Getting Certified

Many of us ponder whether to seek certification or not. There is a huge time commitment and there are some significant costs. Taking the ASQ Six Sigma Black Belt CSSBB test ("Stand out as a quality leader in your organization with an ASQ certification next to your name.") cost non-members $420 and members $260. The benefits are personal pride and potentially some career gains.
Mike Micklewright has an interesting article in Quality Digest entitled Black Belt For Sale. Mike is an experienced quality and manufacturing engineer who finaly took the plunge to seek certification. Because of his vast experiences he struggled with how to prepare for the test. In order to understand what to expect he bought a common primer. he found himself focused on the test and not on knowledge, per se.

I was gaining the knowledge of how to pass a test so that I could become
certified. I wasn’t gaining much in the way of knowledge. W. Edwards Deming
would have been ticked off!

Mike's honesty wrung true with me. Topics of whether to certify or not, who gave the certifier the right to judge competency and charge such fees, and is the certification worth it, are ongoing.