So I’ve just finished university and Im looking at starting a career in procurement, can anyone on here give me any pointers / experience? It seems like a good balance of playing an active role in the business and “everyday feeling like a new challenge” Am I right?

Thought it was worth asking here as there seems to be someone from every walk of life

Sort of.

My advice: get some financial qualifications. Learn to speak the language that runs businesses: the numbers.

Thanks for the reply, my degree is in business and accounting so I’m partly qualified as an accountant. Is there any particular qualifications you’d recommend? CIPS looks to be the most desired

Yup. Fell into it. Made a career out of it. It’s all good, if you can find / make a niche as I have.

CIPS is a good door opener, but experience is also what people want to see (chicken / egg scenario). Level 4, 5 & 6 eventually. But you don’t need it.

Where are you based? My firm is always looking for people to bring in & train up.

Personality traits required: no tendencies to want to get along.

So I’ve just finished university and Im looking at starting a career in procurement, can anyone on here give me any pointers / experience?

Sure.

If you procure an aircraft carrier, don’t forget to also get some aircraft to go on it.

HTH. Good luck 😀

Yes but quite possibly not in applicable areas.Depends on what procurement to be honest. My background is in big waste contract procurement where to you have lawyers, financial and technical specialists, the procurement people tend not to get involved until the tenders turn up to sign them in and then disappear again. These take 2+ years involve dialogue sessions and solving problems (which is good), you could end up just checking ISO compliance buying pens and chairs which is less exciting sounding.

Sorry I can’t help with purchasing but look at the unilever website for jobs. They pay well and are a good company. I knew someone who worked there and am now an investor.

Thanks for all the feedback, sounds like what I’ve got in my head is about right.

m0rk that sounds exactly what i’m after, please tell me you’re near Staffordshire?

Drop me an email, personally I’m not… email in profile

Must not answer with cynical responses. Must not suggest an openness to brown envelopes and a belief in means rather than positive ends. Must step away from the keyboard. No reason for cynicism here 😆

Hi Rosss,

I also work in procurement, and have worked in several different areas of procurement in my relatively short career (I’m 27). Sort of fell into it but it’s a good career path.

Drop me an email if you want advice, and can also put you in contact with some more other senior people for advice if required.

I think some sales training/experience is valuable in procurement because they’re who you’re normally negotiating with. Learning to build relationships but also knowing how to stand your ground and demand better from suppliers. Apart from a brief bit of work experience in a purchasing department (funnily enough in a company which was then owned by Unilever) I’ve since then worked in sales and then been running my own business for eight years. I think the years of sales experience has stood me in good stead – now we’re getting bigger and I’m passing purchasing onto other staff it’s interesting to see how complex a job it can be!

I did the same titled degree as you and like many I’ve met that are in procurement just fell into it.

12(?) years in now and still enjoy it.

I went the MCIPS route and looking at FCIPS. I would say it’s a useful door opener but the majority of it is common sense that you will have covered a proportion of on your degree.

All of mine work has been public sector where experts who can advise as well as follow the law/regs are often well compensated.

Its region and sector agnostic which opens up lots of possible employers in lots of different places.

In my time, so far, I’ve worked in six counties and that there London.

would I recommend it ….. yes. If you are personabale and can deal with oodles of red tape then go for it.

Procurement people in my experience have a very bad reputation for not really understanding what it is they’re actually procuring. Often they seem only focused on the numbers and make life difficult not just for suppliers but the people in their organisation that they’re supposed to be supporting as a result.

Time and time again procurement people seem to fail to grasp that buying pencils is not the same as procuring complex creative communication, IT, Web or financial services, oh and that not everything can be quantified within an ExCel spreadsheet. Procurement people seem to have very little regard for a ‘good working relationship’ that has been established between supplier and customer over a number of years.

Procurement people also seem to forget that asking suppliers to comply with endless RFI, supplier reviews, red tape and transparent book policy, together with forcing unnecessary pitching onto our clients means that suppliers costs are increased due to the considerable extra workload. Increased supplier costs don’t help your case when you then ask the same supplier to cut their rates!!!

Very worst case these days seems to be forcing our customers to go through an e-bidding or auction style system to secure business, yet failing to understand (in the creative services industry) that the companies pitching for the work have completely different offerings making the whole thing a complete farce. This never ends well for the clients in our experience.

