Quality Assurance Jobs

All About Quality

Quality. You get to hear the word whenever you watch or listen to product ads on the television or on radio. You may also get to read it on newsprint or on the glossy pages of a magazine or a pamphlet from a certain boutique that has just rolled out a brand new product or service offering. Just what is quality all about? Why is it so much valued by any industry, whether it be small or huge?

Quality refers to the distinguishing attributes, factors, characteristics, or properties of a certain product, idea, person, whatever there is (for ease of reference, we may term this, for the moment, as the "subject."). Quality can either be satisfactory or poor. If the subject's quality is satisfactory, that means that it has met the standards that are meant to be met by subjects in its classification. For example, if the subject is a ball, one can say that a ball on sale is of good quality if it is made of good quality rubber material that does not burst or wear easily and if it is easy on the eyes (yes, looks also define quality).

Why is quality so important? Basically, in the world today, you can agree that people buy stuff for two reasons: the price and the quality. Why does quality count when you buy something? Well, you basically buy something because you need it to work for you, right? Why would you shell out precious money for something that's not even guaranteed to work?

The Scoop On: Quality Assurance Jobs

Now, thank the heavens because the brilliant human minds that God has imbued on men brought forth a line of workers whose job is to make sure that quality standards are met. Meet the quality assurance people. People in quality assurance are often called as the QA people. Their job, primarily, is to make sure that a company, to which they are directly affiliated, produces products and/or services that meet one of the two aforementioned reasons why people purchase their stuff.

Are you meticulous? Do you want everything you do to be in proper order? Do you think voicing out your opinions and suggestions for the betterment of the company is a cool thing to do? Then, a job in the quality assurance field is definitely for you!

If you are just on the road to establishing a career in quality assurance, your first job in the field might as well be as a quality assurance inspector. As a quality assurance inspector, you are expected to fulfill the following obligations:

  • Familiarise and master yourself with the product specs, every little detail about the product or the service that the company offers. This allows you to see the strengths and the flaws of the item on the limelight, thus permitting you to come up with ways to downplay these flaws and play up the strengths
  • Suggest on how to improve the product or service. If, for example, the company caters to customer service, then the role of the QA is to recommend ways on how to better serve the customer and make him feel satisfied after the interaction with the operator or representative
  • Impose sanctions or penalties if standards are not met