Q: Is Six Sigma the Right Career Path for Me?
This is an undervalued question and is very important for someone to think about this before changing fields (or starting out for the first time).
I feel it is important to ask yourself honestly if you are passionate about this field. Back in the 1990s and 2000s, there were many colleges and universities “pushing” careers onto high school graduates because of the high pay, but it seemed that few colleges and universities bothered to ask students if they were passionate about their new career choice in the first place. I think it is best to not go into a field because of money because if you do, you may end up hating your job and even hating yourself. I have worked with younger, recent college graduate engineers in the 2000s that really seemed to have had no business being in the field because they lacked passion and seemed bored. And from articles and forum rooms discussions I have read in recent years, this problem extends into law and medicine also.
Whether or not someone wants to go into LSS as a career, or to simply take an awareness course at their job, I feel it is value-added and will be beneficial in ones future. Employer’s like to see “LSS” in your resume. And many times, per my experiences, an employer may only be looking for someone that knows the basics in order to help out on the production-lines, i.e. manufacturing or to assist in administrative process improvements. An employer may already have a Black or Master Black Belt, but it is difficult to find someone who can assist the teams and help with the tasks such as preparing team meetings, preparing management briefings, record meeting minutes, etc. Someone with basic training in LSS may be that right person that can assist the BB or MBB and management, which takes a lot off the backs of those that are already “too busy”. It can also be the right stepping-stone to more LSS responsibilities.
I have been in this field since 1996 and I am very passionate about it. I studied it at college (inferential, descriptive statistics, LSS, Operations Management), have an MBA in Engineering, and have practiced it in automotive, Iraq, and now I am in the federal government and I have been fortunate enough to work full-time and part-time in this field.
Here are my two-cents, if anyone cares.
1. My instructor at college made a great point about this field, this was between 1997 and 1999, when I attended. He said, “If you’re going into this field to make friends, you’re going into the wrong business”. He was absolutely right.
2. You need to have “sticktoitiveness” because there is a lot of work to do and you have to be self-reliant.
3. You need to be objective, not subjective in your work. Co-workers will act indifferent (don’t take it personally), they will negate your work (again, don’t take it personally). Just smile and say thank-you and give them breathing room.
4. You should be strong and disciplined. You cannot let others dictate to you or manipulate you, but politely reminds those types that it is a team effort.
5. I see this often with myself; you’ll be doing 80% of more of the actual work and that means setting up your DMAIC template, collecting the data, making the Pareto charts, the cause and effect analysis, determining the KPOV and KPIVs, doing the Hypothesis, and also doing the same for the Pilot. In the end, consider it good practice. I also try to write out my DMAICs as though I am writing a manual with a summary ending each phase, so anyone reading the project can easily understand what is being accomplished. And yes I know how we should be doing it; all team-members doing the work. But this is real-life, not a training manual.
6. Each time you open up a project, there is always something that you think you can or should improve upon such as “rewriting that Objective, Mission, or Problem Statement, change charts, etc.,” based on what some team member said. Try not to over-do it, but you will.
7. Every work culture you work in will be different than the previous one; no two are the same. I could write a book about this one.
8. You should like to read a lot. When, and if, I get a minute, I try to review my Six Sigma Study books, guides, flashcards, etc. I don’t try to memorize them, but I just glance at them quickly for either reference or a quick read. The more I review, the more it keeps me “in the know”.
9. I am lucky to have so many great experiences and I have worked with some great LSS folks throughout the years. I am actually working with a guy that worked with THE MAN himself; Mr. Ed Deming. That is surreal to me because my college instructor made Deming “required reading”, and now I am working with someone that worked with him? My co-worker finds it funny that I admire him so much and he finds it embarrassing that I brag about it, but I cannot help it; he worked with Ed Deming.
10. Remember there is always someone better at this job than you, so listen and pay attention to what they say. You can even learn from LSS beginners because they are unbiased and lack experience and they will be more open-minded and offer ideas and solutions that the more experienced may over look.
11. For every company I have worked at, or project I have worked on, I can tell you something that I have learned that could possibly used in another project, another job, another time, and another dimension. Develop a good memory if you do not have one, because it will help you.
12. Finally, you’ll always have a job.