Penelope Przekop - 5-Star Career: Define and Build Yours Using the Science of Quality Management

Przekop has keen insight into the human condition.

Terri Cheney , author, Modern Madness: An Owners Manual and The Dark Side of Innocence: Growing up Bipolar: A Memoir

I like her sideways way of the seeing the world!

Joshilyn Jackson , author, Mother May I: A Novel, Gods in Alabama , and Backseat Saints

Boy, this lady can write!

DeAnna Cameron , author, Homewrecker, What Happened That Night , and The Belly Dancer

5-Star Career

5-Star Career

Define and Build Yours Using the Science of Quality Management

Penelope Przekop

First published 2022
by Routledge
600 Broken Sound Parkway #300, Boca Raton FL, 33487

and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2022 Penelope Przekop

The right of Penelope Przekop to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

ISBN: 9780367428082 (hbk)
ISBN: 9780367426354 (pbk)
ISBN: 9780367855260 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9780367855260

Typeset in Minion
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India

Penelope Przekop, MSQA, RQAP-GCP, is a pharmaceutical quality and regulatory compliance industry expert, entrepreneur, artist, and writer. During her 30-year career, she has held leadership positions at Novartis, Covance, Wyeth, and Johnson & Johnson, and has worked with numerous Fortune 100 pharma companies. She is sought out for her broad and deep industry knowledge, regulatory expertise, and creative strategic approaches. She is the founder and CEO of PDC Pharma Strategy and also serves as the chief compliance officer for Engrail Therapeutics. She frequently writes, speaks, mentors, and delivers training on industry quality management and regulatory compliance topics.

She earned a BS degree in biology from Louisiana State University and an MS degree in quality systems engineering from Kennesaw State University. She is a graduate of the Smith College Program for Womens Leadership and the Rutgers University Senior Leadership Program for Professional Women. In 2018, Przekop and her older daughter founded Bra in a Box, which has been featured in Real Simple and New York Magazine. She is the author of Six Sigma for Business Excellence (McGraw-Hill) and four novels: Please Love Me, Aberrations, Centerpieces, and Dust.

She lives in the Greater Philadelphia Area with her husband of 30 years. Together they have two daughters and one grandson.

Each man has his own vocation. The talent is the call. There is one direction in which all space is open to him. He has faculties silently inviting him thither to endless exertion. He is like a ship in a river; he runs against obstructions on every side but one; on that side all obstruction is taken away, and he sweeps serenely over a deepening channel into an infinite sea.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We live in a ratings-obsessed culture. Our shared preference for 5-star-rated products, books, movies, restaurants, etc., makes irrefutable common sense. At a time when information bombards us 24/7, logic, that common, is refreshing. We read online reviews and rely on ratings to make decisions about nearly every aspect of our lives. We compare cost with ratings and are thrilled to find a highly rated product or service at a price we can afford. However, the powerful quality rating system weve wholeheartedly embraced hasnt dovetailed with how we think and/or talk about the lives, relationships, or careers we want. 5-Star Career: Define and Build Yours Using the Science of Quality Management tells you why its time to do just that, why it also makes common sense, and exactly how to do it.

If you can relate to any of the scenarios below, Im guessing youre not about to give your career, as it stands today, a 5-star rating:

• Youre confused, conflicted, frustrated, or less than inspired about your career and/or where its heading.
• You find yourself too often relaxing on a comfy couch Netflix binging with stray popcorn kernels in the folds of your favorite sweatpants when you should be job hunting or working from home.
• You often sit, zoned out, in your corner office-variety leather chair wearing a designer outfit, knowing how blessed you are to have such a fantastic job, yet also knowing its not what you want to do.
• Youre generally dissatisfied with your career; its just not what you envisioned, it doesnt exist at all, or you feel like a fake whos going to get caught at any moment.
• Youre confident that youre relatively smart and/or hardworking, but cant seem to get ahead, and you cant quite figure out why. Maybe you know why (or think you do) but dont have a clue how to make changes, or lack the confidence required.
• The people you work with are all actual jerks and/or you seem to morph into a jerk, for some odd reason, every time you walk into the office or open your laptop.
• At this point, you suspect that you should settle for a decent salary and benefits but sense that there should be more to gain from all the crap you have to do every single day.
• No matter how hard you work, those who can impact your career dont seem to appreciate it, or even fully understand what it is youre doing. Worse, maybe you understand the lack of appreciation because you yourself feel that what youre doing is ridiculous, boring, or glorified busy work.
• Weird career-related stuff you cant easily explain keeps happening. Whatever it is always ends up derailing your plan or otherwise holding you back. You feel like a magnet for bad luck.
• On top of it all, youre not sure what a 5-star career is for you; youre feeling listless and uninspired, yet you want that career. Perhaps once you have it, youll know?
• Youre feeling a little, or a lot, ticked off that everyone around you appears to be either thriving in a unique career that seemed to develop naturally over time, or they have the sort of job that has a clear progression based on years of experience. They all seem to have 4- or 5-star careers but not you.

The 5-star system you use not only to rate products and services, but to also make financial decisions evolved from the powerful science of quality management. This science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) discipline includes concepts and methodologies proven to result in customer satisfaction. The science gained major attention from Japanese political and manufacturing leaders determined to rebuild following World War II. They applied it to their manufacturing industry with intense commitment and ultimately emerged as a new global economic leader, revolutionizing the global economy by the 1980s. Less than a decade later, I entered the workforce.