Pastor Joel Osteen preaches about
mediocrity running rampant. I’m not that all, I’m an overachiever. It has taken
me until that sermon to understand that receiving promotion, testifying in two
trials, traveling to four different states and enrolling in two statistics
classes mean that I’m not going to take the PMP exam this year. It’ll be on top of my list in 2013. USDA Graduate
School has a $375 PMP preparation course.
In between now and January 23rd, I’ll complete statistics 2
and intro to statistical modeling classes, finish reading operations management
and square away all of my work projects. By March 15th, I’ll reread
the new PMBOK twice, taken 5 practice exams and registered for the exam. I’ll
have my PMP before May 1st. After PMP is the statistical process
control on March 18th and acceptance sampling on April 19th.
With PMP, I’m focusing only on that. Next year I’m pacing myself. I’m only
doing 2 things at a time. Spacing them out lets me devote time towards it. Come
June I’ll pass the certified quality engineer test making me a sure shot for
GS-15. There’s no way I’m not getting promoted with PMP and CQE. Personally, I’ll
be happy to utter the words; engineer!
That’s pretty big coming from a woman who never thought about becoming
one!
The US Department of Education
constantly stresses the importance of Americans studying science, technology,
engineering and mathematics (STEM) degrees. I have an economics degree which is
social science. Though I study
statistics and have taken several higher-level math courses, obtaining the
certified quality engineer distinction puts me in the STEM category. I’ve always been hypercompetitive Type A
personality who never backs down from competition. Becoming an engineer after arriving in 2006
as an economist, is a big achievement. I only had an algebra. It took me
dropping out of American University to take precalculus at Northern Virginia
Community College-Alexandria campus, calculus at USDA Graduate School and
calculus II at the University of the District of Columbia. I took calculus III at UDC to finish the
sequence. While taking the class, the physics student was there. I looked up the university’s physics major
prerequisites. You only needed calculus
II. No wonder it was hard. I received a D, the first time and a C the
second time. Finally, I took linear algebra and advanced statistics. Now I’m
taking statistics.com statistics 1 and 2. By the certified quality engineer (CQE)
exam, I’ll complete three more advanced statistics classes (I might read
Differential Equations for Dummies to learn more math [engineering probably
requires this] and I’ll earn my fourth higher level math course qualifying me
for the fed government mathematician classification). Obtaining the CQE certification opens up doors for me.
One I’ll qualify for GS-15 quality manager jobs. Also I’ll qualify for IEEE. Furthermore,
since a native-born American armed with an engineering certification, I’ll
demand top-dollar! The one thing I won’t
be is mediocre! I don’t know how much
time I have remaining on this earth but I refuse to waste is doing the minimum!
