Introducing Joe: the Quality Control Chemist

Hello to all the Chemistry enthusiasts reading this and welcome to my blog that is all about Quality Control Chemists! Please do consider that I am not an actual QC professional, and that this blog is written about an actual QC chemist that I met and interviewed with in order to gain insight into the field of quality control and its relations to high school chemistry.

Here's a little bit about this occupation and my agent of chemistry. Due to privacy issues, I will now be referring to my agent as "Joe" instead of releasing his real name.
Joe works for the company Javo-Mex, which is a manufacturer of soap, detergent, body wash, and more cleaning products which are then distributed to large cleaning companies such as P&G and Mr. Clean. He is the lead quality control chemist, and his job consists mostly of lab work, executing several chemical reactions and tests on either the raw materials or samples of products in the making. Many of these QC tests are actually very similar to the labs carried out at school, which will be explained more in further posts. As a QC chemist, Joe performs these tests and reactions in order to ensure that the raw materials or products meet all qualifications and standards set by the company, so that the products produced are of the highest quality and most importantly, safe to use. Joe also wanted me to mention that is job is completely different from what a chemical engineer does. While the engineer is part of the development, design, and processing of the product, Joe doesn't really have much say in that.
Joe's typical day at work consists of taking raw samples or samples of the products into the lab for analysis. He then follows different chemical methods such as titration, and using the HPLC to test the samples. If the sample does not meet the qualifications, then he must inform the supervisor in order to resolve the issue. Joe then fills out a sample report on the product or raw materials, and if the quality of the sample is poor, then the report is given to another department. If the sample is approved by Joe, then the product moves onto the packaging department, and approved raw materials are sent to the processing/manufacturing department to start production. A very important part of Joe's job is proper lab technique and safety, because he is working with hazardous chemicals frequently. This is similar to the importance of safety and proper lab practice in my school labs.