It always comes down to numbers.

If you want to convince your hiring manager that you deserve a raise, you need to back it up with numbers. Or if you want to manage a new project, you need to be able to use data to support your idea.

But what if you aren’t a math whiz who’s able to use statistics to fight your workplace battles? The answer is simple: You become one.

Six Sigma is a respected training program that teaches professionals how to use data to solve challenging problems, which will eventually lead to better results in work projects, better pay incentives, and potential upward mobility.

Many of the most prestigious companies around the world understand the advantage that a Six Sigma education provides to employees and implement the training in their culture. These recognizable brands include General Electric, Verizon and IBM.

Aakash Shah, currently a senior vice president in Global Fraud Client Experience at CitiGroup, witnessed his career take off after completing his Six Sigma training. At the time, Shah was working as an industrial engineer in manufacturing.

“It really skyrocketed my career,” Shah says. “I was a rarity … I think I was either the 14 or 15th person out of 28,000 employees to get certified.”

Shortly after receiving his certificate, Shah’s salary increased 30 percent in one year — not to mention several promotions.

How can one certificate affect Shah’s career so much?

It all comes down to teaching professionals to solve problems differently.

“Six Sigma teaches a powerful, methodical way of problem-solving so if you don’t intuitively understand problem-solving or if you have an organization that isn’t good at problem-solving then this is the type of program you want to be involved with,” says Shah.

And problem-solving isn’t inclusive to one company. Every company — no matter the industry — has come face-to-face with a set of problems that they don’t know how to solve. If you’re the person who understands how to uncover those stones and analyze issues not easy to identify, you’ll become a valuable member of any team.

“Six Sigma shows you how to take that information, make sure it’s reliable, teaches you how to use that information and get to a root cause that’s not obvious.”

Since his rigorous Six Sigma training, Shah went back to school for his MBA and landed a position at CitiGroup. In three years, he’s taken two promotions and says his team stands out because they stick with process improvement programs — essential to a Six Sigma training.

“I don’t want to contribute [our success] solely to Six Sigma, but I will say it got us in the door,” he says.

Shah isn’t the only person who’s benefited from the education. Crystal Y. Davis, the founder of The Lean Coach, Inc., has been working closely with Six Sigma training programs for the past 14 years.

“I really enjoy the ability to implement change,” she says. “You don’t need to have a problem to understand the process — you just need to be able to see in a better way.”

Today, Davis says whenever she runs into a potential problem, her initial thought is, “how do I improve this?” which she attributes to her Six Sigma training. Even better, the process she adopts allows her to yield the same consistent results every time.

This is very important, according to Davis, who says if you’re a person who is always late for work, there is something wrong with your process and identifying the problem will also help you implement a solution.

Six Sigma gives you the ability to evaluate how effective the solution is.”

From a career perspective, Davis says the training has opened many doors for her and pushed her ahead of her peers.

“When I first got certified, I wouldn’t say that there’s a direct correlation,” she says. “But what does happen is when your peers and your direct managers see that you’ve been improving processes … those things combined create opportunities.”

Like Shah, Davis agrees there are multiple opportunities in all industries, but if you’re in Services (eg. Healthcare, Finance) or working for a government agency that’s dealing with the budget right now, having a Six Sigma certificate will really put you at the top of your game.