Freight Forwarding industry -- Fresh grad inquiries

[santaends]

Hi all,

I will be graduating end of this year with a BA Economics degree from one of the local U's. Have relevant internship experience in two freight forwarding firms.

1. Would like to ask, what kind of first job should I get if my end goal is supply chain solutions (contract logistics, solution design and implementation). Do I have to start in air/sea freight customer service or is there another path? I don't have the "relevant 2-3 years experience in relevant industry" unless driving forklifts and class 3 vehicles in the army counts.

2. Am I at a strong disadvantage compared to people with supply chain/industrial engineering degrees? Many jobs call for these 2... When companies ask for these 2 degrees specifically, should I apply anyway?

3. What is a good starting asking pay? Is 2.7k too much?

4. Besides Excel and Tableu/PowerBI, what are some useful hard skills that I can self teach to improve myself to be more useful to my boss before starting work in this line?

5. If I look for jobs in shipping lines/ airlines, how hard would it be to jump back to work for a forwarding company?

6. Is a masters in supply chain necessary at this stage, or should I just work first and see how later on?

Thank you!

Originally Posted by santaends

Hi all,

I will be graduating end of this year with a BA Economics degree from one of the local U's. Have relevant internship experience in two freight forwarding firms.

1. Would like to ask, what kind of first job should I get if my end goal is supply chain solutions (contract logistics, solution design and implementation). Do I have to start in air/sea freight customer service or is there another path? I don't have the "relevant 2-3 years experience in relevant industry" unless driving forklifts and class 3 vehicles in the army counts.

2. Am I at a strong disadvantage compared to people with supply chain/industrial engineering degrees? Many jobs call for these 2... When companies ask for these 2 degrees specifically, should I apply anyway?

3. What is a good starting asking pay? Is 2.7k too much?

4. Besides Excel and Tableu/PowerBI, what are some useful hard skills that I can self teach to improve myself to be more useful to my boss before starting work in this line?

5. If I look for jobs in shipping lines/ airlines, how hard would it be to jump back to work for a forwarding company?

6. Is a masters in supply chain necessary at this stage, or should I just work first and see how later on?

Thank you!

Economics is not so relevant. Your 2 internships should place you in good standing to find a job in this industry. However I am surprised that you want to join the logistics industry as it is not glamorous and the pay is low. This industry takes in ah bengs and lians without degrees or from dodgy distance learning programs (this should answer your question no 6).

With your local uni degree, you should go for a cushy civil service job instead. Better pay and iron rice bowl.

[santaends]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Economics is not so relevant. Your 2 internships should place you in good standing to find a job in this industry. However I am surprised that you want to join the logistics industry as it is not glamorous and the pay is low. This industry takes in ah bengs and lians without degrees or from dodgy distance learning programs (this should answer your question no 6).

With your local uni degree, you should go for a cushy civil service job instead. Better pay and iron rice bowl.

Thanks for the advice. I want to join for the passion and hope the money comes later. I'm not fussed about glamour, in fact I do like the nature of the work because it's challenging and impactful.

I'm not interested in civil service for the above reasons that I don't get a sense of purpose from it and I don't have a good degree class, don't want to be stuck halfway through my career prime knowing I can never rise above a certain glass ceiling. At least in private sector you can still fight it out.

Originally Posted by santaends

Thanks for the advice. I want to join for the passion and hope the money comes later. I'm not fussed about glamour, in fact I do like the nature of the work because it's challenging and impactful.

I'm not interested in civil service for the above reasons that I don't get a sense of purpose from it and I don't have a good degree class, don't want to be stuck halfway through my career prime knowing I can never rise above a certain glass ceiling. At least in private sector you can still fight it out.

At the end of the day passion cannot be eaten.. be more realistic and don't just "hope" that the money comes later. If I could go back to my uni days I wished I had a clearer career path instead.

It is a fallacy that you will earn more in the pte sector... assuming that you are of a certain caliber, at least you can retire in the CS at a comfortable ceiling but in the pte sector you have to duke it out with all kinds of FTs.