In short, procurement people are viewed as a right royal ‘pain in the arse’ by both our clients (whom they’re supposed to be representing), us and other suppliers, and often seem to hinder rather than smooth the flow of procurement. Don’t be that person!

Rant over!

Have a think about what you want to end up buying. There’s plenty of procurement jobs dealing with aircraft carrier parts but a lot of the interesting work will be handled by engineers (e.g. Supplier selection) whereas with something consumable (e.g. Shampoo for a hotel chain, delivery service contract) you will be doing more.

Also, lack of engineering might limit you at a higher end in later years if you wish to procure technical products. It shouldn’t be a problem now though.

Worked in procurement for a number of years on a multi-billion programme and definitely work on getting your CIPS as there’s chronic under-supply and it’ll open plenty of doors, regardless of what industry you’ve worked in. What narks me are the ones who manage ‘contracts’ but not supplier performance and likewise, the ones that get to understand the business and add-value through better supplier management/delivery can add great value.

Was going to add my experiences of working with procurement but agent007 pretty much has it covered!

My Mrs is shittot at purchasing. I’ll ask her after I’ve been to the door for the Boden/John Lewis/whomever delivery man.

EDIT – round-of-applause for Agent007 – definitely sounds like my experience from a supplier perspective. It’s not always like that where procurement are pragmatists. Dealing with retail procurement is the worst as they really do treat complex projects like tins of beans.

Also to add, I get a real feeling that everyone who works in procurement’s main purpose seems to be justifying their own job role!

Procurer: Can you hold your prices until the end of 2018?
Me: Can you guarantee no design changes between now and 2018?
My boss: Some fluffy diplomatic stuff which means that he’s a boss and I’m not.
2018? 😆

Some nice rants there. I started in procurement after a guy on our oilfield got drunk and fell of something tall. I hate it, I’m not proud of it but it pays very well. Looking at my few remaining friends (thanks in part to having worked overseas for 12yrs) my honest advice would be to work in something more fulfilling and marry someone rich. Anyone who enjoys this shite has a screw loose.

Picking up again from my first reply: the “sort of” is because, though I work on the buy side, I’m one of our procurement team’s stakeholders.

My observations would be:

– Identify your stakeholders – clue, they’re not just your internal customers. Your main stakeholder are the sales teams opposite you.
– Know your teammates – the lawyers and accountants you deal with know their stuff. Learn what makes them tick.
– Utilise your leverage – usually you only have it at before you sign the deal and at the end of the current contract term. But don’t overuse it
– You’re here to do a deal – deals need to work for everyone, and aren’t always just in the headline value.
– Learn how to negotiate – my main tip on this is simple: it isn’t about what you get, it’s what you give (see doing a deal).

As I extract myself from the current gig, I suspect I’ll officially end up as a procurement type….

Not myself but the better half works in procurement and is actually away on a CIPS course as I type. She seems to enjoy it, has seen her go around the country a fair bit meeting suppliers and has also been to LA, Phoenix, Chicago and Fort Worth with her work. I’m not saying she’s not good at her job but her willingness to take on new challenges (which aren’t particularly stretching) has seen her held in quite high regard by the senior management as it seems to be an area of work where people are quite happy just ordering and chasing parts and comfortable with a fairly easy role. As a result pushing yourself seems to get you a good amount of recognition and promotion opportunities. Obviously this depends on the Company. She (or we) work in the Aerospace industry.

Yep, agent007 nails it – very much experience from being in professional/creative/consulting services and he managed to be polite and constructive about it. He is right – there are better ways to do this than Excel, and the idea of being sector/product agnostic is just nonsense.

I am in procurement, responsible for energy and facilities, for a European retailer.
Developing a niche is my recommendation.
I was an energy consultant for 10 years, before moving to procurement as was bored.
So no real training in procurement, but picked up a lot from colleagues.
Procurement is interesting , and that is coming from me with short attention span.
Lots of different challenges day to day.
Just spend three months developing a new led future for all our stores.
Think about what is your passion/ area of interest and consider that for bit, before switching to procurement.
Guess I am a bit green at heart, and want to reduce energy usage..
Professional services is a high demand area, and was my previous role.
All of the big consulting groups have procurement functions, so if your grades are great then look at their graduate programs..
I have worked for a few companies and the procurement people have been well respected, in contrast to some of the comments above.
Drops me a note if you have any ??

