Advice Needed From Bros/Sis who are professionals in Supply Chain Management :(

[jobhunter888]

Hi All,

First of all, i'm new here. So pardon me for this long and possibly whiny post. But I need some career advice from you experienced professionals.

Just a bit of background about myself. I am 26, with a Dip in Accountancy from a local poly. Had a placing in NTU Accountancy but I rejected it because I had an opportunity to work in accounting while waiting for studies and found that I didnt enjoy the industry and nature of work.

Have had tough times ever since. Unemployed for a total of 1 year during the 2009 economic crisis but was lucky to get a job in a market research firm, handling operations. Been here for more than 2 years now. Pay wise, its good for my level of experience, as I'm earning close to 33k p.a, but job is demanding; i sometimes clock close to 15 hours of work in a day. Nevertheless, I'm thankful I have a supporting boss who provided me with a platform to excel in my position.

Now comes the part where I'll need sound advice from Supply Chain Management professionals in this thread. I'm intending to make a switch to the SCM industry and am currently taking Unisim's logistics & scm degree. So how should I plan my next step? Do I go for an entry level job or am I able to leverage on my transferrable skills for an exec position? I deal with operations & project planning, management & execution in my current job. SCM professionals here, can you advise if those are the skillsets required for the industry? Also, i come from a business background so I have fairly good writing and presentation skills. I don't believe that my lack of technical knowledge will be a hindrance because I'm a fairly quick learner and have no issues understanding, learning and dealing with technicalities. In terms of salary expectations, would 2.5k be appropriate to ask for, given that I do not have any prior experience?

I would appreciate any advice given here, as I do not wish to take a misstep that would compromise my own future again. It's been hard enough coping with the period of unemployment and I honestly feel that even though I graduated in the top 5% of my cohort, I have a useless diploma that cannot get me anywhere at all. It is so very true that a certificate is only a stepping stone and that career success depends a lot on factors outside of educational achievements.

I humbly ask for advice from the experienced professionals here in this thread.

Thank you all!

Did you ever regret your decision not to take up NTU Accountancy?

An NTU Accountancy degree is much more prestigious than a UniSim one, in my opinion.

Anyway, good luck on your future. I'm not in SCM so can't give you specific advice.

If you intend to work overseas, then go ahead and take the course. Besides getting the cert, you will need another few years of experience in the SCM industries. I am not too sure why you like to take up this course, but this role can be easily replaced by the so called FT.

[Watson]

Originally Posted by jobhunter888

Hi All,

First of all, i'm new here. So pardon me for this long and possibly whiny post. But I need some career advice from you experienced professionals.

Just a bit of background about myself. I am 26, with a Dip in Accountancy from a local poly. Had a placing in NTU Accountancy but I rejected it because I had an opportunity to work in accounting while waiting for studies and found that I didnt enjoy the industry and nature of work.

Have had tough times ever since. Unemployed for a total of 1 year during the 2009 economic crisis but was lucky to get a job in a market research firm, handling operations. Been here for more than 2 years now. Pay wise, its good for my level of experience, as I'm earning close to 33k p.a, but job is demanding; i sometimes clock close to 15 hours of work in a day. Nevertheless, I'm thankful I have a supporting boss who provided me with a platform to excel in my position.

Now comes the part where I'll need sound advice from Supply Chain Management professionals in this thread. I'm intending to make a switch to the SCM industry and am currently taking Unisim's logistics & scm degree. So how should I plan my next step? Do I go for an entry level job or am I able to leverage on my transferrable skills for an exec position? I deal with operations & project planning, management & execution in my current job. SCM professionals here, can you advise if those are the skillsets required for the industry? Also, i come from a business background so I have fairly good writing and presentation skills. I don't believe that my lack of technical knowledge will be a hindrance because I'm a fairly quick learner and have no issues understanding, learning and dealing with technicalities. In terms of salary expectations, would 2.5k be appropriate to ask for, given that I do not have any prior experience?

I would appreciate any advice given here, as I do not wish to take a misstep that would compromise my own future again. It's been hard enough coping with the period of unemployment and I honestly feel that even though I graduated in the top 5% of my cohort, I have a useless diploma that cannot get me anywhere at all. It is so very true that a certificate is only a stepping stone and that career success depends a lot on factors outside of educational achievements.

I humbly ask for advice from the experienced professionals here in this thread.

Thank you all!

Hey,
I am also in Supply chain,

Me
Dip in Engg
Deg in business
8 yrs in procurement

I don't think you need to be very technical to be in supply chain, in my jobs as procurement and planning, I need to be number sensitive, it helps, always to be good in presentation, you will stand out as most peers tend to be in engg, and not too good in this area.

