The year is 2025, and it is Kelly Myers' first day as vice president in charge of commercial robotics for Global Solutions.

In the first five hours on the job:

• She orders a recall of robots equipped with artificial intelligence that are wreaking havoc in hotels by doing things such as incinerating a guest's briefcase (the guest, unfortunately, is a news anchor). She then excoriates the handling of public relations in another case when a robot -- confusing the French word for cabbage with the English word for shoe -- cooks a Parisian's Oxfords for dinner.

• She orders a stop to a system being developed for the military that would send robots into combat (Have these people not seen the "Terminator" movies?). Her rationale is that if a butler robot can't tell a cabbage from a shoe, a fully armed robot cannot be trusted to differentiate a village from a enemy fighters.

• She embraces unionization of the company's nonunion plants, saying that either the company should treat workers better or there will be a union.

• She calls for negotiations with an Asian company -- one that could net her firm $100 million -- to include provisions requiring the potential partner pay workers well, assure workers are in appropriate housing and possibly build schools or libraries for communities where it operates because the move will pay off in future public relations value.

By a back-of-the-envelope computation, Ms. Myers has cost her company more than $100 million.

She does not work a sixth hour.

Kelly Myers, in this instance, was me.

Development Dimensions International, in Scott, allowed me to assume the role of Kelly Myers to experience an exercise used to assess job candidates. It's like a cross between entering the witness protection program and playing Michael J. Fox's role in the "Back to the Future" movies.

Bill Byham, DDI's founder, said about my incredible spending spree, "Well, you won't be the first."

The goal is to test leadership capabilities of candidates for an executive position, explained Eric A. Hanson, an industrial psychologist for DDI. The exercise is future focused so people cannot use knowledge of a particular industry to their advantage.

In my evaluation, Dr. Hanson said I scored very high in ethics and integrity. I am forthright to the point that I lack any diplomatic skills (not a surprise to anyone who has ever met me).

"There's not a lot of brake pedal going there," he said, when assessing about how I talk to people whom I am trying to bring on board with decisions.

He also said that on the scale of humanistic vs. commercial, I care very much about people, although I do not have the financial sense that God gave a chicken.

He just said it much more diplomatically.

Jean Denuzzio, the manager of the Executive Development Team, has been with DDI for 20 years. She wanted to meet me.

I am the first person she ever saw who handled the problem in Asia -- where the company is facing protests over negotiations with a firm that has workers in substandard living conditions -- by offering provisions for the workers to make their lives better.

Mrs. Denuzzio assured me that while I may not be management material, I am kind. It is news that my mother appreciates hearing.

These types of assessments can be used to help develop future leadership talent or to choose between job candidates.

Marty Factor, a DDI industrial psychologist and manager of North American Quality and Training, played my boss during the exercise. He said job seekers can sell themselves all they want but, in the high-pressure, fast-moving assessment center, behavior stands alone.

In a very different assessment -- the five-minute check-off version that Predictive Synergistic Systems gives -- I turned out to be a different person.

The North Side company uses "The Predictive Index," a test in which you first check off a list of the attributes showing how others expect you to act and then a list on how you actually are.

Dan Courser, the CEO of Predictive Synergistic Systems, used the system when he was running a chain of grocery stores in Michigan and swears by the results.

Where DDI said I was more intuitive than analytical, the Predictive Index said I was the opposite. Though I felt some of results did not accurately reflect my personality, Mr. Courser said it was who I really was.

The Predictive Index did accurately describe me as "sincere, factual and frank." He also said I was extremely approachable, which seems to be true based on the numbers of strangers coming up to me in stores.

But then the test described me as, "Private, serious, introspective and reserved. It takes her time to connect to and trust new people."

I called my mother and read her that statement. "Not you," she said.

I read her the first sentence of the summary: "Ann is a reserved, quiet, serious person who is rather thoughtful and introspective."

"That's not you, that's someone else," she said.

To be fair, maybe that is how I would be if I had a real job. Maybe it means I would be more productive given higher cubicle walls and fewer interesting people wandering by.

But Susan Mannella, my first editor here at the Post-Gazette, said we could get 100 affidavits (all from the newsroom) to say that she didn't know that reserved, quiet person. And when columnist Reg Henry heard the description, he said, "I'd like to meet that Ann."