Quality manager considering data science

[Silex7]

Hello,

I am a Quality manager and I have been taken several studies in Quality management ( both courses & degree), and I was thinking in taking a forward step in my academic studies to join Data Science program / degree. As we are truly driving towards more orientation era of data science and I entirely believe that Quality profession is declining to be a 'techno-oriented' profession , that we are moving to Quality 4.0 era of new method, and quality automated tools, that would acquire optimizing skills to handle and to adapt it in the nearly future.

The point is, I need to discuss this point with everyone because I still have some worries of taking this step (if I decided to join a degree / course).

So could you advise me how do you think this idea would be wisely taken? in the light of Quality management profession?

Thank you in advance,

 

[Silex7]

Any advice?

 

[John Broomfield]

Your point about quality being a declining profession is interesting. Many quality professionals have long argued that quality is everyone else’s responsibility!

One could argue that once line managers and engineers understand the principles of quality management they could do it all themselves; except perhaps for audit.

But do they?

The fact remains however that we all need better and more timely information to make better decisions and I would agree that opportunities in this field are definitely growing with automation much faster than quality management.

 

[RoxaneB]

I find your reason for considering the Data Science program a little too high level. WHY are you interested in taking it? WHAT are you trying to achieve/be? HOW will this program enable you to achieve that goal?

If your reasons for taking the course are purely professional (i.e., not something you're also passionate about), I would question if the program is for your.

It is difficult to offer any advice about the course if we don't know WHAT you want to be 5 years from now...10 years from now...15 years from now...

You need to know what your goal is...you to want that goal..in order to figure out what is the best path to achieve it.

 

[Watchcat]

Here is a pattern you might consider investigating.

A new fad takes industry by storm. (Consultants in particular, love new fads. They hype the heck out of them.) Industry needs skilled labor to pursue the fad. It tells the diploma mills that it is going to need untold numbers of people with those skills, for as far as the eye can see. The diploma mills, sensing a new business opportunity, gear up and start cranking them out. Recruiters, sensing chum in the water, begin hyping as well. Early grads are snatched up and showered with ka-ching. Next wave, pretty good. Next wave, okay. Next wave...hey, everybody said this was a hot job market! What happened?!? All later waves...you are a dime-a-dozen commodity, because supply has now wildly outstripped demand, for as far as the eye can see.

I said consider investigating. I am not looking for a new career, so I haven't investigated anything, but it seems to me that things go this way, maybe a lot. Lifecycles are not limited to products.

What has happened with "Lean"? (I ask, because I don't know.) What has happened to everyone who was going to earn the big bucks working for Google? (I ask because I don't know. But I do sometimes wonder if Google single-handedly brought on the student loan crisis.)

Mostly, when I hear something being repeated every 10 seconds, I think something is probably amiss here. Data S-word, in particular, color me very skeptical, up to and including that there actually is such a thing, whether it is anything remotely approximately a science, may instead be much closer to a religion, and, more simply put, be more like all the widely hyped "AI" that is really the same old automation that's been around since the 70s.

Speaking of lifecycles, that goes for careers as well. The answer to your question (and to most career-oriented questions) is not one size fits all for everyone at all different stages of their careers. Probably a lot depends on where you are in yours.

 

[Watchcat]

WHY

Job ticket.

 

[RW451]

Silex7,

Apparently asking a bunch of quality folk if you try something different is equivalent to asking a group of Homeopaths if you should consider surgery. You'll get a lot of advise but not much of it relevant.

You probably need to find people outside this forum familiar with the data science field.

 

[RoxaneB]

Job ticket.

But if the job - or the believed evolution of the job - is not what the OP is interested in or believes in or is passionate about, then I question the value in spending both time and money on pursing the degree in the field.

If the OP has aspirations to lead a company, for example, then I'd offer that pursing education in business would be more value-add than data science.

 

[RoxaneB]

Silex7,

Apparently asking a bunch of quality folk if you try something different is equivalent to asking a group of Homeopaths if you should consider surgery. You'll get a lot of advise but not much of it relevant.

You probably need to find people outside this forum familiar with the data science field.

Interesting opinion. Curious why you believe that the advice offered thus far has been irrelevant and why you are presuming that people who work in the field of quality are unfamiliar with data science.

 

[Randy]

There's nothing wrong with an education, there's nothing wrong with specialization, but ask yourself will Data Science ensure better opportunity in personal work growth enhancement or is it more likely to be a stepping stone to a 7-11, Starbucks or Mickey D's counter. I've a brother with a degree in history, a nephew with a degree in psychology and a niece going for a degree in liberal studies....Wanna guess what they're doing?

Unless you really know your education is going to attract a moth (potential employer) to a flame (you) why waste the effort and money?