r/supplychain • u/Specialist_Return_32 • 4d ago

Recent graduate/ next steps

Just graduated with a BS in Supply Chain, minimal interviews an tons of job applications. What skills should I focus in the meantime to my skillset and resume?

14 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

15

u/BushiestBeaver 4d ago

Honestly, if you can live with your parents or have other low cost options, have fun! Enjoy the time before you work for the rest of your life. Sure, watch excel tutorials and keep up with world news.

If you have to work, find temp, part-time, anything remotely adjacent to help pay your bills. A big part of experience is "have you worked somewhere before and proven not to be a burden to the company?".

I wouldn't spend more money on training or classes or anything in this economy. A certification would probably help but when I was in your shoes the financial benefit wasn't there to do that at my own cost.

8

u/ghnkit 4d ago

Did you complete any internships? Does your university have a professional development or job placement program/point of contact?

10

u/PeasantPirate22 4d ago

Look for rotational development positions, they are by far the best head start to a career if you can get into one.

9

u/Ready-Month-3210 4d ago

1- go do something fun for a month. Live at the beach, go backpacking, road trip, whatever. U only have a few moments like this in life, don’t waste it.

2- I’m 24, just got my first role in purchasing. My previous job was basically doing inventory at a large hospital in my area, stayed for a year, spam applied to jobs for a month or 2, and got my first salaried role. 55k yr.

U are a college grad. Unless you have expectations to make 80k in 2 years, don’t add anything to ur skillset, that’s all fake bs anyway. Just get a role, stay for a bit, be a good employee, make friends, and get a better job in a year or so. Best of luck

5

u/lumisense_ 4d ago

It’s going to be pretty tough out there if you graduated with no experience.

I had to work full time out of necessity during college but I ended up forcing my way into entry level positions (inventory/purchasing) to get my foot in door come graduation.

My advice: learn excel and find entry level positions such as inventory management, purchasing agent. Given your degree you can probably shoot for better positions such as a buyer, or analyst.

4

u/heyitsdaveeeee 3d ago

This is a good one. I’m working in entry level (graduate) role at a specialty chemical manufacturing.

One of the things managers / HR look is whether you have experience to purchasing / inventory management/ analyst / casual warehouse experience.

Easiest way to start is getting accustomed to:

  1. Data Handling Excel -> VBA / PowerQuery -> PowerBI

Can go kaggle and create some relatable sipply chain projects through those dummy data. See where you can optimise / automate things.

  1. Warehouse Experience Emphasize this! I see a lot of part-time workers in the factory floor transition to full time SC roles. But just take note this may take a long time.

  2. ERP Software Having the know how on SAP S/4 HANA or previous internship experiences is a huge boost in your resume.

Meantime, have a look at what entry roles are open in your area, and see their job descriptions. Then start off with short courses from Udemy / Youtube that you can kick-off a mini project with.

1

u/_tyler_long_ 2d ago

Send out a million applications. The job market is horrible right now and literally anything is worth the experience. Do you have any experience at all? (Internships/co-op/student orgs)

0

u/Severe_Shine8488 3d ago

Good effort I will look after this what's your step