16 replies to this topic

[Simon]

Well done MerleW on making your 250th post and reaching the IFSQN Senior membership grade.  You are a very helpful and friendly member and have been a asset to the forums since you joined.

[Setanta]

Congratulations, MerleW!

(I'd better get busy with some helpful replies!) :)   
I can't seem to access smileys today.  

Edited by Setanta, 22 January 2014 - 05:09 PM.

[Mr. Incognito]

  

 

Thanks Simon.  I saw that on my 250th post and thought oooo  nice!  I'm just happy that I've been able to help out the people I have and be a part of a great and growing community.

 

Thanks everyone who has given me advice while I've been here also together we can make food safer.

 

  (I think I'm going to put a TARDIS on all my posts from now on just as thanks for you getting these lol )

[Mr. Incognito]

Congratulations, MerleW!

(I'd better get busy with some helpful replies!) :)
I can't seem to access smileys today.

 

Thanks Setanta!  You'll be there soon .

 

Some days the smileys don't work as well for me also.

 

[Marshenko]

Well done sir.  Well done.

[Mr. Incognito]

Thank you Marshenko 

 

[Snookie]

Sigh.....   I still have a long ways to go........

[Mr. Incognito]

Some day, when your at 1000 posts, you'll look back at that comment and laugh.  You'll get there.  

 

 

[Snookie]

Some day, when your at 1000 posts, you'll look back at that comment and laugh.  You'll get there.  

 

 

 

 

   

[mapry2]

Félicitation MerleW

 

 

 

[Seany]

Well done and thanks. You've helped me out a number of times.

[Charles.C]

Dear Merle,

 

It seems to help if you change jobs frequently ?

 

Congrats, 

 

Charles.C

[cazyncymru]

WooHoo Merle!

 

You must be spending too much time on here!!

 

Caz x

[Mr. Incognito]

Dear Merle,

 

It seems to help if you change jobs frequently ?

 

Congrats, 

 

Charles.C

 

Well it does help to see how different places do different things,working with different materials, and different standards  .  Also I'd love to stay in one place, I hate moving around so much, now that I'm a Quality Manager I'm probably not going to move for about 5 years so I can get another QM job w/o a degree... unless I go to corporate quality but then I'll be going to Michigan not Virginia like I want to   lol.  Thanks Charles!

 

WooHoo Merle!

 

You must be spending too much time on here!!

 

Caz x

 

Caz... I'm sure I do.  Luckily seeing as they know I use these forms at work (my boss and corporate people) I'm not worried about getting in too much trouble for it.  It's work related  lol.  But I have shared information with them from the forums already I'm surprised nobody has asked me what the site is.  Most recently I've been keeping them abreast of the standards that are moving to unannounced audits.  I've seen landslides like this before when I worked at the DVD factory and we were waiting to find out if BD or HDDVD was going to be the next format. 

 

Thanks to everyone else for your messages :)  I'm happy to have helped those I could.

 

 

Merle

[Marshenko]

Nice.  Glad to see I'm not the only one doing this without a degree.  Well, unless my Political Science and Film Studies BAs count lol. 

 

I personally feel that industry experience and having a really good boss can't be beat - my first job was a QA Supervisor under a guy who is like, THE expert in the particular food category we were producing.  He taught me everything, from auditing stuff to sanitation to the science behind dry-cured meats to working in the lab.

 

That being said, I'd like to get some type of piece of paper at some point.  The distance learning certificates from KSU and NC State are tempting, but the out of state tuition ....

[Mr. Incognito]

Yeah I know what you mean.

 

My first quality manager was kind of nuts she would yell at us for hours for no really good reason (if it was a good reason I'd accept it).  The one who replaced her was a really intelligent sciency guy who taught me a bit, for the short time I worked with him, about different food safety attributes and he was really big on how tests tested things not just what the results meant.

 

My last manager I don't think really had all of the knowledge one should have but she knew what she was doing mostly.  I learned some from her. 

 

I just take the best of all of my previous managers to move forward as a manager.  As for knowledge we are always learning as we work and move forward.  There is some milling correspondence course they talk about that I think I'm going to do to learn more about wheat and wheat products.  I was taking bio at the local community college but I had to drop out when I took this job.

[cazyncymru]

I must admit Merle I was "knocking on" a bit before I got my degree (lets say I was past 40!), and it's been a cherry on the cake for me.

 

I have 25 years *cough* experience in the quality / technical side of manufacturing, and I've been very fortunate to have been mentored and encouraged by "Old School" quality bods and also some production people. I know how to do things the old, traditional ways. I'm also lucky enough to be working with an Op's manager that I've worked with in a number of different manufacturing units over the years, and an MD who has built the business through hard graft and getting out there and doing it with us, and they have also taught me a lot. 

 

A degree is nice (or essential if your dealing with some retailers) but it doesn't make up for experience.

 

Caz x