In the far east Procurement is synonymous with kickbacks. 😆

Most procurement people live in big houses and drive big cars.

Have a think about what you want to end up buying. There’s plenty of procurement jobs dealing with aircraft carrier parts but a lot of the interesting work will be handled by engineers (e.g. Supplier selection)

Funny you chose that as your example…. When I worked on exactly that programme.

You couldn’t be more off the mark on my equipment!

Yeah, probably not a great example as it will have a good mix of stuff that is engineer decided and stuff that doesn’t matter.

Ross, have just added you on facebook

Feel free to bung any questions my way. Have spent a large portion of my career so far (before opening my own bike shop, where of course I do all the buying anyway) managing supply chains, purchasing, and working in continuous improvement within supply chains.

My best advice would be to bung your CV around to a load of big companies, and try to get on a Graduate recruitment scheme where you’ll get exposed to a various different facets of the business, before you are encouraged to specialise. But this way if you get onto one, and show them your interest in purchasing/procurement, they’re likely to put you through CIPS which will save you a chunk of money from paying for it yourself!

Or… If you’re like me and you can’t swallow the corporate chode any more, start your own bike shop and stick 2 fingers up to the rest of the world! 😆

Procurement people in my experience have a very bad reputation for not really understanding what it is they’re actually procuring. Often they seem only focused on the numbers and make life difficult not just for suppliers but the people in their organisation that they’re supposed to be supporting as a result.
Time and time again procurement people seem to fail to grasp that buying pencils is not the same as procuring complex creative communication, IT, Web or financial services, oh and that not everything can be quantified within an ExCel spreadsheet. Procurement people seem to have very little regard for a ‘good working relationship’ that has been established between supplier and customer over a number of years.
Procurement people also seem to forget that asking suppliers to comply with endless RFI, supplier reviews, red tape and transparent book policy, together with forcing unnecessary pitching onto our clients means that suppliers costs are increased due to the considerable extra workload. Increased supplier costs don’t help your case when you then ask the same supplier to cut their rates!!!
Very worst case these days seems to be forcing our customers to go through an e-bidding or auction style system to secure business, yet failing to understand (in the creative services industry) that the companies pitching for the work have completely different offerings making the whole thing a complete farce. This never ends well for the clients in our experience.
In short, procurement people are viewed as a right royal ‘pain in the arse’ by both our clients (whom they’re supposed to be representing), us and other suppliers, and often seem to hinder rather than smooth the flow of procurement. Don’t be that person!
Rant over!

So so true.

I work in procurement, in fact something I bought is in millions of homes in the UK right now. Not all procurement is the same. My advice would be to go down the technical procurement route. Niche knowledge of a group of products and the supply chains and suppliers of that can (and in my case is!) very rewarding. I get an input into the creative element as the suppliers I choose and the materials that are affordable are ultimately governed by me.
Buying for a big retailer is soul destroying as all you have to do is buy something designed by someone else and then stand firm on the price. Also don’t mix up procurement with purchase admin. There is a big difference between ringing round finding the cheapest widget from a series of catalogues and working with great suppliers to design and commission a widget from scratch!

I guess that’s one of the issues, the willingness of the person procuring to actually get into the projects so they actually know what they’re procuring. So many big companies have folk in procurement buying large technical projects that they haven’t got a clue about.

So my advice would be once you have a have a job, to really get into understanding what you are buying and you’ll have a solid advantage over most other colleagues.

Thanks for all the replies and to those who offered advice. I’ve emailed a few, Mark I will email you today if that’s OK?

Although I didn’t take it to degree level I’m very interested in engineering and design works so like the idea of specializing somewhere.

Good solid advice there. One of my vices is my peers (or team) that aren’t into the product.

Ross – email away, more than happy to help

+1 for understanding the product. If you’re interested in a career in fashion/ retail, get in touch. There is a lot of manufacturing and engineering, and it’s surprisingly high-tech. My employer is hiring now.

Thread revival!

Well thanks for all your help, over Xmas I was offered a purchasing job within the motorcycle industry! A dream for me, so far so good I’m enjoying the challenges and involvement with engineering side of things.

Cool – well done!