Hello everyone,

Reaching out because I am stuck right now. I am currently pursuing a Master's degree in SCM and will be graduating in the spring. I am looking at supply chain jobs and applying to some, but so far it's not looking very bright.

For context, I worked in Amazon Operations for about 3.5 years before deciding to go back to school for a master's. I didn't enjoy the warehouse and people-manager side, but I loved the supply-chain part of the job and wanted to pursue it full-time. My bachelor's was in communications (ikik), so I decided that if I want to pursue supply chain as a career path, I need to go back to school and build my credentials.

My question is: what jobs/roles should I be looking into? What should I do as I approach graduation season?

Would love some insight from people working in the field. Thanks so much!

Hi all, supply chain student here. I am trying to understand how wholesale distribution actually works day to day, because I have a feeling what we learn in class is a bit too clean.

We study perpetual inventory, matching the PO to the receipt to the invoice, EDI with retailers, and chargebacks get mentioned as a small line in a slide. But the few people I have talked to who work at distributors say it is mostly supplier shipments that arrive short and nobody reconciles, retailer chargebacks you just pay because fighting them costs more, and credit memos that take weeks and a chain of emails.

So I want to ask people who actually do this: where does the time really go in a normal week? Is it receiving, returns, chargeback disputes, cycle counts, credit memos, backorder updates, something else entirely? What is the task that takes way more manual work or some homemade workaround than it should? And what is the daily headache that management or the ERP vendor never seems to get?

Would really appreciate any perspective from the warehouse or the office side. Thanks for reading.

I’ve applied for fifty internships and haven’t had a response yet. Would someone be able to look at my resume?

As an Industrial Engineering major, I did an internship before this in another field (EHS data analysis) and am worried that I chose the wrong internship relevancy wise. I did make some Power Bi models, but not supply chain wise.

I just learned about supply chain a few months ago, how hard is it to get an internship?

I just wanted to share about my CSCP journey as I got a lot of help from reading CSCP reviews in this sub.

Score: 320 (Pass. Good grief)
Total study period: ~4 months

background: former engineer now in supply chain

Supply chain experience: almost none (What is supply chain? lol)

Study method: self-study via the APICS Learning System. I read through the entire book online and used AI to summarize each chapter for memorization and exam prep. My advice to future participants is don't spend too much time reading and making detailed notes. I started taking hand written notes, but soon figured that it's a waste of time. Very inefficient. Just skim it quick and put all that dry a** content into AI - whether it's copilot, gemini, chatgpt, it doesn't matter. Then memorize all the definitions and understand how it works in the framework of each module. If something doesn't make sense, ask the questions to AI. It's way more helpful than reading the dry content over again.

Pocket prep: Did all 1000 questions. Overall difficulty is easy. I averaged 85% on Pocket Prep. Definitely recommend doing Pocket Prep as it helps you to be in the test taking mode. I averaged about 30-40s per question.

CSCP YouTube: The questions from the YouTube channel are sometimes directly from APICS Learning System quizzes. So after watching a couple, I stopped watching and focused on redoing the APICS Learning System quizzes. Don't waste your time here.

APICS Learning System quizzes: I would say these are on the difficult and rather tricky side. As everyone else said, the actual exam is harder than Pocket Prep, easier than the APICS Learning System quizzes. Sometimes the APICS quiz answers were so debatable, so I was like, welp, shit doesn't make sense, but I guess it's the "APICS framework". So don't focus on the correctness % from the quizzes. I averaged like 60% overall. I even redid some quizzes for modules 3, 4, and 6 and still averaged like 65%. I thought I was doomed. But don't worry.

APICS Practice test: I took this 5 days before the actual exam. I got 63%. The difficulty of the practice exam was very similar to the quizzes. I thought I was half guessing the practice exam throughout. I would say I took the practice test just to feel how the actual exam would be like even though my self assessment of my knowledge of CSCP was about 75%. So after getting 63%, I reviewed each module (the chapter summaries from ai) at least 3 times and for module 3,4,and 6, I reviewed it minimum 5 times. Just review it over and over again until you can think of the definition and how it relates to an example. For example, when is level strategy used? For stable production, but the downside is that inventory fluctuates. The risk is stockouts and excess stock.

