How to become a Quality Engineer
In general the term "Engineer" refers to someone who has a 4 year degree.
Some companies promote from within and base their promotions totally on ability, and so these companies may have "Non-Degreed" engineers. If you work for one of these companies, just follow the company's hr procedures to become a non-degreed engineer, otherwise you will need to complete your degree.
As with many careers being Quality Engineer,(QE) covers a broad spectrum. In some companies, a QE is just one of the production engineers who is given the task of monitoring quality, in others the QE must be certified.
According to the Quality Council of Indiana, here are the requirements to become a Certified Quality Engineer;
=======================You must have eight years of on-the-job experience in one or more of the areas of the Certified Quality Engineer Body of Knowledge. A minimum of three years of this experience must be in a decision-making position. "Decision-making" is defined as the authority to define, execute, or control projects/processes and to be responsible for the outcome. This may or may not include management or supervisory positions.
If you are now or were previously certified by ASQ as a Quality Auditor, Reliability Engineer, Software Quality Engineer, or Quality Manager, experience used to qualify for certification in these fields applies to certification as a Quality Engineer.
If you have completed a degree from a college, university, or technical school with accreditation accepted by ASQ, part of the eight-year experience requirement will be waived, as follows (only one of these waivers may be claimed):
- Diploma from a technical or trade school-one year will be waived* Associate degree-two years waived* Bachelor's degree-four years waived* Master's or doctorate-five years waived========================
As you can see, the requirements are very strict. Granted, many companies do not require certifications, and so you could become a QE without the certification, but if your career goal is to become a QE, then you must get your degree and certifications.
The Quality Council of Indiana website has a lot of good resources to guide you;http://www.qualitycouncil.com/cqe.asp
Good Luck!
