Being a magazine editor is a difficult job: You have to juggle a seemingly endless number of demands—managing
staff, keeping up with industry trends, learning new software, balancing one group of readers' needs against another's and more. But the biggest challenge magazine editors face is writing about
complex issues that we've never personally had to manage. Even if editors have had personal experience in their readers' fields, they can't possibly be expected to know everything about every
conceivable dimension of that field. Quality is especially challenging topic about which to write. Modern quality systems include metrology, statistical process control,
international standards (such as ISO 9000, ISO 17025, ISO 11462, ISO 14001, AS9100, TL 9000, QS-9000), design of experiments, customer service, reengineering, benchmarking, total quality
management, employee involvement teams, Six Sigma, kaizen, lean, and on and on. While all of this can be overwhelming to us poor overworked editors, we can take solace in the
knowledge that we just have to report it; you, our readers, have to live it. Not only are you expected to know about all this stuff, but you're also expected to implement it, manage it, champion
it, audit it, rescue it, and damn well make sure that it works, every time. And, just like me, you've got a department to manage, complete with people issues, budgets, compliance problems,
conflicting schedules and more. I've just been through a round of revising job descriptions for my entire staff, and I realized that I've never
seen an actual job description for a quality manager, an ISO 9000 coordinator, a manufacturing manager or any other of the numerous job titles that our readers hold. That
realization led me to think that many of our readers have probably only seen their own job descriptions. The next step in my thinking was to conclude that it would be a good idea to collect some
job descriptions and publish representative samples so our readers could see what's expected of their peers. I then thought that it would be even better to standardize some of the job description
requirements and post them on our InsideQuality Web site (www.insidequality.com). In effect, we'll attempt to build a searchable database of job descriptions for the quality profession. Of
course, it will be free to members of InsideQuality, which is free to join. So that's exactly what we're going to do. (One of the perks of being the editor in chief is that I can make stuff like
this happen.) In order to make this idea become a reality, we need for you to send us your job description and those of others in your department. It wouldn't hurt to ask your
colleagues from other companies or departments to send us their job descriptions, as well. E-mail them to descriptions@qualitydigest.com or fax them to (530) 893-0395. |