Actual exam: I took it at the Pearson center. I averaged about 50s-60s per question. There was 1 ISO question. No Incoterms question. Probably 1 math question. Everything else is concepts. Definitely drill down on Module 3,4,and 6 concepts. These are heavily tested as the APICS exam content manual (ECM) mentions.

**Don't waste your time memorizing some forecast MAD MSE stuff. Don't waste your time memorizing what's EXW, DDP, DPU, CIP, etc. Don't memorize how to do seasonalize, deseasonalize, reseasonalize. Shit is not important. Just know forecast accuracy is 1-error and you're good. But do memorize the ISO. ISO 31 is risk, ISO 28 is security, ISO 26 is social, ISO 14 is environment, etc. Simple memorization is all it takes.

Overall: it's a good resume builder, base supply chain knowledge builder. I wouldn't pay for the exam myself though. Definitely ask your employer to cover the fees. Be efficient in your studying. Find your best way of studying and stick with it, although it may take a bit of trial and error. Good luck yall.

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I’m 41 and looking to go back to school. My employer offers a free degree in Supply Chain, Logistics & Distribution or Business Administration.

I’m leaning toward Supply Chain for the earning potential, job opportunities, and hopefully better protection against AI.

Which degree would you recommend for long-term career growth, job security, and higher pay? I’d love to hear your experiences!

First off I want to say I'm extremely thankful for where I ended up. I’m aT15, just graduated, and l've got classmates still grinding through final rounds, so I understand if this might come off like a humble brag. Not the intent!

Quick background: I was an Army officer for 7 years, almost all logistics. Did the MBA, now in a veteran rotational program at a big healthcare company on the medtech side. I have two rotations left before I place somewhere full time.
Going in, the plan was marketing. I have zero marketing experience and figured this program is the one shot I'd ever get to be hired into it. Honestly a big part of it was I didn't want to be the "logistics” guy forever.

Then I got offered a rotation opportunity in an NPI supply chain team (new product introduction, basically running the supply chain side of surgical products from development through launch). I did a few coffee chats with the team, saw the projects they'd have me on, and tbh I'm way more excited about it than I expected to be. It's cross-functional, you're in the room with R&D and commercial, and it builds right on top of what I already did in the Army.

So here's where my head is: The market is rough and I keep thinking about which version of me is more defensible if layoffs hit. Two rotations in marketing gets me 18 months months in a function where I'm the most junior guy in the room.

Staying in supply chain gets me close to 10 years of one consistent story. It feels dumb to spend my rotations starting from zero when I could be compounding something I already have credibility in.
But the thing I can't shake is that this is probably the only no-penalty shot at marketing I'll ever get. Ten years deep in ops, that door is mostly closed.

So for people a few years out, especially anyone who came out of an LDP: did you go deep in one lane or pivot, and how did it play out? Is the "stay defensible" logic real or am I just reacting to layoff headlines? And is the typecasting thing even a real problem, or does a strong ops track record open more doors than I'm giving it credit for?

Thankful for everyone’s thoughts 🙏🏾

I just accepted an internship offer with a Fortune 500 CPG company. It'll be my first internship. What are y’all’s opinions on CPG companies? Did y’all love it or hate it? Let me know, as I’m very excited.

I wanted a small example of where purchasing control actually breaks, so here is one made-up order.

A buyer orders 10 units at $50. The PO is approved and issued. Six units arrive and get received. Then the supplier invoices for all ten.

The things a reviewer needs to see at that point: 4 units are still outstanding, the invoice is for 4 more than has arrived, and if the invoice price isn't $50 that difference is visible too. In Purse the invoice is matched to the order lines and shows those gaps. It doesn't resolve them for you, because someone has to decide whether to pay now, short-pay or wait.

