The Birkman Method

I've been working at UCLA Anderson for over a year and a half now and recently my work-study job transformed into an "internship". I have exactly the same responsibilities but now we are no longer allowed to use facebook in the office.

my work place.
The annual budget for this particular office in Anderson is only about 7 million dollars. I know this because much like NBC's The Office, everyone can hear everything, including the things we don't wish to hear. I don't work with the accounting or sales department so I don't know how much a week's worth of lectures cost, but I do know the cost of some other expenses; One example: before the recession hit the office used to spend $1000 a week on coffee for the executives who attend our programs. At one point we even had a Starbucks coffee machine... My emphasis here being, executives will shovel over thousands just to have a corporate experience. (I still can't get over it. $1000 bucks for coffee. My god)

But here's something interesting (still expensive), all the executives who attend programs also get to take $475 personality tests called The Birkman Method. Look it up if you're curious. It's a 250 question test that takes about 45 minutes and results in a 68 page spread of analysis on effective behavioral style, organizational focus, interests, stress triggors, etc. Basically, a person who takes the test can find out their strengths and weaknesses in relation to working for a company.
Every week I print dozens of results and prepare them for program participants. Last week, the office had all the interns take them too.

In the test, people result in 1 of 4 categories/colors.

Expediting - Doers (Operations/Technology)
Communicating - Talkers (Sales/Marketing)
Administrating - Counters (Admin Fiscal)
Planning - Thinkers (Design/Strategy)



I am still awaiting my $475 results.