Supply chain management includes the planning and management of all the functions involved in sourcing and procurement, transformation and the management of logistics functions of an organization. It also consists of activities such as coordination and close cooperation with channel partners, which can be vendors, middle men, third party service providers and customers. In short, supply chain management combines supply and demand management inside and outside the organization.

What is supply chain management?

Supply chain management is essentially an integrating activity with the primary objective for connecting business functions and processes both internal and external to the organization which improves the performance of the business. It consists of all the logistics activities and other activities such as manufacturing functions and also coordinating various processes and activities in the business such as marketing, product design and information technology.

You make your own destiny

In supply chain there is no definite set career path. It is you who decide the path that has to be selected from a number of possible opportunities in the field of supply chain. Which ever path you select, it should be based on the understanding of skills, and interests. The other factors that will influence a career path in supply chain are size of the company, organizational structure and the type of the company that you have selected.

Lucrative opportunities across the globe

In the present day globalized world, supply chain professionals should expand their search for career opportunities across the world rather than their country of origin. One of the reasons behind this is that the present day supply chain has become global in nature. As a result of globalization which has integrated the economies across the world, the function of supply chain is now emerging at a global level. This in turn has resulted in a situation where organizations have started to look for supply chain professionals at a global level. For instance, Asia which has now become a center of manufacturing across the globe has vendors and customers located in various parts of the world. So if the manufacturing organizations have to serve the customer with the finished goods, they need to recruit and maintain supply chain professionals across various parts of the globe.

Do not contain your job search to your locality or region

In order to increase the chances of landing up a job, supply chain professionals should look for opportunities on a global front. This is based on the fact that professionals will have better chances of being hired in the field of supply chain on a global level rather than on a regional level. On a global level the number of opportunities is large when compared to regional level and professionals will have many options to select from. Growth of the industry should be considered

The growth of the supply chain industry is another factor that will influence the creation of job opportunities for supply chain professionals. If the professionals select one or more countries where they would like to get employed, they will have more chances than one who is not flexible in terms of working in another country. If you find that one particular country is suitable for the skills you have, then it is better to work with companies in the logistics and supply chain industry in that country. The growth of the industry depends highly on the country, where in some countries the industry will grow at a faster rate, which is of great advantage for job seekers. In addition to this, the human resource in the field of supply chain may be scarce in the country.

Increasing the chances of being selected

With the increase in the number of employers as a result of global search, the supply chain professionals will be able to select the field that pays them well and meets their requirements in terms of their desire. At a global level, the professionals will be exposed to high standards in the industry which will help them to learn and thus improve their skills and knowledge in the area. More over if you need to change a job, it can be done easily and the professionals can go for the best one again.

Use a global platform that is specific for supply chain and logistics industry

While looking for supply chain jobs across the globe, the professionals should make sure that they use global platforms to search for jobs. If platforms used are specific to the logistics and supply chain industry, then it would increase the visibility of their applications. Thus the probability for a response from the recruiters’ side will increase. Recruiters generally look for candidates in such global platforms which are specific to the industry. Applying in general job search platforms will not produce the desired result as the chances of losing the application among other professions is very high. This reduces the chances of getting a desired supply chain job. More over global platforms will provide chances from across the globe and thus the chance of getting a global exposure in terms of profession.

Before you start the hunt for supply chain jobs, decide on the area of supply chain you want to work with. Do home work to find out the country which offers the best jobs in the area of your interest. If there is more than one country, apply for job across all the countries that you have found out. This will give you more chances in getting a job than applying for job in companies in one single country. Accept the offer which matches your set of expectations or come close. Also consider the growth of the industry in the countries as it is the prime factor that is going to determine your career growth in the industry. Once you gain the necessary experience, changing to a better company would not be a problem to you. But make sure that, you should constantly try to learn while you are employed to improve your employability.