors that come out under extreme stress, and the very behaviors that make me aware of my stress level. Okay, I did not like to hear about these, but I was starting to understand better. Accepting this part of the evaluation helped me benefit from the subsequent recommendations for how to avoid and/or deal with these stress behaviors.
The final component of the evaluation was “Job Families/Job Titles.” Job Families/Job Titles select, identify and confirm professional strengths. Occupational effectiveness is determined by how closely my responses matched profiles of a large sampling of employees in twenty job families. Sample job titles were provided for each job family, with a direct link to the U.S. Department of Labor’s on-line Occupational Outlook Handbook for most titles. Two job families clearly rose to the top on my evaluation: Knowledge Specialist and Artistic Careers.
Knowledge Specialist
Utilizing personal expertise and knowledge for problem solving.
Lead by example. Include professionals and managers who lead
professional, educational, and other specialty functions.
Job examples include:
Public School Counselors
Psychologists
Career Counselors
Employee Relations Professionals
College Professors
Ministers/Priest/Clergy
Ministry Managers
Physicians
Lawyers/Litigation Specialties
Nursing Managers
Artistic Careers
Artistic expression; include visual arts, literary/editorial positions, performing artists, architecture, clothing/jewelry, cosmetic sales, art sales, travel agents.
Job examples include:
Literary/editorial
Performing Artist/Acting
Architecture
Art Sales
Travel Agents
What did this tell me? That I should have been a physician? Will it tell you that you should have been a physician? But what if you do not want to be in clinical practice, a realization that I had several years ago?
The Birkman in many ways helped explain why I became a physician. What was more important and much more interesting, however, was that when the top two job families were combined, the Birkman demonstrated why combining medicine with writing (into medical communications) became a perfect fit for my career change. FInding a career that fits the top job family probably works for most people, but in my case, combining the top two has made for an even better career.
Would the Birkman have pointed me directly to this job? I do not think it would have, if it was all I used to make my decision. I do think, however, that the evaluation would have helped me organize my thoughts around career options and understand what types of jobs would be most satisfying to me, and why.
Click here to read part 1 of this series.
Click here to read part 2 of this series.
Comments (1)