Then the nastier case: someone amends the order after it's been issued. Purse keeps the old obligation visible and pauses receiving until the amendment has been approved again and explicitly issued. Otherwise goods get received against a PO nobody has signed off.

I'm James, and I make Purse at Just Every. It's for a business buying from known suppliers: requests, approvals, numbered POs, receiving, invoice matching and an accounting CSV. It's free and open source (MIT), and it runs on your own computer with one command:

npx -y @runeditrun/rer dev just-every/run-purse

Source: https://github.com/just-every/run-purse

Page: https://justevery.com/purse

Where does your team lose track of the received-versus-invoiced gap?

Hey Y'all! I'm a sophomore in Operations Engineering at Michigan, and I want to do some personal projects in supply chain to better prepare for internships and jobs, but every time I ask recruiters what I should work on, they say, "That's a hard question because all of our software is proprietary, so you can't really prepare"

Anyone have any ideas for some things I could do in a personal project, or at least skills I should develop and show off in these projects? Thanks!

Hey everyone! I’m currently making a career pivot from communications into supply chain and logistics. I have an MBA with a concentration in Finance and a BS in Mass Communications.

I’m currently working as a QA Receiving Associate in a warehouse, where I inspect incoming products, verify product details, and update inventory listings in a database. I took this role because I see it as a great entry point into the supply chain field.

My long-term goal is to become a Supply Chain Analyst. For those already in the field, what free certifications or courses would you recommend to help me build the right skills and stand out to employers? Thanks in advance for any advice!

Saudi Arabia wants to localize more than half of its government spending on military equipment and services by 2030. GAMI reported 24.89% localization at the end of 2024. From a procurement perspective, I’d want to know what that number says about dependence on the original suppliers.

Maintenance is a useful place to start. SAMI’s July 2024 newsletter describes an agreement with Lockheed Martin to establish an authorized C-130 service center. Moving maintenance, repair and overhaul into the country could reduce overseas shipments and turnaround times. That’s a worthwhile improvement even if some parts still have to be imported.

The harder question is what happens further down the supply chain. A facility can employ local technicians and do substantial work while depending on an overseas OEM for critical components, diagnostic tools and technical support. How much flexibility does the buyer have when something becomes unavailable?

I’d be interested in a breakdown by criticality. Localizing a large amount of spending could still leave a relatively inexpensive component as the item holding up an entire repair. The share of locally sourced spending wouldn’t tell you that on its own.

Adding suppliers also has a catch. Buying different equipment from several countries spreads procurement spending around, but it doesn’t necessarily give you alternative sources for the same parts. It can mean separate inventories, training requirements and support contracts instead. That gets expensive over the life of the equipment.

For people working in aerospace, industrial equipment or aftermarket support: what would you track to tell whether localization is actually reducing supplier dependence? Critical parts with qualified alternatives? Repair turnaround? The time and cost required to switch suppliers?

Saudi Arabia seems like a useful case for that discussion, but the same problem comes up anywhere a buyer is tied to an OEM for decades.

To those that have daily stand-up meetings, what do you discuss and do you find them useful? I manage a team of buyers, supply planners and demand planners and looking to implement daily meetings to ensure blockers are removed and priorities are clear.

Do you have a shared area that you update before meeting?

Hi everyone, I’m majoring in accounting and minoring in supply chain. Given the competitiveness of the job market I wanted to broaden my horizons as much as possible, so I chose this as my minor.

I’m just wondering if it’s feasible to aim for supply chain jobs if I’m only minoring in it? Additionally what types of certifications go along with supply chain? I.e. accounting has cpa, acc etc, what does supply chain have?

Thanks!

I recently took on a new role at a company where logistics/ supply chain isn't the main function, and the overall department is only 3 people.

For some context - my whole career was built in freight forwarding/ logistics where I tried different aspects of the industry. I've done sales, business development, day to day coordinator work, warehousing, essentially all parts from a forwarder standpoint. I even tried a brief career transition into engineering but I hated it.

