Is CQE necessary for professional advancement in ones career ?

Well, let me respond with a loud and resounding "it depends".

The way I look at it is that if you can take the test with little studying and pass it with ease, then take it. Why not?

If you will have to work at it, as I did, then taking the test with the expectation that the magic letters after the name will result in promotions, raises, fame and fortune, maybe you should reconsider. But, if a real interest in advancing your knowledge in the field exists, dive into it, enjoy the learning experience, and go for it.

Is it necessary? Depends on the person, the company, the working environment ...

As Craig said, it's only necessary for the employer that requires a CQE or is prone to use the cert as a tiebreaker between two candidates.

There have been long discussions on this subject. See the related threads below.

Also depends on what your idea is of advancing your career. If you are interested in management, then I suggest the CQM. And it is not as technical as the CQE.

Totally worthless if your a Nascar Driver, Brain Surgeon, or Butler and many other careers.

You need to tighten up a bit with your question.

Totally worthless if your a Nascar Driver, Brain Surgeon, or Butler and many other careers.

You need to tighten up a bit with your question.

I noticed that CraigH, Jennifer Kirley and pondo did not have any problems with the original question.... All three provided helpful answers.

I'll tell ya Jan, I answered the question honestly and directly. The question was very non-specific with assumptions being made by the other respondents. Even in my present career field a CQE may be close to worthless when it comes to advancement.

Is a CQE necessary? NO!

How about that? A one word answer where a thousand words could be used.

I'll tell ya Jan, I answered the question honestly and directly. The question was very non-specific with assumptions being made by the other respondents. Even in my present career field a CQE may be close to worthless when it comes to advancement.

Is a CQE necessary? NO!

How about that? A one word answer where a thousand words could be used.

I'll rest my case. :frust:

I have worked for quality managers that have had no credentials or real knowledge of even basic quality. I once wasted five hours of my life trying to teach one how to construct an X-bar and R chart (he probably couldn't draw one still). There are places in the world where professional advancement is based on who you know and who you are or how well you can sell yourself (also what you are willing to do). I'll agree...NO.

I agree the question could have been more tightly phrased, but I originally put it down to the difficulty most folks have in working out a "progress plan" for their careers.

Here's the deal:
If one's idea of "advancement" is to move from one pay grade to the next while remaining in a staff job, then the technical learning necessary to understand and regurgitate the Body of Knowledge for CQE will probably make the individual a more valuable staffer. The added fact of holding the certificate (versus just learning the BOK) "may" be a nice addition to one's personnel file, perhaps accelerating a progression through pay grades, depending on the mentality of the "powers that be" making pay decisions.

If one's idea of advancement is moving from a staff position to a line officer (lab foremen and supervisors are merely glorified staff), then that individual would be much better served taking business, sales, marketing, and accounting courses to learn to speak the language of the line officer ranks.

:topic:If you are a regular reader here in the Cove, you are probably aware I have a long experience as a C-level executive. I am capable of doing most of the statistical grunt work of CQE's and Black Belts, but I hired folks to perform those functions, since my value to the organization was as an executive, not a staff person. I became and remained an executive because I DID speak the language of the executive suite. My added advantage was that I could separate fly specks from pepper because I could ALSO speak "tech" and rarely had to suffer with incompetent staff folks who boasted credentials, but couldn't deliver the goods and were able to "coast" in jobs at other organizations where the executives couldn't tell whether the staff were idling or in gear.

I have worked for quality managers that have had no credentials or real knowledge of even basic quality. I once wasted five hours of my life trying to teach one how to construct an X-bar and R chart (he probably couldn't draw one still). There are places in the world where professional advancement is based on who you know and who you are or how well you can sell yourself (also what you are willing to do). I'll agree...NO.This makes me laugh. I imagine trying to teach this elegant mathematic practice in 5 hours. :lmao:

:topic: :lmao:

This makes me laugh. I imagine trying to teach this elegant mathematic practice in 5 hours. :lmao:
Actually Jenn, we were just trying to get past the calculate the average, find the range, and plot the points part. Anything further would have been futile. This guy was someone's cousin, or something, promoted because he was an amazing YES man.

Actually Jenn, we were just trying to get past the calculate the average, find the range, and plot the points part. Anything further would have been futile. This guy was someone's cousin, or something, promoted because he was an amazing YES man.Ah yes, I'm familiar with this dynamic.

I used to work for a family owned company, where the management was inclined to hire the owner's wife's nephews for the summer. One's major was Golf Course Management (he was smart enough but more interested in practicing his golf swing than watching what his machine was doing) but the other I remember was a real winner. After many tries the supervisor gave up trying to teach the young man how to read a tape measure, and instead made a mark on it showing "Cut this long." This young fellow would stand outside in the sunshine without his shirt on and, um, dial himself in if you get my drift. We on the inside almost hurt ourselves when we saw that.:lmao:

I feel that it could make a significant different, suppose I have two candidate one with CQE & the other without. I would select CQE.
To me it doesn't guarentee anything but at least the candidate has some knowledge of basic things about the quality, eng, project management, quality costing, reliability etc (see the BOK of CQE)
:thanks:

If you want to advance your career you would be much better off showing management that you are capable of these higher roles than relying on a qualification to get you noticed.

The thing i have found with advancing my own career is that if you want to be promoted then you actually have to be doing as much of a higher level role as possible before you will be promoted.

Taking responsibility and delivering your objectives on time and to budget is the best way I have found for advancing my career.

Yes, I think so, at least you can get professional knowledge.