Carl Keller said:
Jennifer,
I am not trying to be a smarta$$ here, but if you live in an area where there are no quality jobs, and moving is not an option, why would you persue a career in it?
I mean, why not start taking classes in business management or engineering or whatever is available in your area rather than trying to mask your actual Quality discipline with a broader title?
Carl-
That's actually a good question Carl, I appreciate your levity.
I've actually noticed some picking up of advertising for quality jobs. More and more, however, they are being used to describe work in non-manufacturing sectors that doesn't much align with what I am familiar with in manufacturing. These sectors, like heath care and financing, want people who are already within their sectors; like RNs. This tells me their quality systems are probably still in the development stages, or they would know that what we do can be applied to very many sectors.
My current position in public education is a new career path, but I don't feel really comfortable in a role of classroom teacher. If you could just be there...I have some pretty rough customers.
But education is a field that really needs what we do. Not in design of experiments or ANOVA, and not in the House of Quality. But there is lots of need for TQM/Baldrige principles and they could use some better problem solving skills.
Why mask my abilities? I do not think of it as masking them; I think of it as adapting them. I find myself utterly unable to wipe my head clean of them. I've tried going into the newspaper industry as a reporter, or in customer service or in circulation. I'm pretty sure I scared them during interviews. They don't understand the value of what we do yet, if they ever will.
And so now I am going incognito. I am learning interesting things about the upcoming work force. It's not your uncle's work force anymore. I will be able to market the skill in helping businesses get the most out of their employees. I can show them how to find the costs in reducing human errors and employee turnover. Is this not also related to Quality? Human performance and making good decisions?
I have four products in publishing house review, aimed at helping small businesspeople accomplish this and maintain it on their own.
And so it will take time, but in my better moments I am still pretty sure I will find a way to make a really good jug of lemonade out of this challenge. That's what life's all about! How well we play the hand we're given.