Six Sigma Certification – Any advice?

If you think this online cert. is going to help you then by all means go for it. If you are in a position where this is all you can do right now, it’s better than nothing. Take what you can and implement these into projects at work, and let the company that you work for see the value of Six Sigma. Your interest alone is a good starting point.

Cheryl,
Ostensibly, this forum would be the ideal place to ask a question about Six Sigma certification.  In reality, this forum is the absolute last place in the world where you could ever expect to get anything resembling a straight answer about anything related to Six Sigma. 
There are about 20-30 people out there who evidently do absolutely nothing else than post on this forum — some of them will make 50-75 posts a day almost every day. 
Anyway, these people tend to be very knowledgeable about Six Sigma — many of them are academics — but the purpose of their posts is usually just to insult the person who asked the original question.  Specifically, they evidently believe that anyone who does ask a question is simply lazy for not looking it up instead of asking.
As for your original post relating to Six Sigma certification, it’s fairly obvious that you wish to learn the Six Sigma Body of Knowledge and obtain a certification from a reputable certifier in order to broaden your horizons, expand your skill set, make yourself more marketable, or any of 50 other reasons.
The first person to reply to your post could have told you what you needed to do but instead, he simply challenged the formulation of your intentions.  REALLY HELPFUL.  Unfortunately that’s usually the best that you’ll ever get in this forum.
As to your original point, the ASQ material is probably the best and it’s geared towards the ASQ Black Belt exam.  That exam is a point of major dispute in this forum.  You can probably find hundreds of posts slamming the validity of that test.  However, it’s the best certification out there.  If a SS job posted online and 75 resumes are received and 10 of those 75 are ASQ certified, then those 10 resumes are going straight to the front of the line. 
You should check out their website at asq.org for more info but don’t ever expect to learn anything valuable from the isixsigma forum.
 

“If a SS job posted online and 75 resumes are received and 10 of those 75 are ASQ certified, then those 10 resumes are going straight to the front of the line.”
Where did you get this data??

HR Recruiters sorting out which resumes to send to Quality VP’s.

Anonymous, If you have been offended in the past by either direct response to your posts or by reading the responses to the posting of others, please consider joining our group of recovering isixsigma.com posters.   It is a support group aimed at restoring the fragile psyche of those desirous enough of learning more about the field of Six Sigma to have either been venturous enough to access the forum or courageous enough to have actually posted but in either case not well equipped to deal with responses.    First and foremost, it is not you, you are not to blame, you are not overly sensitive, you are truly dealing with people in the forum who are troubled and recalcitrant.   Don’t take your forum experience as a personal affront, state your case and move on.   The multi-step recovery process moves you from hostile denial and fear of rejection to becoming a well-informed callous jerk like your peers.    I don’t know that your statistics were or were not fact-based, but for every 30 – 40 accomplished posters there a literally hundreds of sensitive contributors like yourself who have tried to share their expertise only to be told that they were either idiots or ill informed only to have folded their little tents and moved to less challenging forums.    This will seem like tough love but – stop your whining, dry your little eyes, blow your little nose, stand up straight and post (intelligently this time).   The meetings are on Thursdays, 7:00PM on Yahoo’s Yahooligans channel five (you might have to wait until all of the complaining about this civics teacher or that mean Mom is over, but after an hour or so we bump all of those other whiner’s off the internet and really get down to healing and plotting – talk to you again Friday, and stay away from that Stan guy – he’s really mean). Stand your ground (if they let you)    

There was a scene in a John Hughes movie back in the ’80’s where one character said to another, “You probably got beat up in high school a lot didn’t you?”…  I’m going to go with my gut here and guess that others have usually either asked or thought the same thing whenever they meet you. 
I could provide a longer response but why bother.  Simply read Cheryl’s most recent reply to my first post.
Later Forum