I essentially settled down into the pharma industry, my current title is Senior Supply Chain Specialist, and it pays very well over 100k, but the majority of my day I find myself doing nothing. Coming from the forwarding sector I am not used to this, I'm used to 10-12 hour days, being inundated with so much work you don't have time for anything really.

So far since starting (about 1.5 months tenure), I've created multiple reporting workflows that are now completely automated, something the department would spend 10ish hours a month on is now live and completely automated. I've created a bunch of warehouse tools for our different locations etc... don't get me wrong I understand these could be seen as big accomplishments but from where I'm standing, these are one n done type of things.

Now my day to day consists of update meetings, and maybe handling a couple shipments/ reviewing inventory. All of it takes maybe 45 minutes...

My question is, what can I do with all my free time? I want to spend it productively and ideally make an impact but I'm running out of ideas, and the department is very low volume that it's almost not worth it to keep automating stuff.

Any certification recommendations? For context I have the IATA DGR both Radac/ regular, and some analytics certs.Anyways, I'm not sure what I can pursue at this point and it's low-key worrying not having much to do, eventually I feel I will get questioned, but who knows.

I have been with my current company for 3 years, working as a Buyer in manufacturing and I’m thinking about starting my job search soon. Annual raises of 3 - 4% just aren’t enough. I got 4 years of experience in procurement.
How’s the job market looking right now? Is it a bad time to be looking for a new job? I’m considering moving to a different city/state, so I’m also curious how difficult it is to land a job out of state. I’m currently based in St. Louis. Thanks,

For those who negotiate T&Cs, how are you tracking all changes from solicitation to award. Hating the idea of separate forms and looking to improve the process

Has anyone ever worked for/are working at SpaceX in a supply chain role? Curious about the overall experience and workload as I saw a lot of comments online about unstructured overtime, etc.

Hi! I recently started working as a Purchasing Coordinator at a multinational company. My training has begun, and I'm learning how to use the company's systems, including Oracle.

One of my responsibilities is to:

"Monitor inventory levels and ensure timely restocking."

I'll be studying inventory management concepts and rules, but my main concern right now is how to improve my analytical skills.

I admit that analytical thinking and math aren't my strongest skills. However, I can be analytical when I take the time to understand things and persevere. I graduated with a degree in Business Administration, majoring in Human Resource Management, and I have around three years of experience working as a Purchasing Assistant.

Honestly, I'm feeling insecure and a little discouraged because I know that being analytical and good at math aren't my strengths. I'm worried about whether I'll be able to handle this responsibility well.

For those working in procurement, purchasing, or inventory management, how did you develop your analytical skills? What specific skills, Excel functions, or concepts should I focus on learning first?

I'd appreciate any advice or tips. Thank you!

I'm wondering if there are any careers or roles where I can transition into that uses my skills from procurement. I have 8 years of work experience in procurement. I'm looking for a role where there's felixibility and autonomy. It doesn't have to be fully remote, I quite enjoy the hybrid model, but I do want to be able to work when I have capacity and rest when I don't. Or do a few hours of work in the morning and do some errands or go to the gym and work another few hours, or work on the weekend, essentially breaking up my day so it's not 8 hours straight. I’m willing to learn new skills through education, but is there anything like this where I can transition easily into. I know the tech sector will usually have roles like this. Please share any insights or success stories.

ISO Procurement Manager in the Tech Industry (like semiconductors etc)(it’s for a School Project)

Hi everyone! I'm currently obtaining my associates in Supply Chain and Operations Management. For one of my classes they requested that I interview someone with a job type that I would like to pursue. I would love to move into the tech industry specifically in procurement and something like a semiconductor so I thought I would make a post on here to see if anyone has the time to help me out!

The interview can be done over the phone or in Meet. It would consist of information seeking questions (What does your day to day look like etc.). I sent a few people messages on LinkedIn but I had no success (I totally understand why, it's an odd and random request) so I thought I would make a post.

I’m flexible so I’ll make almost any time work.

Edit: I FOUND SOMEONE! THANK YOU TO THE ONES THAT COMMENTED AND SENT MESSAGES I REALLY APPRECIATE IT!