What skills really make the difference when it comes to building a successful career in quality?
Whilst technical expertise remains essential, the ability to influence others, build trust and understand the business helps professionals put that expertise into practice.
As part of the CQI | IRCA’s Quality Careers Week 2026, Shirley Parsons brought together recruitment and industry perspectives to explore the skills that help quality professionals stand out and progress their careers.
Daniel Perman, Quality Managing Consultant, and Jess Plested, Head of Client Services at Shirley Parsons, were joined by Marc Steven, Quality Manager at Murphy. Their session explored the balance between technical knowledge and power skills, career progression, and the capabilities quality professionals will need in the years ahead.
Turning Technical Knowledge into Action.
Opening the discussion, Dan explained how communication, leadership and adaptability help quality professionals apply their technical expertise:
“Knowing what needs to change is technical knowledge. Getting people to actually make that change requires power skills.”
Marc reflected on this through his own experience, describing how quality professionals are increasingly expected to coach and enable teams. They often rely on colleagues across the business to implement recommendations, making relationships and influencing essential.
He explained how the approach to a conversation affects the response. Focusing aggressively on what has gone wrong can create defensiveness. Explaining the shared benefit and approaching the issue constructively makes it easier to gain support whilst maintaining standards.
Curiosity: What Makes a Quality Candidate Stand Out?
Drawing on his experience recruiting quality professionals, Marc explained that choosing between two technically capable candidates often comes down to attitude, behaviour and how they engage with people.
During interviews, he pays attention to how candidates describe problems. Do they focus on identifying a non-conformance, or explain how they worked with colleagues to understand its cause and prevent recurrence?
Curiosity is another quality he looks for, particularly as requirements, client expectations and digital tools continue to change:
“I want somebody who’s prepared to ask questions, challenge their own understanding, and continue developing.”
Marc also described Murphy’s use of “chronic unease”: maintaining a healthy awareness of what could go wrong, even when things appear to be going well. He connected this with asking questions, challenging assumptions and anticipating potential issues.
For him, these behaviours sit alongside a central priority when hiring: “Ultimately, I’m looking for somebody who can build trust.”
Understanding the Work and the Power of Why.
Reflecting on the advice he would give an early-career quality professional, Marc encouraged them to understand the work behind the quality system.
Spending time with engineers, supervisors, planners and those carrying out the work helps professionals understand operational pressures and how decisions affect the final product. His advice was to use that understanding when explaining requirements:
“Understand why that requirement exists, what risk it controls, and what could happen if it’s not followed.”
Marc explained how showing colleagues the risk and the benefit of a proposed change makes it easier to gain support and find practical solutions. In his experience, this approach can also encourage project teams to seek out quality professionals for advice.
Jess reinforced the importance of nurturing relationships within the immediate team and across the organisation:
“It often helps with influencing and everything else if you’ve got a good foundation and you kind of know each other on a deeper level.”
She encouraged professionals to ask questions and understand the people they work with, building relationships that help when difficult conversations arise.
Developing Towards Leadership.
From his experience developing teams, Marc highlighted ownership as an important sign of leadership potential. Professionals who progress identify risks, involve the right people and follow actions through to completion before receiving a management title.
He also described the importance of recognising patterns across projects and considering whether an individual issue points to a wider business risk. Coaching colleagues and sharing knowledge help build capability across the team.
“Individuals who progress are normally those who can connect quality outcomes to what matters to the business.”
Marc identified safety, cost, customer confidence and risk reduction among those outcomes, encouraging professionals to focus on the impact of their work. Dan added that development plans should give attention to power skills alongside technical knowledge. He suggested seeking feedback, reflecting on difficult situations and using mentoring or coaching to address development needs.
He also spoke about MAPP, Shirley Parsons’ bespoke people insight tool, which helps candidates better understand their own power skills. Knowing your strengths and identifying areas for improvement can help you focus your development and explain the value you bring to a prospective employer.
Want to understand your own power skills? As a Rethink HSEQ member, you receive a free MAPP assessment, a consultation with a career coach and access to a range of free resources to support your career development. Find out more here.
Moving Between Sectors and Demonstrating Your Value.
Responding to a question about changing industries, Marc shared how his own career had taken him across the Air Force, oil and gas, medical and power sectors before construction. He welcomed the different perspectives people from other backgrounds bring:
“I’m quite keen to have people from different backgrounds who then throw different things into the mix.”
Jess reflected on this from a recruitment perspective, describing greater flexibility from some employers around sector experience. She had seen businesses benefit from candidates with the right attitude, motivation and understanding of the role.
On making that value visible during recruitment, Marc recommended tailoring the CV to the opportunity and using a covering letter to explain why the candidate is a good fit. Jess highlighted early conversations as a chance to demonstrate communication skills and enthusiasm, whilst Dan encouraged candidates interested in a particular role to introduce themselves directly:
“Pick the phone up and introduce yourself that way. That makes you stand out from just a CV.”
Preparing for the Future of Quality.
Looking ahead, Marc highlighted digital confidence and the ability to interpret data as important development priorities. He discussed AI’s potential to support document reviews, auditing and trend analysis, whilst emphasising the need to question its outputs:
“The AI tools will take us so far, but we still need to be able to check that output and ensure that it’s actually giving us valid information.”
He encouraged professionals to explain what quality data reveals about emerging risks, and where early intervention is needed. Alongside digital capability, he expects commercial understanding, influencing and leadership to remain central to helping teams act on that information.
His advice returned to the importance of curiosity:
“Show you’re curious about what’s going on. Ask questions, understand it. Know the power of why.”
We’d like to thank Marc for sharing his experience and practical advice, CQI | IRCA for organising Quality Careers Week, and everyone who contributed to the discussion.
CQI members can watch the webinar recording via the CQI Knowledge Hub.
To discuss your career development, learn more about MAPP or talk about recruiting quality professionals for your organisation, contact Daniel Perman at Daniel.perman@shirleyparsons.com
Daniel Perman
Daniel Perman is a Managing Consultant at Shirley Parsons, leading the Quality team across permanent and contract appointments. He works with organisations across construction, civil engineering, nuclear, defence, manufacturing, certification, engineering services, and facilities management, helping them build high-performing Quality teams.
