Which certification to get?

Hi All,

Please give me some advice on which certification to get. Now I have spare time and want to get a certificate in order to improve my skills/knowledge and remain competitive in the field.

Here is some background about my education and work experience:
I have a bachelor degree of science and have worked in the pharma industry for 10 years: 5 years in the QA field and 5 years in the lab. My current position is doing QA work which includes CAPA, deviation investigation, SOP writing, providing GMP training, validation, change control etc. Had experience in manufacturing, packaging and a little bit in RA.

Personally, I am not a big of fan of auditing, probably because i am not so good at presenting (opening meeting and closing meeting can be stressful) and the travel part is not convenient for me (family commitment). Therefore, CQA may not be right for me?

My purpose of getting a certification is to find a senior QA job or a better paid job in brand name company, or eventually climb up the ladder (management? if possible). Given the situation here, which certification should be best fit for me? Or should I get one by one?

Also, I do not see many people talking about CPGP (Pharmaceutical GMP professional certification). I checked the BoK for this certification and it seems to be a comprehensive and useful certification. Does anyone know why it is not so popular?

Thanks in advance for your help! Goodluck to anyone who is studying for his/her exams!

storycat_ut said:

My purpose of getting a certification is to find a senior QA job or a better paid job in brand name company, or eventually climb up the ladder (management? if possible). Given the situation here, which certification should be best fit for me? Or should I get one by one?

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In terms of ASQ Certifications, I would recommend them in this order (for folks without a precise goal):

Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) - The BoK will include areas that will seem foreign to someone with a pharmaceutical background, but much of the BoK will be applicable to every other ASQ certification you consider pursuing.... specifically Fundamentals of Quality, Fundamentals of Project Management, and Statistical Methods (to a lesser extent). I don't exactly believe in gatekeeping, but if there is nothing in the CQE BoK that interest you, I wouldn't bother with any other ASQ certifications.

I found value in CQA (Certified Quality Auditor), but from a peculiar perspective... YMMV. I have a significant background in "hard science", and have had a strong grasp on experiment design so I didn't precisely need this reinforced through certification... and quite frankly I don't know how well this "sinks in" for other CQA holders... but I appreciate that it is there. The elements of the CQA that I felt were most valuable was the reinforcement of audit planning and marching through the plan. I have had far too many experiences with folks who thought they were "auditing" when they were really just poking around looking for things (and couldn't tell you what they were looking for).

CMQ/OE: I'm sure that this looks appealing to some folks for resume reasons, and the BoK looks to be well-formed. I believe that younger, less-experienced quality professionals can benefit from it, but primarily in a foundational sense. Management and Team-performance skills are one of those areas that I believe require constant self-assessment... so if this certification helps reinforce that behavior I am all for it... but I want to disclose my own iconoclastic nature when it comes to any individual certification that includes both the words "manager" and "organizational excellence".

One word of caution about ASQ certification exams: There may be industry-specific standards (and regulations) that do not apply broadly to the BoK for any given ASQ certification. I believe that this is a good thing, as recognizing these differences will give a quality professional a healthy perspective on the fields they work in. I must caution however against this: often I have observed strident opposition to particular elements of an ASQ certification examine with phrases like "that's not how we do it" or "that's not what I was taught"... sometimes folks may not have been taught correctly, but often it is the case that their specific industry has more precise, standardized terminology and methods. Don't be discouraged!

Good Luck!

In terms of "usefulness" and "hiring" , CQE has been the most in demand during the past decade I have been watching the help wanted ads. I do like the CQI, CQSSGB, CQA for very general use, and I have found the CCT to be very handy but its a 3 year renewable like the CQE and CQM/OE.

Want to increase earning potential, get a Business degree that's finance heavy. All those area/subject specific certifications are nice but if you don't understand basic economics, finance and all that really neat stuff and can talk it as well, then you're just another person with letters behind your name like an English lord....My 2 cents.

Randy said:

Want to increase earning potential, get a Business degree that's finance heavy. All those area/subject specific certifications are nice but if you don't understand basic economics, finance and all that really neat stuff and can talk it as well, then you're just another person with letters behind your name like an English lord....My 2 cents.

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If you have an Engineering degree and CQE, you would have no problem getting a job in the Quality field making above average pay. I have a Manufacturing Engineering degree and MBA. I was a CQE, CQA and CRE (certified reliability engineer). That's all they offered at the time. I left a major aerospace company to become an auditor in AS9100, ISO113485 and ISO 14001 working for two major registrars. The current daily pay is $800 to $900 a day with travel time pay. That's where the money is, if you don't mind travelling and away from your family. Now I work one week out of a month average just for the fun of it. It is a great part time job. My MBA did not help that much making more money in my case.

I helped my daughter starting a new career after she graduated with an art degree without a job. I sent her to a one-week class to become a trainer on J-Standard. She got a job within 2 weeks and then joined a huge aerospace company as an assembler, technician, Internal auditor ..... Within 5 years, She got her Master degree in QA online and became CQE and ISO registered auditor. She could be making over $4,000 a week working for a registrar auditing to AS9100, but decided to take a regular easy job in Quality Department. One of the companies she worked for sent her all over the world performing internal audits of sister companies and get them ready for AS9100 re-certification audits.

It is getting harder and harder to become a registered Auditor in AS9100, ISO 14385 and other areas. The exams are getting much harder to pass. It is also getting harder to maintain our registrations. I spent the last three weeks preparing and taking the AS9104 exam. I finally passed after taking it three times. They expect you to memorize the entire 9104 and 9101 standards. They give you one hour to answer 30 questions. I can't use my own paper copy of the standards. My coworkers are having a hard time passing this exam.

If you like to become part of the management team, a business degree may help. For job security, the best combination is Engineering degree and CQE. To make over $200,000 a year, become an registered auditor in aerospace, medical, environmental ........ field is the way to go. You can also do consulting on the side. I used to charge $5,000 to 8,000 a week performing internal audits or internal auditor training for companies. The choice is yours and it has to fit your life style.

Thank you for telling me something I've been doing over 20 years. I think your numbers and references might be a tad off, to make $200K @ $900 per day you'd have to deliver about 222 day a year not counting travel days (260 or so days are possible not taking any vacation or anything like that, but in a year or 2 you'd be dead with travel & all). I seriously doubt any CB pays $900+ travel, they might but I doubt it especially for 14K auditor who are a quarter per dozen compared to 9K auditors at a dime per dozen.

I was making $800 a day + Travel time 3 years ago from a major registrar performing AS9100 audits. Major registrars are now paying about $850 to $900 a day. Don't forget the extra day of report time and also travel time pay. So, for a 4-day audit, I got paid for 5 days ($4,000) because of the extra day of reporting time pay. I used to worked about 40 weeks a year average and made over $150,000 a year. I was vacationing or taking time off 10-12 weeks out of the the year. Making over $200,000 a year is not difficult if your daily pay is $900+ travel time; and if you are the Lead auditor about half the time getting an extra day of reporting pay. I know auditors making more than $200K every year.

$200K a year is not that much for a contractor auditor. If we don't make that much, we may as well work for a company and get the other benefits like paid vacations, 401K, medical insurance ........ A senior Quality engineer for a major aerospace company get paid average 120K these days with BS degree and CQE title.