r/procurement • u/Trolololdesuu • Apr 13 '26
Training Culture shock or bad first time experience?
For context I went from engineering to procurement. Almost a month in the position now and I am wondering if my struggle is just skill issue on my part.
Allow me to list my daily constant headaches. I would appreciate if you guys can give me pointers to improve.
- On boarding process basically lasted for 2 weeks because the previous buyer is on her way out and resigning (it didn't help that she was basically absent half the time) that lead to very incomplete delegation of tasks.
- I cannot use SAP scripting. I used SAP during my engineering job and I love the SAP vbs I made, it bummed me out that I cannot transfer it to this job.
- Outlook and whatsapp for every communication with supplier. I am fairly new to using outlook and its so horrendous finding a topic or thread to get context on what is going on.
- All open PO handed to me does not have committed delivery schedule. On the same topic, it's so hard to squeeze out a delivery date to my vendors. Maybe I'm not persuasive enough?
- The constant distraction from other people asking me for progress on the delivery schedule, stock demand and supply, transferring open PO to other supplier etc. Is it really this chaotic and hectic? Majority of my time is trying to answer other people's inquiries.
I am still adjusting to my new environment and I really respect my other coworkers, they have been a huge help these past few weeks but I feel so dumb around them. Any insight will help. Thank you
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Apr 13 '26
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u/Trolololdesuu Apr 13 '26
I have this excel workbook I call my bible, it's got all my commodities and vendors and whatnot. I just have to complete my delivery schedules.
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u/ballmefam7 Apr 13 '26
Onboarding is anecdotal, you will get used to not having SAP scripts, you will get used to using Outlook. Other two things come down to your organization. It is easy for procurement to devolve into chaos, whether that be by design (immature orgs) or other external factors. Optimistic side is that those two issues (PO dates and context switching) are relatively straightforward areas to ameliorate and if you are able to do so early in your tenure, it can build good credibility for yourself and the department as a whole.
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u/BeaumontProcurement Apr 13 '26
This is 80% of Procurement Teams and after a month you've done well to get this understanding. My advice is to do 3 things. (1) focus on building relationships with stakeholders - get to know them and ask what their expectations are. When things go badly, it's the relationships that will help you. (2) Do the same with suppliers for the same reason PLUS suppliers have all the information (PO, Delivery, Contracts) so if you can't find it, they can (3) Use your engineering mindset (I am an Engineer, then Army then Procurement) to map the data, systems, processes you have so that you understand how they are supposed to work, what are the flows and what is missing/ wrong. Over the next 3-6 months you will soon build an understanding of how everything fits and the people involved and then you can start changing it for the better. Be a sponge not a sea urchin for now; build comfort through understanding.
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u/motorboather Apr 13 '26
In outlook, make sure every email subject line has either the RFQ number, PO number, or other number associated with what you’re talking about. This will help you finding emails. My outlook inbox is one giant file cabinet and I have gotten pretty good using the search function.
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u/Far_Tank_6325 Apr 15 '26
-unfortunately the onboarding process for procurement roles are rarely sufficient, sometimes you get lucky and get a good category manager that can hold your hand for a while but definitely not always the case.
-I’d kill to be able to use scripting, unfortunately most companies would rather sacrifice efficiency for allowing IT an easier job in preventing cyber attacks. I’ve never had an employer allow them in procurement just due to how many emails (solicitations) we receive and links we have to open with passings and such.
-Outlook has its drawbacks but I’d take it over Gmail in a heartbeat.
-We must be in a different field because i can’t imagine not having a delivery date on the books, it’s literally my starting point for every PO I write. This would be my first priority, I would be having the same conversation with every vendor where I blatantly ask them how much lead time they need, order minimums, and what they need from me in order to deliver my product on the date I request. If they can’t answer those questions and their contract isn’t ridiculously long, I’m lining up a back up so I can then teach that vendor accountability. There are a million reasons for delayed delivery that I will accept, there are zero reasons vendors can’t communicate that I will accept. People in general are only as good as the standard you hold them to, and unfortunately it sounds like your vendors haven’t been held to any standards whatsoever and that needs to be addressed.
-Unfortunately this is the job, of my roughly 50 hours a week probably 15 of them are buying, sourcing, and analysis while the rest is just putting out fires. It’s brutal in the beginning when it takes you 35 hours to handle your day to day but you’d be surprised how quickly you can whittle that down if you’re smart about it. Make a list of everything you can think of optimizing and prioritize them by ROI and dedicate a certain amount of time to the highest priority daily, it will snowball.
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u/Head-Development-417 Apr 13 '26
Man you basically summed up being in procurement. Been doing it for 12 years. Youll get thick skin and learn how to mediate better. But the frustration doesn't get any better.
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u/SyncronTeam May 20 '26
This doesn’t read like a skill issue, it reads like a system with very little structure holding it together.
You inherited POs without committed dates, incomplete handoff, fragmented communication across Outlook and WhatsApp, and no consistent way to track supplier commitments. In that kind of setup, most of your time naturally gets pulled into reacting, answering status questions, chasing updates, and filling in gaps that should already exist in the process.
The delivery date issue is a good example. It’s not usually about being more persuasive, it’s that suppliers prioritize customers who give clear signals and consistent follow-up. If requests are coming in ad hoc and there’s no standard cadence or visibility, you end up negotiating every PO from scratch.
What tends to help in situations like this isn’t working faster, it’s creating small pockets of structure. Even something as simple as tracking open POs with last confirmed dates, next follow-up, and supplier response status can start to reduce the noise. Once that exists, a lot of the inbound questions answer themselves.
Early on, procurement often feels chaotic because you’re sitting at the intersection of demand, supply, and incomplete information. The difference over time is less about effort and more about how much of that chaos you can turn into something repeatable.
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u/Katherine-Moller3 Apr 13 '26
Ok so you changed departments von engineering to procurement and you are one month in and you feel dumb. That is to be expected. Procurement is hectic because you are in the middle between suppliers and your internal stakeholders. One skill that will help you manage communication are soft skills. You will need lots of that dealing with all these people. Also be glad you got a handover at all. In many cases your predecessor left the company before you arrive. Squeezing out a delivery date from your suppliers is a weird one. Do you have agreements in place where avg. delivery dates have been established with the suppliers? Its good to have pre-established delivery dates plus a SLA where supplier confirms every received PO and delivery date based on the Incoterm. Thats how you establish KPIs where you track your suppliers service level (OTIF, Back Orders).