The long and winding road

6 Responses to “The long and winding road”

1. 

   Solomon Nyamande
   

   May 25th, 2007 at 11:15

   Interestingly we were discussing how we got into procurement at an LCSG conference on 24/05/07.
   Most seniors got in when it became mandatory to Compulsorily Competitively Tender. I however joined a Procurement Management Training Programme aged 20 back in 1995 in Zimbabwe. The company sponsored the C.I.P.S qualification which I completed in 1997 and not surprising, I followed C.I.P.S’ roots to England!

2. 

   Liam Gormley
   

   May 29th, 2007 at 08:10

   I’m afraid I just sort of fell into it really. I think the profession suffers from a lack of visibility. Not many people really know what buyers do, which isn’t going to attract newcomers. When I tell people what I do, I tend to get a disinterested “oh,” which often changes when I explain what makes the job challenging and rewarding.

3. 

   Steven Letham
   

   May 29th, 2007 at 09:19

   I have to say I chose a career in procurement, however it was only after taking an optional unit in my final year at university.
   Before then I didn’t really know much about procurement as much of the content of business degrees and GCSE / A Level courses is dominated by marketing, accounting etc
   It’s a shame that academic studies don’t always teach students the fundamentals of buying – it would introduce more young people to the profession.

4. 

   Astrid Kingscote
   

   May 29th, 2007 at 12:57

   I chose a career in procurement after finding out about it as a possible career path for graduates with modern languages.
   The more I found out about it, the more interested I became and could really see the possibilities and potential.
   I have not been disappointed and love the variety of the role.
   It was interesting to read the career development supplement with the focus on encouraging graduates.
   There are now more graduate schemes with a specific focus on procurement, than there were when I graduated. More are needed, especially outside the M25.
   Assistant Buyer and Buyer roles that were advertised, when I started out, seemed to expect 5 years’ experience and an MCIPS qualification, but were paying £20k a year. I felt the hiring managers needed a reality check, as I imagined most MCIPS-qualified professionals with that amount of experience would be able to command higher salaries. There didn’t seem to be entry level roles that expected less.
   I think that making the entry level roles more attractive would help to introduce more young people to the profession. If they were able to get involved in interesting projects, as well as the paperwork, it would help to attract more people to the profession.

5. 

   Andrew Grover
   

   June 4th, 2007 at 10:30

   I started in procurement after spending several months temping in an administrative role at NHS PASA. I liked the environment and found – after initially thinking it would be quite dull, over-formalised office admin – that the work going on there was exciting and constantly challenging in many different ways, so I went for and had an area to build a career in.
   Which was more than I got from my degree, which was in the not particularly related area of film studies…

6. 

   Ian Congreave
   

   June 7th, 2007 at 09:39

   Well, I’m not there yet, but I am trying to get into the profession. After graduating university with a degree in software engineering, the only thing I knew was that I didn’t want a job as a code monkey. So I fell into a job as an SAP assistant for a company that was just bringing procurement back in-house after it had previously been outsourced.
   Three years later, I find myself trying to ‘climb the ladder’ internally, which is something of a moving target in itself. In those three years the number of buyers roles has increased, while assistant buyers have fallen from five to just one. I’ve just begun studying for Level 3 CIPS, which has been a two-year fight to get the company to pay for!

Leave a Reply