I hav only worked in MNCs only, and target my jobs around them, just different industries along the way.

Not true to find many FT in this industry. In my years and exp with various MNCs, I have been in at least 5, all top MNC in their industry. the ratio of FT in mid to high mgmt supply chain post, is like.
1: 20

For every 20 singaporeans, I see just 1 or 2 FT, typically malaysians, a few indians / china. But again, very very few.

I like to also add, you should move to strategic roles as these are knowlege based and close to the $$, meaning to say, you decide strategy that makes $$ (cost savings) (like opp to sales)

As singapore moves away from manufacturing, more companies base strategic, IPO (int; purchasing office) in singapore, tax reasons, and good location.

I dont think you need a deg in logistics/supply, it helps, but ultimately your resume and portfolio counts, also performance in the interview.

[Watson]

to add to your qns
"Do I go for an entry level job or am I able to leverage on my transferrable skills for an exec position? I deal with operations & project planning, management & execution in my current job. "

DO NOT GO FOR ENTRY LEVEL
so your next job after grad should not be lower than previous or current. Esle its hard for you to move up.

The next job, typically employers will look at last drawn and offer you an increment based on last drawn. If you step back in $$ than you are just short changing yourself.
Sorry, just my opinion, some pple dun mind lower pay but start in MNC thinking its a good start.

But truely, end of the day if I interview you and see you are worth so little, I will class you as "junior"

I see you have the usual problem of wanting to switch career halfway different from previous job and education. I disagree with what some above have mentioned about never entering at entry level or taking a pay cut.

The "best" outcome is of course to sell to your new employer that you are a qualified professional with other non-technical skills that can be useful, can learn on the job fast etc etc. so you don't have to start from scratch and can maintain salary and move on directly from there.

But experience tells me that this kind of reason unlikely to fly, you best stick to asking for around 2.5k (after getting the SCM degree) which is starting pay for fresh grad. My reason as follows:

1) At 26 years old with an accountancy diploma, you really are no different from a fresh uni grad in the eyes of a line manager of HR. Trying to sell otherwise as being street wise, plenty of business experience etc is stretching too much. Maybe 35 years old still can, but 26 the story is laughable.

2) Your main competitors are the SCM degree fresh grads from better local uni, dun mean to insult SIM, but it's an open secret that SIM degree prestige much lower than 3 local uni and even a lot of Australia uni. You try to ask anything more than lower end of degree entry pay, you price yourself out of competition

3) Things like good preso skills, writing, quick to learn etc. are just SOP stuff that every candidate will say, you can emphasize that during interview, but dun kid yourself that these are big selling points.

4) Accountancy has very limited application in SCM except for the fact that it shows you are OK with numbers. It might give you slight advantage in certain fields like material planning or report analytics.

There's no short cut, if you want to make a career switch, have to pay the price. That's why you don't see a lot of people switching functions, but then at least you are still very young and not mid career.
2)

Originally Posted by jobhunter888

I don't believe that my lack of technical knowledge will be a hindrance because I'm a fairly quick learner and have no issues understanding, learning and dealing with technicalities.

This is not up to you to believe, the question is does the recruiter believe?

In most MNCs , it is unlikely they will get someone formerly an accountant with no relevant experience and knowledge to take up a SCM role.

Your best bet is to wait until you get the proper degree and apply for SC role that is open to fresh grads w/o experience.

Agree with above comment that words like 'quick learner and have no issues understanding, learning and dealing with technicalities' mean nothing. Every job seeker says that.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

This is not up to you to believe, the question is does the recruiter believe?

In most MNCs , it is unlikely they will get someone formerly an accountant with no relevant experience and knowledge to take up a SCM role.

Your best bet is to wait until you get the proper degree and apply for SC role that is open to fresh grads w/o experience.

Agree with above comment that words like 'quick learner and have no issues understanding, learning and dealing with technicalities' mean nothing. Every job seeker says that.

It depends how well you can bs. For example, I can claim I learned iPhone programming in a week and can back it up with real proof and sales figures, and I also self learned fx trading and can also back it up with trade logs and profits.

(but why do I still need a job? Haha)

[jobhunter888]

First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to all of you who have taken time to advise me. These will definitely not fall on deaf ears.

In response to some of your comments, I have the following replies and questions to post:

1) I do not regret rejecting NTU Accountancy, because I honestly have no interest nor passion to continue in the industry. What I do regret is generally not being able to study full-time in a local uni. Given a choice, I would definitely have re-applied for a different course. However, circumstances do not allow that and hence, I have to settle for a part-time degree with SIM instead. I am not one to kid myself into thinking that SIM's degree is on par with those of local unis, hence the need to complement it with working experience to at least have a shot at better opportunities.

