Quality Career Without a Degree

Kurt Smith said:

In my area any listing for senior inspector, quality management, or quality engineering will expect a degree. I'm not afraid to apply without it. I just wanted to guage how important people felt the degree was. Or how much weight something like a CQE or CSSGB held compared to the degree.
And it's not like I am actively looking at jobs right now. Just future planning.

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Some employers are relaxing the degree expectation. The only way to find out is to apply and see what happens. I suggest there is more you can collect in your tool box in the meantime. Have you done auditing? If not, this is a good time to start. You might even coax management to send you to a school for that. Completing an accredited Lead Auditor course can help open doors. Also, keep going with the Green Belt and I do suggest you pick up a used copy of ASQ's Certified Quality Manager/Organizational Excellence Handbook and keep it as a desk reference. It could help you in your new role and eventually prepare you for that cert if you choose to pursue it.

Jen Kirley said:

Some employers are relaxing the degree expectation. The only way to find out is to apply and see what happens. I suggest there is more you can collect in your tool box in the meantime. Have you done auditing? If not, this is a good time to start. You might even coax management to send you to a school for that. Completing an accredited Lead Auditor course can help open doors. Also, keep going with the Green Belt and I do suggest you pick up a used copy of ASQ's Certified Quality Manager/Organizational Excellence Handbook and keep it as a desk reference. It could help you in your new role and eventually prepare you for that cert if you choose to pursue it.

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I will definitely do that. ASQ really seems like the go to standard. And I will look into auditing.

If you are young, get the degree. Take two classes at a time year round, and don't stop until you are done. You will be held back if you don't have it, and you will regret not getting it. Just my opinion.

Kurt,

Congratulations on your new job!

My experience is that I went to college early in life, did a bachelors in Mechanical Engineering and have spent my working time since then (8 years) in various quality roles. I'm convinced the degree helps me get in the door for interviews but I have never spoken about it in depth since my first interview, if it gets mentioned at all. If it does, it's a "oh you have a degree". Once you're in the door, you have to lean on your experiences and achievements in the real world. Most of what I learnt in college I don't use, aside from how to use CAD, some advanced Math, working in groups and presentation experience (the latter two being the most valuable).

Much like Jen has said, degree's specific in Quality are in their earliest infancy and prerequisites in a job description are a vague wishlist/guideline at best.

Of actual help in the real world I would rank from highest to lowest:

1. Digging in the Elsmar Cove
2. Asking new things in the Elsmar Cove
3. Spending time with co-workers and colleagues on their problems
4. Public speaking course
5. Various Quality/Psychology/Business/Engineering books - see #1 for recommendations
6. Donald Wheelers archive on Quality Digest
7. 12 Days to Deming - free self study course
8. Industry specific courses - auditing, problem solving, how to apply ISO standards, etc
9. Bachelor's degree

Also, big companies tend to have competence tests in Math and English to weedle out the riff-raff before you get to the interview stage. If your resume looks interesting enough with real world achievements you should get through, and if they value alphabet soup prefixes and suffixes over the real world are they an employer you would want to work for?

Disclaimer: I do not work for the Elsmar Cove or Quality Digest, and I am a tea drinker from the other side of the pond.

Like Jen, I set out by amassing a quantity of certifications from ASQ (not a member) while working various quality positions in 3 different companies, and working here at the cove for Marc, updating many of the resources available here. I did run into a few "do you have a degree" questions in various job interviews, so I "paid for" a Masters degree in Chaplaincy and that solved all those questions going forward, from then on the "degree" box was checked and never was an issue since. I never attended college although I held AP classes all through high school, nor do I regret not going when younger. It has never hampered my professional development as much as old age has!

Degrees are mainly a foot in the door with the larger companies. Once you get in, experience and demonstrated abilities usually mean more for advancement than the degree. As Jen stated earlier, some companies are relaxing the degree requirement given the outrageous costs for a degree, and are accepting equivalent experience, but this is far from being common. It also isn't much help for someone that does not have the equivalent experience.

• More U.S. companies no longer requiring job seekers to have a college degree
• 1 in 3 companies are ditching college degree requirements for salaried jobs
• You no longer need a college degree to work at these 7 companies

Kurt Smith said:

I recently got my first position as a quality manager at a small fab shop. I've worked in manufacturing for most of 10 years, about half of that an inspector of some kind. I hope to eventualy move towards positions in larger companies. Quality management. Quality engineering. Even specialty inspection. They all seem interesting to me. Problem is I've never been to college. How much will this hold me back?
How far can I expect to go without a college degree? How effective will certifications be at offsetting the college?

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Hey Kurt - you're in the door and that's the most important part.
I have worked with plenty of quality managers who did not have 4 year college degree. Some had a 2 year degree some and no college at all.
And are all great quality managers.

That said, and this is just my opinion, you may be limited to smaller companies since large companies will generally just pass by non-degreed people based on their recruiting algorithms. There are exceptions but with everything automated now it's a tough hurdle to get over.

ASQ and other certifications can only help but I might suggest that you take the time you would use to study for those certs and take some college level classes towards an associates or bachelors. Does your company have tuition reimbursement? Take advantage of that if they do! I still kick myself for not taking advantage of that earlier in my career to work towards a masters.

Johnny Quality said:

I am a tea drinker from the other side of the pond.

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As are many of the folks I work with. I'm having my English Breakfast tea as I type.

I have no quality certifications to put behind my name, I have no college quality anything, and I've been in the Quality field off and on for 35 years. How? I started by strapping broken helicopters to my rear end and doing test flights in them.

Use a rough definition of "competency" to pursue your wish... "Training-Education-Experience".

I consider Experience to be the most valuable. Anyone can sit for hours and listen to some expert drone on about how smart & fantastic they are (you might get something from that).

Education is what it is, just longer Training with a test. (Anyone can pass a test, I'm proof of that, I've an MBA, do you think I really know all that MBA crap?).

Experience is the name of the game, that's where you learn not to put your finger in the flame what's what, and what does or does not..

Good "Experience" coupled with some "Ed" and "Training" is the answer. I encounter people all the time with multiple letters behind their names, certificates on walls and even fancy rings saying "I went here" and what do I really see? People more lost than a flock of blindfolded ducks, flying at night, during a new moon, in a dust storm! All that time getting education, training, paper & abbreviations that has nothing to fall back on because much more time was spent learning and very little was spent doing. Ya gotta "do the do".

All things equal having a bachelor's in any business/STEM field is good. Some companies have an "Arbitrary" degree requirement for high-level managers not for the degree itself but for a demonstration that you can plan your future and execute it to some level. College degrees require a substantial investment of time and $$. It is good to show you can manage a 4-year plan. Its also important to remember some people peak in college!

I had no degree until 2010. I then obtained my BSBM and it wasn't met with much fanfare. The company already knew my competence level.

FWIW, I never got my degree. I have held the position of Quality Manager for three aerospace manufacturers.