Hi Cheryl,
I understand your situation and speak from a similar set of experiences.  I am also an analyst that gained certification (SSGB & SSBB from Villanova U.) in six sigma in an attempt to bring statistical/data driven management to a “traditional”, experience/opinion based organization.  My challenges have been in articulating the power of data driven management and the need for factual, statistical, data driven decision making in an unsupportive culture where experience and opinion dominate.  I would agree with previous postings that while paper certification is nice and provides the foundation for six sigma based improvement projects and initiatives (the essential body of knowledge), projects are where I have learned most, and where I have had the most success in illustrating the power of six sigma, statistics, data driven decision making.  Not knowing how receptive your leadership is (that they don’t/won’t support your education in SS may be an indication) I can only speak from my experiences.  Not having support makes six sigma life much more difficult.  Impressing upon unreceptive management, the need for data driven decision making (SPC, DOE, FMEA…) is difficult and requires forethought and tact, and Six Sigma implementation will be difficult, if not impossible in some cases.  Tread carefully, and intelligently.  I have found that small steps have worked best.  Suggestion: prepare, evaluate your environment, evaluate current and past intitiaves, what has worked and failed and why, formulate a plan.  You will find multiple articles refering to the need for management commitment to a SS initiative.  I agree that this facilitates a SS implementation, but even without commitment from the top, you may still be able to catalyze the effort if you are careful not to turn people off to it early on.  If you find the leaders in each peer group and develop their understand of the approach, you may be able to gain some traction.  If you don’t have a MBB or mentor with significant statistical knowledge, this site is (in my opinion) one of your best resources, although you might have to “sift through some chaff” and dust yourself off occassionally.  I also agree that the Quality Council of Indiana has excellent material.  Having the desire to bring SS, data driven management, is step one, now the fun begins.  Good luck

Fragile,It’s more likely that you were an “attempted smart-a**” in high school because in order to actually be a successful one, you would’ve had to have something clever to say.I’m glad that you never got beaten up.  I’m sure that you’ve never run a mile or managed a staff either.  You’re non-value added.

Stan is really mean? Now my feelings are hurt.

And, let’s see… Anonymous, your initial complaint was what again??… Oh yes, people posting on this forum are rude, critical of others and don’t add value to Six Sigma?   Looks like you got over that concern quickly.   That didn’t take long.  Welcome to the herd.  Thinking about changing your posting ID to “Anonymous Twit”?

“since you ar enot in manufacturing its all y9ou need.”
You have GOT to be kidding………..

Cheryl
As you can tell, there are a lot of opinions when it comes to certification.
Clearly, for the purposes you describe, certification is not necessary (although it might be nice to have).  You can learn and digest the Six Sigma body of knowledge, and apply it to your company’s business processes, without the piece of paper.
Indeed, it is the piece of paper that tends to raise the emotions around here.  Most reputable certifying agencies expect you to complete at least one project, and in some cases, even show some benefits.  However, there is no real standard as to what constitutes certification, so there are some pretty weak programs out there, too.
The actual certification probably is helpful in getting a job, though as most folks around here will remind you, over and over, that any employer worth his salt will be looking much harder at what you have accomplished than at what pieces of paper you happen to be carrying around.
That all being said, your plan to investigate BMG sounds like a good one.  I would, however, try to focus more on the softer side of Six Sigma.  You have indicated that you are strong on stats, and that is a good thing.  However, statistics are only a part of the Six Sigma toolkit.  Practitioners sometimes get so wrapped up in the statistics that they loose sight of the overall problem.  The stats are there merely to validate the data.  In Six Sigma, we make data based decisions, so that is important.
But Six Sigma is also about change, and change is hard.  If you are going to go about improving business processes, almost by definition you are going to go around stepping on peoples’ toes.  Managing those interactions is key to being successful.
There are lots of tools in the Six Sigma toolbox to help, be sure you don’t get so wrapped up in the statistics you love that you miss the change management tools you will need to be successful.
Good luck!
–McD