Dream job
After 25 years as a procurement consultant, I have a natural bias toward the trade. So you will not be surprised to read that I encourage people graduating from college to consider a career in procurement. I very much believe that this will be a dream job that will give you influence on the direction the company you work for, allow you to travel to new countries and have you meet interesting people.
Should you want to know more about my reasons for still loving procurement after all this time, click here. But in my advice for young people, I am not extrapolating from my past into your future. Far from it. My pitch to you is based on logic. The 21st century is an age of disruption. Tech firms are breaking into the domain of traditional companies. Amazon is disrupting retail. Tesla is disrupting the automotive industry. Apple sells more watches than the Swiss watch industry combined. Uber and Lyft are disrupting transportation.
And this is just the beginning. I am convinced that going forward, every company that wants to succeed needs to become a tech company. Or let me be more precise. Every company that wants to survive in the 21st century needs to become a tech company. Now, you may ask what does all of this have to do with procurement?
Think about it, 95% of companies don‘t have the required high tech competence in house. So where can they get it from? From external suppliers. Bringing in this high tech competence from external suppliers will be a major transformation exercise. It will make procurement a function that is top on the list of priorities of the CEO. Procurement will become central to charting the company‘s way forward. This will become the golden age of procurement and this is why I put „For those who are shaping the 21st century‘s most important corporate function“ as my channel‘s claim.
Maybe we should briefly talk about what makes a dream job. Of course, there is no one size fits all but I believe you and I can agree about a couple of fundamentals. It is not about money. Money is a result of what you are doing. I think a dream job should give you influence, it should provide you with opportunities to grow. It should have you interact with interesting people. First and foremost, it should energize you. You should get up in the morning looking forward to going to the office.
I believe that a job in 21st century procurement ticks all of these boxes. By the way some of you may wonder if I am talking about a job in industry or in consulting. I think what I am saying here applies to both. Procurement is becoming more important to industry and it is becoming more important to consulting firms.
Now you may have become really excited about procurement but then you figure out that you didn’t learn much about procurement in college. I wouldn’t worry about this. Most colleges and universities don‘t teach procurement. And those that do lump it together with logistics and supply chain management. All you need is a solid education that sharped your ability to think logically and an open mind.
I sincerely hope that I have wetted your appetite for a career in procurement. Not many of your peers may make the choice but this is for the reasons we just discussed and that should encourage you rather than discourage you.
