Procurement Templates

Procurement Jobs

Procurement Jobs & how to get one!

Procurement professionals older than millennial’s most likely fell into the job by accident. Back then procurement was probably known as purchasing and it’s not glamorous enough to be on the ideal job list.

In recent years the profession has grown and actually it is a very good profession that can offer good career prospects. Once you learn your profession it’s a nice steady job where there is always constant demand. I know other people who also have a degree and end up doing admin. clerical. Procurement is not special, there are other roles that might be more interesting, more creative and better paid.

However, if you want to work in procurement, it’s not uncommon for contractors to be on six-figure equivalent salaries, there are a wide choice of companies to work for and the work can be varied, and more like multiple projects.

To get a procurement job, you need two things, experience and qualifications.

The easiest way to get experience is to start a graduate programme or consider the civil service fast stream. The prerequisite is good grades at university. If you don’t want to go to University, the other alternative when based in the UK is to do an apprenticeship programme, get the work experience first and move up the ranks slowly. The most important thing is to get your foot in the door. Another way to get involved is to either do a purchasing officer temp job via an agency or sharpen your networking skills and offer to help busy procurement teams with their workload. More often than not they will be willing to take on free support even if you belong in a different department.

Along with relevant work experience, you need to start studying for your CIPS, you can either start from scratch or some masters programmes will give you membership of CIPS by default when completing the course providing you already have relevant work experience.

It sounds fairly easy, but to make it work you need to be commercially aware, bright enough to pick things up quickly and work to tight deadlines. Attention to detail helps, being good at a variety of things such as project management, have the ability to interpret a contract, anticipate risks, be good at basic maths (if not excel helps) have leadership skills, you will need to negotiate and influence fairly senior budget holders. Finally, a procurement job can be what you make it, for some, this is a steady middle manager job for others it’s a lifestyle choice especially when contracting. If you want to be uber successful and stand out you need drive, have leadership qualities and be hungry for success.

Agencies to work with:

  • Michael Page
  • Hays
  • Reed
  • Investigo
  • Capita

Try and upskill or get exposure to:

  1. Prince2 or PM qualifications
  2. Subscriptions for trade magazines if you are interested in specific categories
  3. Attend CIPS events
  4. Get a mentor/network
  5. NEC training if working in construction
  6. CIPS qualification
  7. Organisations that share your values/culture
  8. Contract management training
  9. Leadership training
  10. Public speaking