Of course I'm referring to Six-Sigma black belts, not the martial art

I'm thinking of taking some training to get started on Six-Sigma but would like to know what the market pays for these things.

 

whats six-sigma? Ive seen job posting for them, but I had no idea what they were.

 

yea, mo' info needed! I paid about $20 for my black belt at macy's. It's even reversable to a brown belt.

 

It's variable. My dad is a black belt and the opportunites varied based on his other skill set.

So, I think it's an additive thing.

 

I don't know the worth, but I'm not impressed with their value.

I've done some work with these so called "Black-Belt's" and it's highly dependant on the person. Some good, some not so.

It may be a good feather in your cap to have it though.

 

For those not in the know, I beleive the black belt is an engineering term having to do with quality control. It has expanded to other fields though as a quality control goal. It started in Japan (who is obviously know for their quality). It is derived for sigma which is a sign for standard deviation. It seeks quality to a six standard deviation level which is quite good. You need to know simple statistics to understand this.

 

I think it depends on the company. Here at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics you arent paid any extra if you are a black belt or a green belt. They used to give you bonuses for it, but they did away with that.

But you can also look at it in the respect that it will make you more marketable to other departments within your company. On the flip side, a Lockheed Black Belt is useless at say, Boeing, but it is possible that they might grandfather you in.

One of our new guys is a BB from Boeing and we are grandfathering him in here.

Hope that helps!

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by TepEvan
[B]yea, mo' info needed!

 

Mingster, you can PM me if you want. I work for a company that is a leader in six-sigma quality and as one of my roles I place individuals into BlackBelt roles in IT.

In case anyone is curious, in our company:

Green Belt: take 2 weeks of quality courses, pass an exam, and complete one quality project. This is a certification on top of someone's current role. Our IT team is expected to have everyone GB certified by the end of the year.

Black Belt: take one more week of training mandatory, plus one optional week, pass a more difficult exam, and complete two quality projects, and serve 18 months in the role. It's a full time role.

Master Black Belt: one more week of training, the same exam as the BB, complete two projects, plus mentor a certain number of BB projects, and serve at least 18 months in the role.

We also have Quality Leader certifications and something called EB+ for executives, but those are more esoteric and to be honest, I don't know for certain what they do to get certified.

Dave

 

The value of having a Black Belt has gone down significantly, from my perspective, while the number of jobs requiring one has grown - but the number of people with a BB has grown exponentially faster. If you have the time and money, it's one more thing to put on your resume that may get you noticed, but in and of itself I don't think a BB will get you ahead these days.

My 2 cents...