Michelle Bangert talks with Claire Hopkins, a document control specialist in Boston and author of a recent Speaking of Quality column for Quality called "Creating a Space for Next Gens." She's also the chair of the American Site for Quality's Next Gen Global Committee, which is a committee chaired by ASQ, formed in 2021. It's led by Next Gens, which is defined as people under the age of 40 or new to the quality industry.

Michelle: I know in the column you mentioned it's one of your favorite questions to ask people, but how did you yourself come to work in the quality field?

Claire: I ended up in quality kind of by accident, which I find is often common for folks. So my background is in plant biology and actually museum studies. I used to work in natural history collections and also in science education. And I kind of was switching around in jobs and I ended up at my current organization as a temp employee working in like packaging and a position opened up in quality assurance that I applied for.

And part of the reason I knew what quality assurance was is that my dad has worked in the industry for his whole career so I feel like it's one of those things that if I hadn't known Exactly what a quality department entails and what the work entails.

I might not have been as interested, but ever since I have been in that position and working for my current employer, I've been in quality. So, I thought it was it's a good fit for my personality and my attention to detail.

Michelle: Do you remember what your first impressions of quality were when you heard about it from your dad?

Claire: Ooh, that's a good question because I always joke that when I was a kid, it was difficult for my dad to explain what he did to me, what he or what he was doing for work to like a little kid. It was hard for him to explain because how do you explain quality assurance to a small child?

I knew what products he worked on. So for me, I think my first impressions of quality assurance were that it was like a lot of cubicle office work and a lot of paperwork, especially because some of my first experiences working with quality was as an intern actually previously to my current position. So technically I have that background and that experience as well. And especially when you're an intern, you're doing a lot of like paperwork stuff. So it probably wasn't the best first impression. I didn't think it was a bad field, but it was definitely seemed like a little bit of like a slog.

Michelle: And as you mentioned, a lot of people don't plan to enter it. Is there anything you think, and I'm sure the committee is working on this too, but anything that kind of helps promote the field or kind of get it a little more attention?

Claire: What I think is really great is that quality is present in a lot of different industries, which makes it like really dynamic. So depending on what you're interested in, you can kind of work in a lot of different industries in quality.

I've met folks that work in like textiles and straight up manufacturing. My position, I'm at a life sciences company. So it's a lot more like science and life sciences and bench science focused. And so there's a lot of ability to work with like really interesting industries. And I think it's a well-established industry, too, in a lot of ways. So if you know what you wanna do, depending on the organization you're at, there can be a clear path for your development and things like that, which I think a lot of folks are looking.