Obtaining 4 ASQ certifications within 6 months is indeed a heavy lift as you would imagine and yes you can do it with the right motivation, plan and character. I believe you can also do better.The first and most important step is to avoid any element of procrastination.
My career philosophy is simple. "The best company you can work for is yourself". Take the role of a consultant (imagine you are a consultant) and learn the skills in the BOK. Take a mental role as a consultant in any specific domain of interest and learn like a teacher.
By consultant, I mean imagine you are a consultant in a company and also imagine that the company depends solely on you to plan, implement, measure performance and continually improve the specific domain in question.
My objective here is to share a quick insight into my study plan and more importantly the thinking that unlocks all possibility. Secondly, it is also a response to several questions I received on how to prepare and pass ASQ certification exams. More more than the pleasure of passing a milestone exam like ASQ list of certification, the experienced and new skills you stand to gain during the preparation phase out weighs the recognition or designation.
As I write this article about how I successfully passed all 4 ASQ Certifications (ASQ SSGB, ASQ CQE, ASQ CQA, ASQ CMQ/OE) within 6 months, I began to think about what changed for me.
My ASQ Certification Schedule :
I failed my first CQE exam attempt in 2016 by a margin of 6 points and then 6 months later I took the same exam and failed by a margin of 11 points.
Do not underestimate the CQE Exams.
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I remembered vividly having this moment of total disappointment in my inability to comprehend the and pass the CQE exams. I never thought about writing any ASQ exams until around February 2019.
“One surest way to failure is to consider yourself as not qualified for success” This was exactly what happened to me. I lost hope in myself. The biggest win for us all will be to conquer ourselves.
Something unique happened that changed my approach to life and It is that same thing that is in everyone compelling them to succeed.I went from not being able to pass CQE after 6 months of preparation into passing 4 ASQ certifications within 6 months.
What changed for me?
After a very long time of deliberation, I concluded that the only element that changed for me is that I became motivated. I would put it out there that I was overwhelmed with the joy of success in all 4 certifications before the fact. I held this joy of success even in the absence of the certification result. It was so vivid in my mind that I had to develop a detailed plan to achieve my goals.
First, I had a goal and then developed a plan. I went into it with the right attitude and character.I took the role of a different character for each exam and went ahed to make it happen.See highlights of specific examples below.
Step 1: Take up a consultant role.
ASQ CQE
For the ASQ CQE exam, I took the role/ character of an engineer who had the responsibility of developing quality engineering process for a multinational organization. I took this awesome and fantastic responsibly as the only subject matter expert who understood the principles of product & service quality, product & service quality risk mitigation, quality planning, process evaluation, control and continuous improvement.It is absolutely a fantastic feeling to take on this awesome responsibility while you study for the ASQ CQE exams.
ASQ CMQOE
For ASQ CMQOE, I took the character of a corporate quality director for a multinational organization with multiple sites across the globe who is saddled with the responsibility of providing answer to this very important question “ What can the quality function do to help the company identify and implement new initiative that will enable it to break into new markets while providing the enablement for sustained success of the organization ?
"Think of yourself as a corporate quality director" of “give it a name” and imagine how you would integrate the need of management team and all other business processes to facilitate strategic initiatives that would create an organizational culture that delivers set quality goals. A broader mindset is required for this exam. Think PDCA:Plan-Do-Check-Act.
Once again, my intention in the article is to bring into your awareness the need to take up a role/character while preparing for each certification exam. Assuming the right role is important for passing the ASQ exams as the you would soon find in the ASQ questions.
It is also very important to point at this point that ASQ exams are not the easiest exams out there. Each exam will give you a full taste for the time allocated.
Next step : Study. “Learn like a teacher”
I bought all BOK (Body of Knowledge) per certification from ASQ and premier (Quality Council of Indiana) with hard copy questions. I prefer hard copy books; I love the discipline that comes with reading a hard copy book.
I started by reading the primer book, then ASQ BOK, thereafter primer book and wrap it up with premier questions and ASQ sample questions. This is a very rigorous process as you would imagine, I had to read every day after work for an average of 2 hours daily.
Below is a non conclusive list of my books on quality engineering management. I had to consult several authors whenever there is a need for it.
I would recommend that you read practical tools by ( PQ Systems (Author), Jacqueline D. Graham (Author), Michael J. Cleary (Author) ) if you are reading forASQ SSGB and ASQ CQE. Both books can be found on Amazon.
I'll like to end by saying that you can do it.
“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skilful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives, the cumulative experience of many masters of craftsmanship.”- William A. Foster
Remember to pass it forward and drop a comment if you are motivated by it.