2) FXT, your assessment of my predicament is spot on; I have been made aware of those challenges that you've listed down and do agree that there is no easy way out if I were to change industry. I have experienced that before, when I made the jump from accountancy to my current job. However, my question still stands; as I have 2 years worth of experience in operations/project planning & management, will employers still consider this as fair and relevant experience? Of course I am not talking about managerial positions, but more along the lines of an exec position and etc. Any comments on this will be appreciated.

3) As for the response pertaining to SOP answers candidates give i.e. gd writing, presentations skills and etc. Lol. I guess those who responded may perhaps, have seen a fair share of interviews with candidates & etc. Appreciate the reminder on this being a very rudimentary point during an interview.

4) Watson, you have suggested a very interesting point there i.e. moving for strategic positions, as opposed to traditional SCM roles. Could you perhaps, share on the qualities/experience that you would look out for in the given role?


Any further comments on this would be very much appreciated!

I will try and help, but do note that I have not moved up the SCM traditional route, I was an internal auditor who internally transferred into the Group's Asia & MEA supply chain centre at a mid-high level. As such, while you can say that seniority wise in SCM I'm quite high up, but my understanding in junior operational roles might be limited.

[QUOTE=jobhunter888;18908]First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to all of you who have taken time to advise me. These will definitely not fall on deaf ears.

In response to some of your comments, I have the following replies and questions to post:

1) I do not regret rejecting NTU Accountancy, because I honestly have no interest nor passion to continue in the industry. What I do regret is generally not being able to study full-time in a local uni. Given a choice, I would definitely have re-applied for a different course. However, circumstances do not allow that and hence, I have to settle for a part-time degree with SIM instead. I am not one to kid myself into thinking that SIM's degree is on par with those of local unis, hence the need to complement it with working experience to at least have a shot at better opportunities. [quote]

Nothing wrong with that, it would suck if you continue to study and pursue a career in something which you have no interest for.

2) FXT, your assessment of my predicament is spot on; I have been made aware of those challenges that you've listed down and do agree that there is no easy way out if I were to change industry. I have experienced that before, when I made the jump from accountancy to my current job. However, my question still stands; as I have 2 years worth of experience in operations/project planning & management, will employers still consider this as fair and relevant experience? Of course I am not talking about managerial positions, but more along the lines of an exec position and etc. Any comments on this will be appreciated.

I cannot be sure, it really depends on what exactly you mean by "operations/project planning". The other piece of the puzzle is also the hiring manager's views and attitude. It is important to know that your hirers are not monolithic robots that think and act in the same manner, some are very by the book while others are more flexible in considering people who do not follow a typical career cycle.

I can't help you with that as you will often need to adjust your messaging on the spot depending on the interviewer's expression of interest to your statements. What I do know is that even if your 2 years ops experience is considered, it can't mean that much to justify anything substantially higher than 2.5k, so I would say you stick with where you are now.

3) As for the response pertaining to SOP answers candidates give i.e. gd writing, presentations skills and etc. Lol. I guess those who responded may perhaps, have seen a fair share of interviews with candidates & etc. Appreciate the reminder on this being a very rudimentary point during an interview.

Supply chain people are usually less corporate in nature, I would advise you skip this SOP nonsense if you interviewer is a bottoms-up nuts & bolts on the ground kind of guy. Reserve such useless nicities for the session with HR, it works on them much better.

4) Watson, you have suggested a very interesting point there i.e. moving for strategic positions, as opposed to traditional SCM roles. Could you perhaps, share on the qualities/experience that you would look out for in the given role?


Any further comments on this would be very much appreciated!

No offense to Watson, but as someone in very much a "strategic" SCM role, my advise is to forget about it. Any interviewer who tries to sell to a newbie like you that they are considering you for a strategic role is being economical with the truth, the department might be strategic in nature, but your job won't be.

One of my managers tried this BS story to recruit a batch of graduate trainees in 2009. Of the 4 we had, 3 has since left and the remaining 1 has requested for a transfer to the country office.

It isn't that they were poor performers, but you just can't get a bunch of freshies to do stratetgic roles even if your department is non-ops SCM; so what usually ends up is these poor buggers end up doing menial admin & ops work supporting the managers doing the strategic work.

As most of these managers in a regional role are very specialised in certain areas and more senior/experienced than their usual country level counterparts, they find the gap too wide with their fresh out of school subordinates and it doesn't work out. The grads left because they realise they aren't learning much to advance their careers, I think some of them have never filed a PO or talked to an external vendor in their 1 year with us.